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116-770: Born in Kecskemét , Kingdom of Hungary, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child. In 1900, he entered the Department of Languages at the University of Budapest and at the same time Hans von Kössler's composition class at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music. After completing his studies, he studied in Paris with Charles-Marie Widor for a year. In 1905 he visited remote villages to collect songs, recording them on phonograph cylinders . In 1906 he wrote

232-661: A democratic socialist political system based upon land reform and (public) state ownership in the economy ; Hungarian membership to the United Nations ; and all freedoms and rights for the citizens of Hungary. After Veres proclaimed the manifesto demanding Hungarian sovereignty, the crowd chanted the Hungarian patriotic poem National Song ( Nemzeti dal ) , which the Soviet-controlled Rákosi government of Hungary had banned from public performance;

348-810: A combined conference in Budapest that decided to end the nationwide labour strikes and to resume work on 5 November, with the more important councils sending delegates to the Parliament to assure the Nagy government of their support. On 24 October 1956, the Politburo of the USSR discussed how to resolve the political revolts that had occurred in Warsaw Pact countries, specifically the Polish October and

464-531: A delegation to deliver their demands in the Parliament, but government guards and a company of the Ministry of Defence's armoured regiment, backed by seven Soviet T-54 tanks lined up in front of the Parliament, kept the demonstrators away from the building. The events at Astoria were repeated, with demonstrators trying to make friends with the Soviet soldiers, handing out bilingual leaflets and some climbing on top of

580-499: A human in the area is about five thousand years old. The Sarmatians invaded the area in the first century B.C. ; since then the area has been continuously inhabited by a variety of cultures. János Hornyik, the first town historian, believed that the settlement known as Partiskum of the Sarmatian Jazygian was here. Contemporary consensus among historians is that it is more likely permanent settlement occurred only after

696-606: A life-sized bronze statue, located in Szent István square, in his honour in 1976. The sculptor, Imre Varga, positioned the statue so that its back is to the Cathedral and it faces a former children's playground, reflecting the central importance to Kodály of musical education for children. He is depicted as an aged man, walking among horse-chestnut trees. At one point during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 ,

812-597: A long-term project to reform music teaching in Hungary's lower and middle schools. His work resulted in the publication of several highly influential books. The goals of the Kodály method can summarized into the following points: The Hungarian music education program that developed in the 1940s became the basis for the Kodály Method . Although Kodály himself did not write down a comprehensive method, he did establish

928-565: A market-place; in 1368 it was identified in one of King Louis I of Hungary 's charters as an oppidium (town). The town's active economic life and relatively dense population attracted more traders, craftsmen and residents, including Jews who became an important part of the town. During the Turkish invasion , settlers from neighboring villages sought shelter in Kecskemét, which was protected by defensive palisades . They also were escaping

1044-636: A mistaken imitation of the Anglo–French intervention to Egypt. In Russia, on 30 October 1956, the Presidium of the CPSU decided to not depose the new Hungarian government. Marshal Zhukov said: "We should withdraw troops from Budapest, and, if necessary, withdraw from Hungary, as a whole. This is a lesson for us in the military-political sphere". The Presidium then adopted and published the Declaration of

1160-718: A neutral country in the geopolitical cold war between the US and the USSR. Austria's declaration of geopolitical neutrality allowed the Communist government of PM Nagy to publicly consider "the possibility of Hungary adopting a neutral status on the Austrian pattern". In June 1956, the Polish Army violently repressed the workers' uprising at Poznań against the economic policies of the Polish People's Republic . In October,

1276-481: A pattern still characteristic of the rural areas around the town. The growth of the wine industry stimulated those of the food industry and trade. The city is still known for its barackpálinka , an apricot brandy. With their accumulation of capital, peasants began to adopt bourgeois customs and goods, stimulating trade in the town. Such regional wealth led to construction of new buildings, especially those surrounding Kecskemét's main square. This Art Nouveau complex

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1392-522: A population of 50,000. Not until after World War II did bus travel begin in the city. In 2010, with competitive funding from the EU , the city launched a number of trolley bus lines and in 2011 completely rebuilt the town centre as a trolleybus and pedestrian tourist zone. Currently, bus travel is the only public transportation to many destinations. Bus destinations (as of 2 November 2022 ): Kecskemét has 107,267 residents (as of 2001 ). The population

1508-609: A set of principles to follow in music education, and these principles were widely taken up by pedagogues (above all in Hungary, but also in many other countries) after World War II . His practices also have evolved Kodály hand signs . In the motion picture Close Encounters of the Third Kind , a visual learning aid distributed to members of a conference of ufologists was named the Kodály Method and referenced musical notes as hand signals. The city of Pécs commissioned

1624-499: A thesis on Hungarian folk song, "Strophic Construction in Hungarian Folksong". At around this time Kodály met fellow composer and compatriot Béla Bartók , whom he took under his wing and introduced to some of the methods involved in folk song collecting. The two became lifelong friends and champions of each other's music. All these works show great originality of form and content, a blend of highly sophisticated mastery of

1740-527: Is twinned with: Kecskemét also cooperates with: The MH 59th " Dezső Szentgyörgyi " Tactical Wing, the only jet fighter unit of the Hungarian Defence Forces , is based at Kecskemét air force base. The Kecskemét Air Show is held here every two years. Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Soviet invasion and victory The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; Hungarian : 1956-os forradalom ), also known as

