Hungarian–Soviet relations were characterized by political, economic, and cultural interventions by the Soviet Union in internal Hungarian politics for 45 years, the length of the Cold War. Hungary became a member of the Warsaw Pact in 1955; since the end of World War II, Soviet troops were stationed in the country, intervening at the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Starting in March 1990, the Soviet Army began leaving Hungary, with the last troops being withdrawn on June 19, 1991.
World War II
By 1943–1944, the tide of World War II had turned. The Red Army regained the pre-war Soviet territory, and advanced westward from its borders to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies, including Hungary. Officially, Soviet military operations in Hungary ended on 4 April 1945, when the last German troops were expelled, although Soviet troops (and political advisers) remained within the country. In the secret percentages agreement signed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet First Secretary Joseph Stalin at the Fourth Moscow Conference dividing Eastern Europe into British and Soviet spheres of interest, the Soviet Union was granted 80 percent of influence in Hungary.
Forced labor of Hungarians in the Soviet Union
During the period of Soviet occupation of Hungary in World War II (1944–45) under a system known in Hungary as malenki robot (Russian for "little work") it is estimated that up to 600,000 Hungarians (of which up to 200,000 were civilians) were captured by the occupying Soviets and deported to labour camps in the Soviet Union – of those deported, up to 200,000 perished. The first deported Hungarians started to return to Hungary in June 1946, with the last returning in the years 1953-1955, after Stalin's death. The Soviet policy of deportations for forced labor extended to other occupied nations, however no other Soviet occupied nation was hit as hard as Hungary – for comparison, it is estimated that 155,000 to 218,000 Germans were deported from mainland Germany.
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the Communist government of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies. After announcing their willingness to negotiate the withdrawal of the Soviet Armed Forces, the Soviet Politburo changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution. On November 4, 1956, a large joint military force of the Warsaw Pact, led by Moscow, entered Budapest to crush the armed resistance.
The Soviet intervention, codenamed "Operation Whirlwind", was launched by Marshal Ivan Konev. The five Soviet divisions stationed in Hungary before October 23 in the first intervention ("Operation Wave") were augmented to a total strength of 17 divisions. The 8th Mechanized Army under command of Lieutenant General Hamazasp Babadzhanian and the 38th Army under command of Lieutenant General Hadzhi-Umar Mamsurov from the nearby Carpathian Military District were deployed to Hungary for the operation. This second intervention came after three days of deception. The Russians negotiated with the Hungarians (the so-called mixed commission headed by Pál Maléter) about the withdrawal of Soviet troops on the island of Tököl, but at the same time flew János Kádár and Ferenc Münnich secretly to the Soviet Union on November 1 to establish a new pro-Soviet Hungarian government.