One of the most famous Russian-language songs to come out of the Russian Civil War, and also subsequently sung in World War 2 was called “Tachanka.” To this day, school children from across the former Soviet Union, the entire former Soviet Bloc, and even former Yugoslavia are taught to sing the song, which is about …
“…now that it is clear I will not retreat, that the circle outside the Secretariat, ultimately responsible for the sabotage, might have decided that it is necessary to risk having me disappear out of a window, or similarly in a fit of depression… My wife has nevertheless insisted that I should inform a few of …
“We couldn’t, on one hand, complain about the Soviets intervening in Hungary, and, on the other hand, approve of the British and French picking that particular time to intervene against Nasser,” Richard Nixon. October/November 1956 was a crazy time. No less than two earth-shaking events were taking place, both intimately involving the Soviet Union and …
In the end, the man who spent nine years denouncing colleagues in the Soviet Union, leading to hundreds of interrogations and at least 15 executions, was executed himself. It creates an interesting juxtaposition – the Imre Nagy of before the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and the Imre Nagy to led the short-lived government of the …
“We are fully in accord with your reply to our ambassador that Nagy and the others hidden in the Yugoslav Embassy should in no way be transferred to Yugoslavia, since they were the organizers of the counter-revolutionary demonstration, and you cannot allow two Hungarian governments to exist – one in Hungary and the other in …
The Hungarian fighters in 1956 were rightly admired throughout the world for their attacks on the Soviet Army with a hodgepodge of scrounged up weapons, home-made molotov cocktails, and their bare hands. But there was still quite a variety of weaponry on the Budapest streets, some of which was quite surprising and some of which, …
In the secret meeting on Brioni in the wee hours of November 2 and 3 1956, Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia informed the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that members of the Nagy government in Hungary had approached the Yugoslav Ambassador, Dalibor Soldatić, and requested the possibility of asylum. Tito informed Khrushchev that Yugoslavia would be granting …
At over 6’8″ tall, there was no missing Pal Maleter. He was a giant. But his height was not the most extraordinary thing about him. Maleter was a Hungarian Army Colonel and the highest ranked servicemember who switched sides during the revolution. He was quickly promoted to General by the Nagy government and on 29 …
Before the Revolution and before the tide of humanity began streaming across the border between Hungary and Austria, the Austrian Minister Plenipotentiary to Hungary, Dr. Walther Peinsipp, sent a report back to Austria that said, “…the situation in Hungary has become explosive and the opposition is planning to take a considerable risk.” It was probably …
On 1 November 1956, Janos Kadar disappeared. This was concerning – as the General Secretary of Hungary’s Communist Party and the Minister of State of the Nagy government, Kadar had also just told the Soviet Ambassador Yuri Andropov that he would fight any Soviet troops that reappeared in Hungary using his bare hands. Imre Nagy …
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