1856-478: Is July, with an average temperature of 22.2 °C (72.0 °F); the coldest is January, with −0.3 °C (31.5 °F). Early spring and late autumn frosts are frequent on the Great Hungarian Plain. The possibility of frost usually ends only in the middle of April. After the third week of October, the temperature is frequently below 0 °C (32 °F). The first archaeological trace of

1972-502: Is Szeged, the seat of Csongrád county. The name of the city stems from the Hungarian word kecske meaning ' goat ' and -mét meaning ' pass '. Kecskemét was established at the meeting point of a large sandy region and a sandy yellow soil; its elevation is 120 m (394 ft) above sea level . The territory west of the city is covered by wind-blown sand, characterised by the almost parallel northern-southern sand dunes and

2088-902: Is architecturally significant: the Town Hall, the New College, the Ornamented Palace, the Luther-Palace, the House of Trade (today the House of Young), and the Gentlemen's Casino, now used as the Hungarian Museum of Photography. The town's growth suffered in the 1929–33 economic world crisis and Great Depression , followed by the upheaval and destruction of World War II . During the war and especially May–June 1944, Hungarian authorities rounded up and deported most of

2204-633: Is homogeneous with a large Hungarian majority. A few thousand of the Romani minority live in the city; they formed their independent minority government in 1994. (95% Hungarian ; 0.8% Romani; 0.4% German ; 0.2% Slovak ; 4.8% other.) The city had a thriving Jewish population before World War II, as represented by their grand synagogue . Most of the Jews were deported by the Nazi forces in 1944 to concentration camps , where they were killed. The Vice President of

2320-709: The Budapest University of Technology and Economics had reestablished the MEFESZ Students' union , which the Rákosi government earlier had banned for their politically incorrect politics. Initially, the Hungarian People's Republic was a socialist state headed by the Communist government of Mátyás Rákosi (r. 1947–1956), a Stalinist who was beholden to the USSR. To ensure ideological compliance within his Stalinist government, Rákosi used

2436-598: The Eastern Bloc , including the Hungarian People's Republic. The geopolitical principles of the Warsaw Pact defence treaty included "respect for the independence and [the] sovereignty of [the member] states" and the practise of "non-interference in their internal affairs". Then, on 15 May 1955, a day after the USSR established the Warsaw Pact, the Austrian State Treaty established Austria as

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2552-759: The Hungarian Social Democratic Party merged with the Communist Party and became the Hungarian Working People's Party , whose candidate stood unopposed in the 1949 Hungarian parliamentary election . Afterwards, on 20 August 1949, the Hungarian People's Republic was proclaimed and established as a socialist state, with whom the USSR then concorded the COMECON treaty of mutual assistance, which allowed stationing troops of Red Army soldiers in Hungary. Based upon

2668-536: The Hungarian Uprising , was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 4 November 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled

2784-634: The Hungarian Working People's Party ( Magyar Dolgozók Pártja ). The new government of Imre Nagy disbanded the ÁVH, declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact , and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October the intense fighting had subsided. Although initially willing to negotiate the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Hungary, the USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution on 4 November 1956, and fought

2900-837: The Kingdom of Romania , and the Kingdom of Bulgaria . In 1941, the Royal Hungarian Army participated in the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia (6 April 1941) and in Operation Barbarossa (22 June 1941), the invasion of the USSR. In the event, by 1944, the Red Army were en route to the Kingdom of Hungary, after first having repelled the Royal Hungarian Army and the armies of the other Axis Powers from

3016-593: The Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points against the USSR's geopolitical hegemony upon Hungary. The Hungarian Writers' Union ceremoniously proclaimed Hungary's anti-Soviet political solidarity with anti-communist reformers in Poland when they laid a commemorative wreath at the statue of the Polish hero Gen. Józef Zachariasz Bem who also was a hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 ; likewise,

3132-570: The Stalin Monument in Budapest , which had been erected in place of a razed church, in 1951; and, by 21:30 hrs – an hour and a half later – the nationalist and anti-communist protestors had destroyed the eight-metre-tall statue of Josef Stalin. Also at 20:00 hrs, a crowd of nationalist and anti-communist protestors had gathered outside the Magyar Rádió building, which was guarded by the ÁVH secret police. Violence soon occurred between

3248-449: The 18th century, residents held nearly 30,000 cattle, which grazed on an almost 2,000-square-kilometre (770 sq mi) field. At the end of the 18th century, animal breeding started to decline in economic importance, as the fields had become overgrazed and denuded. It took nearly 100 years before the region developed its next major agricultural commodity. In the 19th century, Kecskemét was already part of an important wine district, but

3364-569: The Civic Party , headed by President Zoltán Tildy and Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy . Nonetheless, on behalf of the USSR, the Hungarian Communist Party continually used salami tactics to wrest minor political concessions, which continually diminished the political authority of the coalition government – despite the Communist Party only having received 17 percent of the votes in the parliamentary election of 1945. After

3480-657: The German minority in Kecskemet is Ms Rozalia Neuendorf. Since 19 March 2007, there is also a minority self-government for Croats in Kecskemét. Kecskemét is divided into 21+1 sections. The current mayor of Kecskemét is Klaudia Szemereyné Pataki (Fidesz-KDNP). The local Municipal Assembly, elected at the 2019 local government elections , is made up of 21 members (1 Mayor, 14 Individual constituencies MEPs and 6 Compensation List MEPs) divided into this political parties and alliances: List of city mayors from 1990: Kecskemét

