Year 1956 and The Thaw

The Soviet Union decided that the events in Hungary posed a threat to the stability of the Eastern Bloc. The Suez Crisis held the attention of the Western powers, and the Soviet Union used military force to crush the Hungarian revolution. The government of János Kádár, the new head of the Hungarian communist party, labelled the uprising a counterrevolution and took bloody reprisals. Imre Nagy, who had served as head of the government during the revolution, was sentenced to death and executed.