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Hungarian Revolution of 1956

[edit]

We're trying to get this ready to be featured article on Oct. 23, the anniversary of the revolution. We've made progress but would appreciate any comments and suggestions for how to make it even better. Thanks! K. Lastochka 16:20, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Very nice start:

  • I don't like the dates in the section headings: any way to change that?
  • Further reading - make it alphabetical.
  • Expand all footnotes to full bibliographic entry: example, "US State Department Commemorates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution" is one big blue link.
  • Current ref # 11 is missing.
  • Referencing is uneven: there are still large chunks of text with no inline citations.

I'll look at prose in the morning: haven't yet read the article, but wanted to give you that to start on. Don't get your hopes up for a certain date on FA: it rarely happens, and you're cutting it really close :-)) Sandy 02:19, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

New section headings are much better. Looking now at some of the prose:

  • "The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a spontaneous revolt from 23 October to 10 November, began as a student demonstration which quickly attracted thousands of eager participants." Spontaneous revolt against what or whom should be spelled out, right there. "Eager" sounds like editorializing.
  • "This crowd swelled as they walked across the Danube to the Parliament building. A handful of demonstrators who attempted to air their demands by radio were arrested." Ugh - this is mundane, and not very compelling detail, rather than the summary of the entire article that is supposed to be in the lead. If this is how the prose is in the lead, it's going to need a lot of polishing.
  • "As protesters called for their release, members of the State Police (ÁVH) shot into the unarmed crowd. At that point, the population rose against the dictatorship and State Police (ÁVH)." At that very point, the entire population rose up? The lead needs some work on brilliant and compelling.
    • Does this paragraph intend to be saying something along the lines of: "The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a spontaneous revolt from 23 October to 10 November, began as a student demonstration against censorship, economic stagnation, and poor working conditions under the communist dictatorship installed in Hungary after World War II. The student protest progressed quickly to a general uprising against the Hungarian dictatorship and State Police (ÁVH) after members of the State Police arrested demonstrators and shot into the unarmed crowd."
  • Skipping further into the article to look at the prose:
    • The State Protection Authority (ÁVH)
  • Above, the reader is told that AVH is the State Police. Don't confuse people who don't know anything about this subject material (like me :-) Which is it?
  • addressed, its all "state police" now - this is the clearest reference, as the literal Hungarian translation is muddled, ambiguous, and changed in 1950 anyway. Istvan 06:00, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The entire paragraph from which I took that snippet (in Repression and Decline) is unreferenced. "Thousands of Hungarians were arrested, tortured, tried, and imprisoned in concentration camps or were executed (ironically among them ÁVH founder László Rajk)." Why is the founder a parenthetical, ironic insert? Should be better worded.

  • Skipping further down:
    • "At this point, the crowd swelled to at least 100,000 and had no clear leader."
  • This an example of numerous statements throughout that should be sourced.
  • This sentence doesn't have a constant tense - it switches several times, and I don't know how to sort it out: "The written demands of the demonstrators were at first relatively peaceful: requesting that reformist Imre Nagy return as Prime Minister, a national policy independent of the Soviet Union, greater pluralism in political life, ending forced collectivisation, free elections, and that factories be run by workers and specialists instead of bureaucrats.
  • Skipping further down (to another uncited paragraph):
    • At the Melbourne Olympics, the Soviet handling of the Hungarian uprising led to a boycott by Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland. A confrontation between Soviet and Hungarian teams occurred in the semi-final game ("the Blood In The Water match") of the water polo tournament; the play was extremely violent. The match was called off in the final minute to quell fighting amongst spectators. Some members of the Hungarian Olympic delegation defected after the games. The match became the subject of a Quentin Tarantino documentary called Freedom's Fury.
      • Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland boycotted the Melbourne Olympics over the Soviet handling of the uprising. The semi-finals of the water polo tournament pitted the Soviets against Hungary, in what became known as "the Blood In The Water match" and was the subject of a Quentin Tarantino documentary, Freedom's Fury. Play was extremely violent, and the match was called off in the final minute to quell fighting among spectators. Some members of the Hungarian Olympic delegation defected after the games.[citation needed]

If you all are seriously aiming for featured status by October 23rd, you will need to quickly source every statement in the article, and an independent copyedit by someone who knows the territory, but is a new and fresh set of eyes, is needed. Possibly someone at Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history can help copy edit the article once it is thoroughly cited. I'm not a great copy editor, but am adding comments here because Paul asked me to help, and I can see some prose polishing will be in order after the article is referenced. Sandy 01:18, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I hope you all understand that my examples above were only examples, suggestive of changes needed throughout the text. Sandy 20:06, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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