3596-660: The Government of the USSR on the Principles of Development and Further Strengthening of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and other Socialist States , which said that "The Soviet Government is prepared to enter into the appropriate negotiations with the government of the Hungarian People's Republic, and [with] other members of the Warsaw Treaty, on the question of the presence of Soviet troops in

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3712-860: The Hungarian Army restored order in Csepel; two days later, the Hungarian Revolutionaries recaptured Csepel after the Hungarian Army's withdrawal on 29 October. In the Angyalföld area of Budapest, the communists and 350 armed workers and 380 communist soldiers defended the Láng factory. Anti-fascist Hungarian veterans of the Second World War participated in recapturing the offices of the Szabad Nép communist newspaper. At

3828-848: The Hungarian Communist Party retained the confidence of the Hungarian people, because the Hungarians were protesting unresolved socio-economic problems, not ideology. Meanwhile, in the West, the concurrent Suez Crisis (29 October – 7 November 1956) of the French and the British empires' seizure of the Suez Canal from Egypt voided the political possibility of Western military intervention to Hungary. On 28 October, Khrushchev said that Soviet military intervention to Hungary would be

3944-463: The Hungarian Communist Party, ÁVH policeman, and pro-Soviet Hungarian soldier they encountered; and most Red Army troops withdrew from Budapest to garrisons in the Hungarian countryside. Fighting ceased between 28 October and 4 November, as many Hungarians believed that Soviet military units were withdrawing from Hungary. According to post-revolution communist sources, there were approximately 213 Hungarian Working People's Party members executed during

4060-400: The Hungarian Communist Party. The Nagy government freed the political prisoner General Béla Király to restore order to Hungary with a National Guard force composed of policemen, soldiers, and Revolutionaries loyal to Hungary. On 30 October 1956, Gen. Király's National Guard attacked the building of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party and killed every pro-Soviet officer of

4176-401: The Hungarian People's Republic from receiving American financial aid through the Marshall Plan (1948). Socially, the imposition of Soviet-style economic policies and the payment of war reparations angered the peoples of Hungary, whilst the cumulative effects of economic austerity fuelled anti-Soviet political discontent as the payment of foreign debt took precedence over the material needs of

4292-519: The Hungarian Revolt. Led by Vyacheslav Molotov , the hardline faction of the CPSU voted for military intervention, but were opposed by Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov who sought a political resolution to the Hungarian revolt. In Budapest, the Soviet delegation reported to Moscow that the Hungarian political situation was less confrontational than reported during the revolt proper. In pursuit of political resolution, Khrushchev said that Ernő Gerő's 23 October request for Soviet intervention indicated that

4408-428: The Hungarian Revolution against the USSR's control of Hungary, and negotiated ceasefire agreements with the revolutionaries; nonetheless, the Hungarian Revolution took many communist prisoners who were registered to lists that identified the prisoner either for summary execution or as an enemy of the people . In the Csepel area of Budapest, 250 communists defended the Csepel Iron and Steel Works, and, on 27 October,

4524-447: The Hungarian Revolution against the USSR; from amongst the crowd outside the parliament, the armed revolutionaries shot at the roof-top ÁVH policemen. Meanwhile, nationalist and anti-communist loyalties had fractured the chain of command of the Hungarian Army in response to the communist government's order to militarily repress the popular demonstrations against the Soviet control of Hungary. The Hungarian Army units in Budapest and in

4640-404: The Hungarian anti-communist revolution, but Nagy's declaration of Hungarian neutrality decided his dispatching the Red Army into Hungary. The USSR invaded the Hungarian People's Republic, because: In the People's Republic of Hungary, the anti-communist militants concluded that "the [Hungarian Communist] Party is the incarnation of bureaucratic despotism " and that "socialism can develop only on

4756-404: The Hungarian conquest. At the beginning of the 13th century, there were seven villages in the area, each with a population of 200–300 formed near the village church, a typical rural pattern. They were all destroyed by the Mongol Invasion . Some of the villages revived at the time of the Cumanians ' colonization. As Kecskemét was situated at an important trading route, it grew as a customhouse and

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4872-491: The Hungarian people, yet their standard of living diminished because of the compulsory financial contributions towards the industrialisation of Hungary, which reduced the disposable and discretionary income of individual Hungarian workers. That poor economy was further diminished by the bureaucratic mismanagement of resources, which caused shortages of supplies, and the consequent rationing of bread and sugar, flour and meat, et cetera. The net result of those economic conditions,

4988-434: The Hungarian people. On 5 March 1953, the death of Stalin allowed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to proceed with the de-Stalinization of the USSR, which was a relative liberalization of politics that afterward allowed most European communist parties and the communist parties of the Warsaw Pact to develop a reformist wing – within the structures of the Philosophy of Marxism and orders from Moscow. Hence,

5104-414: The Hungarian revolutionaries until Soviet victory on 10 November; repression of the Hungarian Uprising killed 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet Army soldiers, and compelled 200,000 Hungarians to seek political refuge abroad, mostly to Austria . During the Second World War (1939–1945), the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) was a member of the Axis powers – in alliance with Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy ,

