Faces of the 1956 Rev­o­lu­tion – with Archived Photos!

There are a cou­ple of 1956 free­dom fight­ers and groups of fight­ers who became well-known, either by their acts, their mar­tyr deaths, or by archived pho­tographs appear­ing in inter­na­tion­al news­pa­pers or domes­tic pub­li­ca­tions. Some were even paint­ed on fire­walls of the capital.

The Szé­na square group of free­dom fight­ers and the Pest lads are all well-known play­ers of 1956, just like the com­man­der of one of the groups, ‘Uncle Szabó,’ a 59-year-old truck dri­ver and World War I cor­po­ral, or Péter Mans­feld, the youngest vic­tim of the 1956 rev­o­lu­tion, who was exe­cut­ed just 11 days after his 18^th birth­day. How­ev­er, the archived pho­tographs often show unknown faces of the upris­ing while det­o­nat­ing a tank, dis­man­tling Sovi­et stat­ues, or just pos­ing with their weapons prepar­ing for the fight for their freedom.

Thus, to mark the days of the 1956 upris­ing against Sovi­et rule, we have col­lect­ed archived pho­tographs tak­en at the time of the free­dom fights on Budapest streets, which show­case the known and unknown heroes of 1956.

The gallery was com­piled used by the dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy archive Fortepan.

Fortepan/Hajnal Gödér

the fall­en Osz­tapenko stat­ue at the junc­tion of Budaör­si út – Bal­a­toni út. (Fortepan/Mária Rédei)

Grand Boule­vard, with a burnt-out tank. To the right, József körút num­ber 85. (Fortepan/György Ádám)

the dis­sec­tion of the demol­ished Lib­er­a­tion Mon­u­ment (Zsig­mond Kisfalu­di Strobl). This is the “Lib­er­at­ing Sovi­et Sol­dier” part of the mon­u­ment. (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

the dis­sec­tion of the demol­ished Lib­er­a­tion Mon­u­ment (Zsig­mond Kisfalu­di Strobl). This is the “Lib­er­at­ing Sovi­et Sol­dier” part of the mon­u­ment. (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

The gath­er­ing of the Wes­selényi upris­ers in the Roy­al Hotel (today’s Corinthia), also known as the Wolf group. (Fortepan/Spaarnestad Photo):

Source: hun​gary​to​day​.hu