One day that shook the Communist world : the 1956 Hungarian uprising and its legacy / Paul Lendvai ; translated by Ann Major.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lendvai, Paul, (Paul Lendvai) 1929-

Contributor:

Major, Ann, 1928-

Standardized Title:

Ungarnaufstand 1956. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hungary--History--Revolution, 1956.

Hungary.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

On October 23, 1956, a popular uprising against Soviet rule swept through Hungary like a force of nature, only to be mercilessly crushed by Soviet tanks twelve days later. Only now, fifty years after those harrowing events, can the full story be told. This book is a powerful eyewitness account and a gripping history of the uprising in Hungary that heralded the future liberation of Eastern Europe. Paul Lendvai was a young journalist covering politics in Hungary when the uprising broke out. He knew the government officials and revolutionaries involved. He was on the front lines of the student protests and the bloody street fights and he saw the revolutionary government smashed by the Red Army. In this riveting, deeply personal, and often irreverent book, Lendvai weaves his own experiences with in-depth reportage to unravel the complex chain of events leading up to and including the uprising, its brutal suppression, and its far-reaching political repercussions in Hungary and neighboring Eastern Bloc countries. He draws upon exclusive interviews with Russian and former KGB officials, survivors of the Soviet backlash, and relatives of those executed. He reveals new evidence from closed tribunals and documents kept secret in Soviet and Hungarian archives. Lendvai's breathtaking narrative shows how the uprising, while tragic, delivered a stunning blow to Communism that helped to ultimately bring about its demise. One Day That Shook the Communist World is the best account of these unprecedented events.

Contents:

A day that shook the Communist world

The road to revolution

A night of cataclysmic decisions

The legend of the corvinists

Wrestling for the soul of Imre Nagy

Deadlocked

A turnaround with a question mark

The general, the colonel, and the adjutant

The dams are breaking

The condottiere, the "Uncle," and the romantics

Decision in the Kremlin: the end of patience

Double dive into darkness

The puppeteers and the Kádár Enigma

Operation whirlwind and Kádár phantom government

The Yugoslav-Soviet conspiracy

The second revolution

The moral bankruptcy of the U.S. liberation theory

Worldwide reactions

The barbarous vendetta of the victors

1956-1989: victory in defeat?.

Notes:

Translated from the German.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [279]-284) and index.

ISBN:

9786612964770

9781282964778

1282964771

9781400837649

1400837642

OCLC:

705945738