5220-448: The Jews from the city to Auschwitz-Birkenau , where most were killed. Jewish Hungarians had been an important part of Kecskemét's thriving culture and trade. After 1945, the new Communist government , strongly influenced by the Soviet Union , imposed a different social-political system. Kecskemét's development slowed. Due to reorganisation in local government, Kecskemét lost its big territory; several new independent villages were formed in

5336-463: The MEFESZ student union held a parallel demonstration of Hungarians' political solidarity with the Poles. In the afternoon of 23 October 1956, approximately 20,000 protestors met beside the statue of General József Bem , a national hero of Poland and Hungary. To the amassed crowd of protestors, the intellectual Péter Veres , the president of the Writers' Union ( Írószövetség ), read a manifesto demanding Hungarian independence from all foreign powers;

5452-434: The MEFESZ, and ten anti-Soviet demands, e.g. free elections and the departure of Soviet troops from Hungary, etc.; days later, the university students at Pécs , Miskolc , and Sopron followed suit. On 22 October, at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics , one of the law students from the original group of twelve students, announced that the MEFESZ student union was again politically active, and then proclaimed

5568-411: The Nagy government in talks about withdrawing the Red Army from Hungary. Moreover, Mao Zedong influenced Khrushchev's decision to repress the Hungarian uprising. The deputy chairman of the Chinese Communist Party , Liu Shaoqi , pressed Khrushchev to militarily repress the Hungarian Revolution. Although Sino–Soviet relations were unstable, the opinion of Mao carried great weight among the members of

5684-425: The Nagy government's political and socio-economic reforms; by 18 April 1955, Rákosi had so discredited Nagy that the USSR deposed Nagy as head-of-state of Socialist Hungary. Three months of plotting and conspiring rid Rákosi and the Hungarian Communist Party of Imre Nagy, who was reduced to a political non-person. On 14 April Prime Minister Imre Nagy was stripped of his Hungarian Communist Party offices and functions and

5800-411: The Nazi government , encouraged Hungarian Catholics not to vote for the Arrow Cross Party , and was imprisoned for this dissent by the Arrow Cross-led Government of National Unity . In the 1950–1952 period, the ÁVH forcibly relocated more than 26,000 non-communist Hungarians and confiscated their housing for members of the Communist Party of Hungary, and so eliminated the political threats posed by

5916-426: The Polish communist politician Władysław Gomułka in Brest, Belarus; and then spoke with the Romanian, Czechoslovak, and Bulgarian leaders in Bucharest, Romania. Finally, Khrushchev went to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and spoke with Tito ( Josip Broz ) who persuaded Khrushchev to install János Kádár as the new leader of the People's Republic of Hungary, instead of Ferenc Münnich . Two months after

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6032-419: The Polish government appointed the politically rehabilitated , reform communist Władysław Gomułka as First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party to deal with the USSR, and, by 19 October 1956, Gomułka had successfully negotiated greater trade agreements and fewer Red Army troops stationed in Poland. The USSR's concessions to Poland – known as the Polish October – emboldened Hungarians to demand from

6148-422: The Presidium of the CPSU. Initially, Mao opposed a second intervention, which was communicated to Khrushchev on 30 October, before the Presidium met and decided against a Hungarian intervention; later, Mao changed his mind and supported intervention to Hungary. In the 1–3 November 1956 period, Khrushchev informed the USSR's Warsaw Pact allies of his decision to repress the Hungarian Revolution. Khrushchev met with

6264-406: The Red Army. Also on that day, Imre Nagy became prime minister in place of András Hegedüs . In a national radio broadcast, PM Nagy asked a ceasefire between the Red Army and the Hungarian Revolutionaries, and agreed to initiate postponed political reforms decided in 1953. Despite the pleas of PM Nagy, groups of revolutionaries in Budapest armed themselves and continually fought the Red Army. At

6380-435: The Russo–American Cold War. About 8000 political prisoners were released, most notably Cardinal József Mindszenty . Banned political parties, such as the Independent Smallholders and the National Peasant Party ("Petőfi Party"), reappeared to join the coalition. In 1,170 communities in Hungary, there were 348 cases of revolutionary councils dismissing the local administrators; 312 cases of revolutionary councils sacking

6496-434: The Soviet forces in Hungary were on their way to the headquarters of the Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP) on Akadémia Street, where they were to attend a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), which was to begin at 10 a.m. Under pressure from the Soviet delegates, the CEC relieved Ernő Gerő of his position as party leader and elected János Kádár in his place. Meanwhile, the crowd demonstrating at Kossuth Square elected

6612-400: The USSR like concessions for the Hungarian People's Republic, which much contributed to the Hungarians' greatly idealistic politics in October 1956. On 13 October 1956, a group of 12 students from the university faculties in Szeged met to play cards, and snubbed the DISZ, the official communist student union, by re-establishing the MEFESZ (Union of Hungarian University and Academy Students),

6728-466: The Workers Councils proposed to form a government with Kodály as president "because of his great national and international reputation." Kecskem%C3%A9t Kecskemét ( US : / ˈ k ɛ tʃ k ɛ m eɪ t / KETCH -kem-ayt Hungarian: [ˈkɛt͡ʃkɛmeːt] ) is a city with county rights in central Hungary . It is the eighth-largest city in the country , and the county seat of Bács-Kiskun . Kecskemét lies halfway between

