Khrushchev and Hungary
Early this morning the BBC had an interview with Dr. Sergei Khrushchev [Сергей Никитич Хрущёв] the son of the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev [Никита Сергеевич Хрущёв], about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Dr. Khrushchev said that one of the main issues in his father’s mind when he made the decision to send tanks into Hungary was the Second Hungarian Army, which served with the Germans at the Battle of Stalingrad.
Khrushchev was a political officer on the Southern Front during World War II and saw the fighting around Stalingrad personally. He wasn’t prepared to show the Hungarians any more mercy than he felt they showed the Soviet Army on the Southern Front. He personally felt the Hungarians were as bad or worse than the Germans.
While Dr. Khrushchev didn’t mentioned it, having denounced Stalin at the 20th Congress of the CPSU [КПСС] only eight months earlier, his father could not afford to look weak to the Central Committee.
