1956 revolution: in Debrecen, thousands also wanted immediate change

The second biggest Hungarian city, Debrecen, played a very important role in the outbreak and the victory of the October 23 revolution of 1956. After the Soviet troops arrived, however, the reprisal was brutal in the city.

Levente Püski, a teacher of the History Department of the University of Debrecen, said on a conference that Debrecen played an important role in the antecedents and the outbreak of the 1956 revolution. For example, just after the Petőfi Circle consisting of university students was formed in Budapest, in Debrecen, students in higher education formed a similar association, haon.hu reported. 

Püski added that in Debrecen,

the same events happened on October 23 as in Budapest, only earlier.

For example, in the capital, mass demonstrations started only in the afternoon while in Debrecen, they did in the morning. In front of the university, more than a thousand university students and teachers demonstrated against the brutal Communist regime. Furthermore, they wrote down and printed out their demands almost immediately.

Because of that, at 3 pm, almost 35 thousand people gathered together in the main street of the city, also including thousands of local workers, and their

demands were similar to the ones written down in Budapest.

These were: the immediate retreat of the Soviet troops from the country, re-establishing the independence of Hungary, disbanding the hated State Protection Authority, and using only national symbols instead of Communist ones. Since Transylvania is closer to Debrecen than to Budapest, they demanded the improvement of the living conditions of Hungarians under Romanian Communist rule that doubled their suffering, too.

Levente Püski said that the

first shots were also fired earlier than in Budapest.