6844-447: The abuses of power committed by Stalin and his inner-circle protégés, in Russia and abroad. Therefore, the de-Stalinization of Hungarian People's Republic featured Rákosi's dismissal as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Hungary, and his replacement by Ernő Gerő , on 18 July 1956. From the Western perspective, the countries of western Europe co-operated with the CIA's propaganda radio network, Radio Free Europe , to broadcast

6960-505: The age of 84 in Budapest . In 1966, Kodály toured the United States and gave a special lecture at Stanford University , where some of his music was performed in his presence. Throughout his adult life, Kodály was very interested in the problems of many types of music education, and he wrote a large amount of material on teaching methods as well as composing plenty of music intended for children's use. Beginning in 1935, along with his colleague Jenő Ádám (14 years his junior), he embarked on

7076-532: The area. They were economically connected to the town. In 1950, for the first time, Kecskemét took on a significant political administrative role, as it was made seat of the country's largest county, Bács-Kiskun . In the special system of the so-called controlled economy under the Communist regimes, such status provided political and financial advantages that greatly helped the city continue its growth. The architect József Kerényi (1900–1975) adapted and renovated several historic buildings for other uses, helping keep

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7192-411: The assembled protestors from the roof of the building of the Agricultural Ministry. In the fog of war, some Red Army soldiers mistakenly returned the fire towards the roof, having mistakenly believed themselves the targets. The Hungarian revolutionaries armed themselves with weapons captured from ÁVH policemen and with weapons donated by anti-communist soldiers who had deserted the Hungarian Army for

7308-415: The biggest if not the biggest-ever in the region, provides work for 2,500 people. In March 2012, the German automobile manufacturer Daimler AG opened a plant nearby Kecskemét, to manufacture the new B-Class , A-Class and CLA-Class models. The Stuttgart -based company invested €800 million (US$ 1.24 billion) to build the new plant, which is expected to create 3,000 new jobs in the region. According to

7424-504: The bosses; and 215 cases of the locals burning the communist administrative records of their communities. In 681 communities, anti-communist and nationalist Hungarians damaged and destroyed symbols of the hegemony of the USSR, such as the Red Star, and statues of Josef Stalin and of Lenin; 393 communities damaged Soviet war memorials; and 122 communities burned the books of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. Local revolutionary councils formed throughout Hungary, generally without involvement from

7540-441: The buildings on the other side of the square. Another Soviet tank coming from a nearby street fired aimed shots at the demonstrators trying to take cover. This action claimed the most lives. The number of the dead is still disputed, with estimates ranging from 75 to 1000. According to another version of the events, which already appeared during the revolution but still unproven, the ÁVH policemen and/or communist partisans fired into

7656-435: The call of the party organisation, swept the Danube-Tisza Interfluve six times, smashing everything". As Hungarian revolutionaries fought the soldiers and tanks of the Red Army with small arms and Molotov cocktails in the streets of Budapest, throughout Hungary, revolutionary workers' councils assumed government power and called general strikes to halt the economy and the functioning of civil society. In ridding Hungary of

7772-413: The capital Budapest and the country's third-largest city, Szeged , 86 kilometres (53 miles) from both of them and almost equal distance from the two big rivers of the country, the Danube and the Tisza . It is the northern of two centres of the Hungarian Southern Great Plain ( Hungarian : Dél- Alföld ) region (comprising the three counties Bács-Kiskun, Békés and Csongrád ); the southern centre

7888-423: The city increased in importance after the vine-pest destroyed most vineyards in the hilly regions. Damage was less significant in the plains' areas of loose, sandy soil. In the 1870s, landowners planted large plantations of grapevines around the town. These were the basis of the 20th-century vineyards and wine industry of the 20th century in Kecskemét. Cottage-type settlements grew up at the vineyards to house workers,

8004-407: The cost of war reparations was "between 19 and 22 per cent of the annual national income" of Hungary, an onerous national expense aggravated by the hyperinflation consequent to the post-war depreciation of the Hungarian pengő . Moreover, participation in the Soviet-sponsored Council of Mutual Economic Assistance ( COMECON ) prevented direct trade with the countries of the West, and also prevented

8120-507: The country. The Hungarian Revolution began on 23 October 1956 in Budapest when university students appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary through the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi . A delegation of students entered the building of Magyar Rádió to broadcast their sixteen demands for political and economic reforms to civil society, but were detained by security guards. When

8236-416: The countryside remained uninvolved in the Revolution, because local commanders avoided politics in order to avoid repressing the revolutionaries. Order was restored in the 24–29 October period after the Hungarian Army had fought 71 firefights with the nationalist and with the anti-communist revolutionaries in fifty communities. On 26 October, in the town of Kecskemét, outside the office of State Security and

8352-484: The crowd repeatedly chanted the refrain: "This we swear, this we swear, that we will no longer be slaves." At 20:00 hrs, the first secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő broadcast a hardline speech condemning the political demands of the intelligentsia and of the university students. Angered by Gerő's rejection, some protestors realised one of their demands, and demolished

8468-530: The democratic student union banned by the Stalinist Rákosi government. The MEFESZ students distributed hand-written notes in classrooms to inform faculty and students of the time and place for the meeting on 16 October 1956. A professor of law was chairman of committee who formally reestablished the MEFESZ student union, with the proclamation and publication of a twenty-demand manifesto, ten demands about

