Khrushchev’s Hungarian threshold in the eyesof the Soviet public

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show a noticeable activation of public life in the USSR in the autumn of 1956. The author analyzed the body of texts including recently introduced declassified information bulletins on public sentiment, directed solely on the leader of the Moscow party organization of that time. The analysis showed that the extraordinary revival of the political activity of the masses was accompanied not only by condemnations of bureaucracy and the interference into the affairs of neighboring countries (including that military one into Hungary), but also by individual attempts to formalize these sentiments by creating circles that are not controlled by official agitation and propaganda structures. The conclusion is made that all this very much frightened the Soviet tops and made them remember about the coersive methods they used to deal with the lower classes.