Fifty years ago, an anti-communist uprising in Hungary began as a student demonstration. It became a nationwide revolt with thousands of people on the streets protesting against the Soviet-era regime.

For a while, it seemed the protest was on the verge of success until Soviet tanks crushed it, killing thousands.

After the events of 1956, communism survived in Hungary and other countries of the Soviet bloc for another three decades. Events at that time were just the first tear in the iron curtain.

For many years, the 1956 uprising was kept largely under wraps from Hungarians as well as from Russians. But the idea stayed in people’s minds and resulted in a bloodless revolution in Hungary at the end of the Eighties.