The Hungarian Revolution

In October 1956, students and workers took to the streets of Budapest to protest at Soviet rule in Hungary.

The demonstrations turned violent and for a while, the revolutionaries were in control, before being brutally repressed.

In 2010, Ed Butler spoke to one of the rebels, Péter Pallai.

Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories.

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(Photo: Abandoned army tanks beside a damaged building in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution. Credit: Tony Davis/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)