David Pryce-Jones: The Hungarian Revolution

'This is Imre Nagy speaking... Today at daybreak Soviet forces started an attack against our capital... Our troops are fighting. The Government is in its place. I notify the people of our country and the entire world of this fact.'
On 4. November 1956 the Russians began their assault on Budapest. The Hungarian revolution was dying. For twelve days Hungarians of all classes had fought bitterly though elatedly against the Russian occupying forces. But elation soon gave way to anxiety and anxiety to despair. The Soviets had no intention of letting Hungary slip away from the East European bloc. Their overwhelming armoured might crushed the Hungarian freedom-fighters.
David Pryce-Jones's gripping account of those twelve days follows his description of the chaos and misery that the Second World War brought to Hungary. He makes clear why the Hungarians, alone among the Soviet satellites, rose up after the denunciation of Stalinism in 1956. For eight years they had lived under the infamous Rakosi who ruled by terror. One in ten of them had seen the inside of Secret Police prisons. Now their hopes were focused on Nagy, a Communist who symbolised humanity and good sense, but who was betrayed by two of his own Ministers.
The Iron Curtain, lifted for a fleeting glimpse of freedom, descended again. Europe had been unable to free itselffrom the Cold War which had so darkened international life since 1945.
Illustrated with photographs and maps throughout.