Today in 1956, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary

BBC On This Day in History:

Some 30,000 people were killed in Budapest and about 200,000 Hungarians sought political asylum in the West.

Over the next five years, thousands were executed or imprisoned under Janos Kadar's puppet regime.

Nagy and others involved in the revolution were secretly tried and executed in June 1958.

Soviet troops finally withdrew from Hungary in 1991.

This event (in addition to knowledge about Stalin's excesses) caused many western sympathizers with communism to begin to question Soviet Marxism and led to the development of the "new left."

Hungarian Revolution crushed by Soviets - 1956

(Right: Diario de la Marina, Nov. 17, 1956)