8584-473: The economic model of the USSR, the Hungarian Working People's Party established the socialist economy of Hungary with the nationalization of the means of production and of the natural resources of the country. Moreover, by 1955, the relatively free politics of Hungary allowed intellectuals and journalists to freely criticise the social and economic policies of the Rákosi government. In that vein of relative political freedom, on 22 October 1956, students from

8700-473: The education system with a toiling intelligentsia who would assist in the Russification of Hungary; thus the study of Russian language and communist political instruction were mandatory at school and at university; religious schools were nationalized and church leaders replaced with communist officials. In the early 1950s, the Rákosi government's socialist economics increased the per capita income of

8816-644: The election in 1945, control of the State Protection Authority ( Államvédelmi Hatóság , ÁVH) was transferred from the Independent Smallholders Party of the coalition government to the Hungarian Communist party. The ÁVH repressed non­­‑communist political opponents with intimidation and false accusations, imprisonment and torture . The brief, four­­‑year period of multi-party democracy ended when

8932-580: The enterprise while protecting workers' interests, establishing a socialist economy free of rigid party control. Local control by the councils was not always bloodless; in Debrecen , Győr , Sopron , Mosonmagyaróvár and other cities, crowds of demonstrators were fired upon by the ÁVH, with many lives lost. The ÁVH were disarmed, often by force, in many cases assisted by the local police. In total, there were approximately 2,100 local revolutionary and workers councils with over 28,000 members. The councils held

9048-568: The foundations of direct democracy." For the anti-communists, the struggle of the Hungarian workers was "for the principle of direct democracy" and that "all power should be transferred to the Workers Committees of Hungary." In response, the Presidium broke the de facto ceasefire and repressed the Hungarian Revolution. The Soviet Union's plan was to declare a "Provisional Revolutionary Government" led by János Kádár, who would appeal for Soviet assistance to restore order to Hungary. Kádár

9164-442: The guard tanks. At a few minutes after 11 a.m., General Serov decided to inspect the situation on Kossuth Square, accompanied by several Soviet and Hungarian officers and a tank. Seeing several Soviet soldiers fraternising with the demonstrators, Serov ordered the firing of warning shots, which caused a mass panic on the square. In the ensuing confusion, the Soviet tanks lined up in front of the Parliament building responded by targeting

9280-542: The head of the Budapest party committee, Imre Mező, also was killed. Within hours, news reportage and filmed scenes of the Hungarian anti-communist revolt that occurred in Republic Square were broadcast in the USSR; and the CPSU made propaganda of the images of the communist victims of the Hungarian Revolt. The leaders of the Hungarian Revolution condemned the attack upon the ÁVH headquarters and asked

9396-418: The influence of and control from the USSR, the revolutionaries destroyed the symbols of Communism, such as the red star and Red Army monuments, and burned communist literature. Moreover, Revolutionary militias, such as the 400-man militia led by József Dudás attacked and murdered pro-Soviet Hungarians and ÁVH policemen. The Hungarian Army armoured division stationed in Budapest, commanded by Pál Maléter led

9512-437: The local jail, Hungarian Army's Third Corps, led by Major General Lajos Gyurkó , shot seven anti-communist protestors and arrested the organizers of the anti-Soviet protest. On Gyurkó's order Hungarian Air Force fighter planes shot up demonstrators with cannon fire in various towns (see hu:Tiszakécskei sortűz ), earning the praise of János Kádár after the defeat of the "counter-revolution" as "the only division commander who, at

9628-471: The mass demonstration outside the Astoria , accompanied by three Soviet tanks, which the demonstrators climbed on, fraternising with the crews. At the same time a column of Soviet tanks carrying two delegates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) sent to Hungary, Politburo members Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov , as well as KGB Chairman Ivan Serov and Mikhail Malinin , commander-in-chief of

9744-513: The national crisis, PM Nagy would: On 1 November, the Nagy government formally declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and Hungary's international status as a politically non-aligned country. Because of being in power for only ten days, the National Government did not explain their policies in detail; however, contemporary newspaper editorials stressed that Hungary should be a multiparty social democracy uninvolved in

9860-453: The nationalist and anti-communist intelligentsia and by the local bourgeoisie . According to their particular politics, anti-communist Hungarians were either imprisoned in concentration camps or were deported to the USSR or were killed, either summarily or after a show trial ; the victims included the communist politician László Rajk , the minister of the interior who established the ÁVH secret police. The Rákosi government politicised

9976-554: The offices of the communist newspaper Szabad Nép , the ÁVH guards fired upon unarmed protestors; in turn, anti-communists attacked and drove out the ÁVH policemen from the newspaper building. The Hungarian revolutionaries then avenged themselves against the ÁVH policemen. On 25 October, a crowd gathered in Kossuth Square in front of the Hungarian parliament building, which was a mixed group of civilian demonstrators including women, children, and elderly. Most of them came from

10092-570: The only Communist Hungarian leader with political credibility among Hungarians, the political actions of the Nagy government allowed the USSR to view the Hungarians' anti-Soviet protests as a popular uprising, rather than as an anti-communist counter-revolution . On 28 October 1956, the Nagy Communist government announced the ceasefire among the nationalist, the anti-communist, and the Communist Hungarians, and that, to resolve

