Category: 1956

REVISING RECENT HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTING COUNTER-REVOLUTION

The new Kádár-led regime beginning with earl-mid November 1956 was faced with a pre-eminent political task connected with a defining historiographical one. The need for the new government to establish its legitimacy and authority was intricately tied to the interpretation of what they had replaced. Both tasks began as soon as the second and decisive Soviet intervention did. The Soviets, having since 1 November maintained the charade of negotiating withdrawal

FROM ZUGLIGET TO LONDON

Zugliget presents a rather curious geographic formation on the edge of Budapest. With its hillocks and dales it shares a certain similarity with the Austrian Tyrol. Half-way up the hill stood my mother’s little cottage, where I lived from the age of twelve, when we lost our villa due to

TRANSYLVANIA 1956

The only region of East Central Europe where the Hungarian Revolution of October–November 1956 found powerful echoes was Transylvania, whose large Hungarian minority could follow events unfolding in Hungary in their own language, as Budapest-based Hungarian radio threw off the dead weight of censorship. Even before the revolution was crushed,

PROVOCATION? THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1956

My recently published book, The 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight which reports on the 20,000 victims of the post-revolution reprisals, has received extensive and positive reviews in many forums of the press. In my book, I examine the events that took place on 23 October 1956 at the headquarters of Hungarian Radio

MEDITATION ON THE 1956 MONUMENT IN BUDAPEST

As it so happens, due to the circumstances of my life at the moment I drive almost daily down Dózsa György street, one of the main avenues of Budapest. I have therefore driven past the monument built in 2006 in commemoration of the Revolution of 1956 several hundreds of times.