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 …
Twenty-five years have passed, but I still remember Andropov’s false smile, his cold gray-blue eyes that obviously had hypnotic power. Those were the eyes of an inquisitor; you immediately realized that he could either smile upon you or destroy you. That was a man who perfectly understood what was going on in reality. But until …
The first mass market portable camera was invented by George Eastman in 1888. It used celluloid film to allow everyday people to capture everyday moments in their lives. Anyone could document anything. Eastman changed the world. He democratized it. He flattened command structures all around the world with his invention. Now normal people could participate …
Briefly, from the start of the revolution on 23 October 1956 and the ceasefire with the Soviet Union on 28 October, it looked as though Hungary would be allowed self-determination. On 4 November 1956 it became utterly clear that such a possibility was an absolute impossibility as Soviet tanks entered Budapest. Although it took another …
On 16 February 1971 his cremated remains were returned to Budapest and buried in a grave marked only with his initials. Not included on his epitaph, although he frequently proudly proclaimed it in public, was “Stalin’s Best Hungarian Disciple.” In the end, it was his dogged clinging to Stalinism which sealed his fate. The future …
A great deal has been written about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; about it’s initial successes and ultimate failure, leading to the killings, execution, imprisonment, and exile of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians who were fighting to free their country from Soviet domination. Less well documented are the revolutionaries weapons. Revolutionaries around the world use …
It turned out, to the chagrin of the Soviet Union, that the July 1956 exiling of the ten-year authoritarian leader of communist Hungary, Matyas Rakosi, to the Soviet Union under the thin pretense of “necessary medical treatment” was not enough. By October 1956 Hungary was in full rebellion. World War II had not been kind to …
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