10208-461: The oppression of the spahi landlords. In addition to the protection of its setting, the town of Kecskemét had arranged to pay tax directly to the pasha in Buda, thus gaining his protection and enjoying a special situation. Kecskemét gradually absorbed the lands of those who had taken refuge in the town. Residents created a large common field for the animals they were breeding. By the beginning of

10324-402: The period. The new communist government of Prime Minister Imre Nagy was surprised by the rapidity with which the Hungarian Revolution extended from the streets of Budapest to all of Hungary, and the consequent collapse of the old Gerő–Hegedüs communist government. As head of government, PM Nagy asked every Hungarian to exercise political forbearance in order to restore civil order to Hungary. As

10440-454: The plain between them. At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, the pastures had become depleted. Overgrazing by cattle had destroyed the natural vegetation cover, and the movement of sand seriously endangered the town. Concentrated reforestation and planting of fruit and vines was carried out to stabilise the soil again. Kecskemét is in the centre of Kiskunság , one of Hungary's famous regions. The Kiskunság National Park

10556-402: The plans, more than 100,000 vehicles will be produced annually at the factory. As of 2021, the largest companies were: In the city, unemployment is extremely low. Over the last few years, thousands of jobs have been created to promote a low unemployment rate. In 2024, unemployment was 2,70%. With the 1900s industrialisation of Hungary, Kecskemét developed public transportation by trams for

10672-521: The political purging of Hungarian society. At 02.00 hrs., on 24 October 1956, Soviet defence minister Georgy Zhukov ordered the Red Army to occupy Budapest – the capital city of a Warsaw Pact country. By 12.00 hrs of 24 October, Red Army tanks were stationed outside the parliament building, and Red Army soldiers held the bridges and crossroads that controlled access to Budapest, while Hungarian revolutionaries barricaded streets to defend their city from

10788-612: The preoccupied National Government in Budapest, and assumed various responsibilities of local government from the defunct Communist party. By 30 October , the councils had been officially sanctioned by the Hungarian Working People's Party, and the Nagy government asked for their support as "autonomous, democratic local organs formed during the Revolution". Likewise, workers' councils were established at industrial plants and mines, and many unpopular regulations such as production norms were eliminated. The workers' councils strove to manage

10904-418: The protestors to cease and desist from mob violence. On 30 October, at Budapest, Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov spoke with Prime Minister Imre Nagy who told them that Hungarian geopolitical neutrality was a long-term political objective for the Hungarian People's Republic, which he wanted to discuss with the presidium of the CPSU. Khrushchev considered the geopolitical options for the USSR's resolving

11020-596: The reformist communist Imre Nagy became prime minister (1953–55) of the Hungarian People's Republic, in replacement of the Stalinist Mátyás Rákosi (1946–56), whose heavy-hand style of communist government had proved counter-productive to the interests of the USSR in Hungary. Despite not being prime minister of Hungary, Rákosi remained politically powerful as the General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, and so undermined many of

11136-406: The region, and partly because of a naturally rather diffident temperament in youth, Kodály had no major public success until 1923. This was the year when one of his best-known pieces, Psalmus Hungaricus , was given its first performance at a concert to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the union of Buda and Pest (Bartók's Dance Suite premiered on the same occasion.) Kodály's first wife

11252-402: The sides when the protestors heard rumours of the arrest and detainment of a delegation of students who had entered the radio station in effort to broadcast their political demands to the entire country. The situation escalated after protestors heard rumours that the ÁVH had killed their delegation of comrades sent to broadcast the anti–Soviet message. In response, from the windows of the building,

11368-548: The speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences to the countries of eastern Europe, expecting that, as Secretary of the CPSU, Khrushchev's anti–Stalinist speech would substantively contribute to the destabilisation of the internal politics of the Warsaw Pact countries. On 14 May 1955, with the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance , the USSR established the Warsaw Pact with seven countries of

11484-565: The student protestors outside the radio building demanded the release of their delegation, a group of police from the ÁVH ( State Protection Authority ) fatally shot several of the students. Consequently, Hungarians organized into revolutionary militias to fight against the ÁVH; local Hungarian communist leaders and ÁVH policemen were captured and summarily executed; and political prisoners were released and armed. To realize their political, economic, and social demands, local soviets (councils of workers) assumed control of municipal government from

11600-494: The symbols of Russian communism in Hungary. On 23 October 1956, the Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő, asked for the USSR's military intervention in order "to suppress a demonstration that was reaching an ever-greater and unprecedented scale", which threatens the national security of the Hungarian People's Republic . To that end, the USSR already had planned the invasion and occupation of Hungary, and

11716-543: The territory of Hungary." In Hungary, on 30 October, consequent to hearing rumours of that the secret police had anti-communist prisoners, and rumours of the ÁVH shooting anti-communist demonstrators in the city of Mosonmagyaróvár armed protestors attacked the ÁVH detachment guarding the headquarters building of the Hungarian Working People's Party in Köztársaság tér (Republic Square), in Budapest. The anti-communists killed more than 20 ÁVH officers and ÁVH conscripts;

11832-586: The territory of the USSR. Fearful of the Red Army's occupation of the Kingdom of Hungary, the royal Hungarian government unsuccessfully sought an armistice with the Allies, which was a betrayal of the Axis powers. The Germans launched Operation Margarethe (12 March 1944) to establish the Nazi Government of National Unity of Hungary; the short-lived puppet government existed for less than a year and Hungary

