Kilián Barracks

Barracks in Budapest, linked to the Corvin Passage.

Pál Maléter was sent to the Barracks and, after discussion with them, decided to join the rebels.

Details of a report here [1].

Various images are available, eg [2] and [3].

From the Hungarian Wikipedia page [4]:

The former Kilián Barracks ( György Kilián Barracks ) is located at the intersection of Ferenc Boulevard and Üllői Street in Budapest , opposite Corvin Avenue , the seat of Pál Maléter, who was executed later during the 1956 Revolution .

Founded in 1956 in the Kilián Barracks . On 31 October the Revolution National Guard , headed by Bela Kiraly was.

The barracks were one of the most powerful resistance centers of the 1956 Revolution , which fought in a "pair" with neighboring Corvin - and even in the press chronicles of the early days of the Revolution, the building was renowned as a symbolic center of resistance.

This, together with Kilián's behavior in the early days of the revolution, provoked mistrust and jealousy among Corvin's fighters: Commander Gergely Pongrátz , who was in a bad relationship with Maléter, made the press unfairly ignore Kilián.

Corvin Avenue and the neighboring barracks were located at an important strategic point of the city, along the route of Soviet forces entering North on Üllői Road, at the gate of downtown.

Previously, from 1892, Kilian was called the Barracks of Maria Theresa. The building was originally built as a barracks between 1843 and 1845 , according to the plans of József Hild in 1835 . The huge thirty thousand square meter building was handed over in 1845 .

Colonel Aggházy Kamil ( 1881 - 1954 ) started collecting the war relics of the later Museum of Military History here before they arrived at the Bádor Barracks in Buda (where the exhibition opened in 1937 ).

## The first days

At the time of the outbreak of the revolution, most of them were servicemen, soldiers of the Military Technical Auxiliary under the command of Pál Maléter, who initially controlled only part of the building block (for example, there were workers' lodges). Lajos Csiba, who was commander of the Kilián as a captain at the time, recalled in his Diary published in 1989 in the Chicago Rainbow :

"On October 23rd, at 1:30 p.m., Lieutenant Red's first caller to my apartment was that a crowd on the street wanted to break into the barracks. Shortly afterwards, Lieutenant Raffay phoned to shoot down the street. I called Maleter at his apartment, who was my immediate commander, and reported them to him, who sent me the Úri Street Alarm Car, with which Lieutenant Colonel Horváth (his deputy) came and went into the barracks at the entrance to the workhouse. crowd wielding different weapons. "

In the barracks, as the ex-commander tells us, there was hardly any weaponry, only the guard had 10 submachine guns and 30 submachine guns. "(Oct. 24) In the afternoon, we took what was up on the street from the insurgents."

Csiba continues, "We were involved in a fire fight with the insurgents in the evening and at night. At the main gate, Captain Szabo, Lieutenant Kolmann and a soldier were transported to the hospital."

"(October 25) Maléter himself arrived at 10 o'clock with 5 tanks. He set up with 1 tank at the main gate. The rest were around the barracks. The tank in the gate fired at the opposing houses where the insurgents fired."

After all this, the civil insurgents began to doubt for good reason whether the Hungarian garrison of the barracks was on the side of the revolution. (At that time, it was even doubtful how the new government, led by Imre Nagy, would react to the uprising, as political leadership and military leaders constantly urged and demanded the disarmament of civilian units.

## Kilián in the uprising

According to Pongrátz, the real combat role of the Kilián Barracks began when the 1956 war . On October 24, a series of machine guns were fired from a Pobjeda car with a diplomatic license plate to an unarmed crowd at the intersection, and an old man set fire to an armored car there. People in the area put out the fire to get the car's machine gun, which was carried to the second floor of the Kilián Barracks. (According to Pongratz, the corner of the Kilián was shot down by the Russians because of the machine gun.)

“After the siege the city did not look like this. Where are we going to live now? How do I get my apartment and furniture again? - I hear it everywhere, ” wrote Népszava on October 31 in the area. “The Kilián Barracks are a bunch of ruins. There is no intact space on the wall. The corner facing the Boulevard is torn down from the attic to the basement. There is a bleak picture of glassless windows and rooms without furniture. Apparently, the weapons rumbled just hours before. ”

### The emergency room

The shelter was located in the cellar of the barracks. The severely injured were transported to the hospital through the back entrance, and the lighter ones, such as the Pest guys who suffered minor burns from the Molotov cocktails , were on site. Lighter surgeries were performed in the dining room.

## After the Revolution

Following the Revolution, arcades were set up along the boulevard of the building and soldiers were slowly being displaced from the building.

Today a significant part of the Municipal Property Management Business Technology Plc. (FIMŰV) treats, companies, shops operate here, and here was the Eve Ruttkai Theater as well. The building has been a monument for eight decades, with little money to renovate.