Az 1956-os magyar forradalom és leverésének visszhangja a francia kommunista mozgalomban
Reactions to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and its Suppression in the French Communist Movement

Summary/Abstract: In 1956, the French Communist Party was a significant political force in both internal politics and the international communist movement. The question arises: how did the Hungarian events influence the internal and foreign policy of the party? The paper describes the role the Hungarian revolution played in the isolation of the party on the political stage and in its internal crisis. The reaction of the party leadership and the communist press were the direct causes of the confusion spreading from November 1956 in the basic party organizations and the trade unions as well as of the large scale protest campaign of intellectuals. The disorder was reduced by other events, for example the Algerian war, the Suez Crisis and the anticommunist atrocities in Paris on November 7. The FCP made use of this political context to divert public attention from the Hungarian revolution and to substantiate the party’s interpretation of it at the same time. The FCP’s losses in 1956 in the trade unions (especially in the communist-influenced CGT) and the party membership were significant. The protest wave within communist intellectual circles against the second Soviet intervention in Hungary is well known and thoroughly researched. A brief survey of this clearly shows that these protests were in fact of little significance and the effects of 1956 on the intelligentsia were manifested in the long run only.

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