11948-464: The town of Szarvas , armed guards defended the Hungarian Communist Party and the communist government of Hungary. In the event, the Revolutionaries' successful attacks upon the Parliament collapsed the communist government of Hungary; and First Secretary Ernő Gerő and ex-PM András Hegedüs fled Hungary to the USSR; Imre Nagy became prime minister, and János Kádár became the first secretary of

12064-615: The varied historical character of the city alive. For instance, in the early 1970s, he renovated the early-eighteenth-century Franciscan monastery for use as the Zoltán Kodály Conservatory; it opened for classes in 1975. The Hungarian Association of Photographers formed the Hungarian Photography Foundation in 1990. It helped raise funds for the restoration of an 18th-century building in Kecskemét last used as an Orthodox synagogue. It

12180-519: The weapons for themselves. The Hungarian Army sent soldiers to support the ÁVH policemen defending the Magyar Rádió building, but some of the soldiers tore off the red-star insignia on their caps and joined the side of the anti-government protestors. ÁVH policemen used guns and tear gas, while the protestors set police cars afire and distributed weapons captured from the military and police forces, and acted on their anti–Soviet politics by destroying

12296-532: The western European style of music, including classical, late-romantic, impressionistic and modernist traditions, and on the other hand a profound knowledge and respect for the folk music of Hungary (including the Hungarian-inhabited areas of modern-day Slovakia and Romania , as those territories were part of Hungary ). Partly because of the Great War and subsequent major geopolitical changes in

12412-600: The ÁVH ( State Protection Authority ) to purge 7,000 politically dissident " Titoists " and " Trotskyists " from the Communist Party of Hungary , for being "Western agents" whose participation in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) interfered with Stalin's long-term plans for world Communism . Among the Stalinist governments of the Eastern Bloc , the Rákosi government of the Hungarian People's Republic

12528-409: The ÁVH threw tear gas grenades at and fired upon the many anti-communist and nationalist protestors assembled outside the Magyar Rádió building, and soon required resupply and reinforcement. In suppressing the Hungarians' anti-government protestations, the ÁVH smuggled weapons and ammunition in an ambulance for delivery to them at the Magyar Rádió building, but the protestors hijacked the ambulance and

12644-639: Was Emma Gruber (née Schlesinger, later Sándor) , the dedicatee of Ernő Dohnányi 's Waltz for piano with four hands, Op. 3, and Variations and Fugue on a theme by E.G. , Op. 4 (1897). Emma died in November 1958, after 48 years of marriage. Thirteen months later, in December 1959, Kodály married Sarolta Péczely  [ hu ] , his 19-year-old student at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with whom he lived happily until his death in 1967 at

12760-490: Was adapted for the Hungarian Museum of Photography ( Magyar Fotográfiai Múzeum ), which opened in 1991. The museum holds work by Hungarian and other photographers of international and national reputations. It especially collects Hungarian photographers who successfully worked abroad. On 18 June 2008, German car manufacturer Daimler announced that it would build a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant in Kecskemét, planning to invest €800 million (US$ 1.24 billion). The plant, one of

12876-458: Was established in 1975 to preserve the many different regional species of plants and animals. It is a "mosaic"-type national park, consisting of units that are not connected. The characteristic weather in the Kecskemét region of Kiskunság is continental warm, dry, sometimes extreme. The amount of sunlight makes it possible for the region to produce agricultural products such as wheat, apricots, red peppers, and tomatoes. The warmest month in Kecskemét

12992-643: Was in Moscow in early November, and was in communication with the Soviet embassy whilst still a member of the Nagy government. The USSR sent diplomatic delegations to other communist governments in Eastern Europe and to the People's Republic of China in effort to avoid misunderstandings that might provoke to regional conflicts, and broadcast propaganda explaining their second Soviet intervention to Hungary. The Soviet diplomats disguised their intentions by engaging

13108-529: Was most repressive of political, sexual, and religious minorities. In 1949, the Rákosi government arrested, tortured and convicted Cardinal József Mindszenty in a show trial for treason against Hungary, for collaboration with Nazi Germany in the Holocaust in Hungary – the religious persecution of Hungarian Jews, and the political persecutions of Hungarian communists and of Hungarian anti-Nazis . Mindszenty had, in fact, been an active opponent of

13224-527: Was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945 after the Siege of Budapest . At the end of the Second World War (1939–1945), the Kingdom of Hungary was in the geopolitical sphere of influence of the USSR. In the political aftermath of the War, Hungary was a multiparty democracy , in which the 1945 Hungarian parliamentary election produced a coalition government composed of Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and

13340-523: Was sacked as prime minister on 18 April. Despite having been out of political favor with the USSR since January 1955, Nagy had refused to perform the requisite communist penance of ' self-criticism ', and refused to resign as PM of Hungary. In February 1956, as the First Secretary of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev initiated the de-Stalinization of the USSR with the speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences , which catalogued and denounced

13456-659: Was that the Hungarian workers' disposable income in 1952 was two-thirds of the disposable income of Hungarian workers in 1938. Besides paying for the Red Army occupation of socialist Hungary, the Hungarians also paid war reparations (US$ 300 million) to the USSR, to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic , and to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . In 1946, the Hungarian National Bank reported that

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