Description
If there had been all-news television channels in 1956, viewers around the world would have been glued to their sets between October 23 and November 4. This book tells the story of the Hungarian Revolution in 120 original documents, ranging from the minutes of the first meeting of Khrushchev with Hungarian bosses after Stalin's death in 1953 to Yeltsin's declaration made in 1992. Other documents include letters from Yuri Andropov, Soviet Ambassador in Budapest during and after the revolt. The great majority of the material appears in English for the first time, and almost all come from archives that were inaccessible until the 1990s.
About the Author
Csaba Bekes is Director of the Cold War History Research Centre and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest. Malcolm Byrne is Deputy Director and Director of Research at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. Janos Rainer is General Director of the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
Reviews
"One cannot stop reading. It is a sad story of hopeless struggle, of reckless Soviet actions, of the passivity of the west, and of the death of thousands of Hungarians. Nevertheless, it is also the tale of a heroic struggle that fatally wounded the Soviet empire and undermined the communist regimes, leading to victory in the long run." * Slavic Review *
"The Hungarian revolution began with mass demonstrations in Budapest in October that shocked the Russians and encouraged American officials hoping for a crack in the Soviet empire...Today, Hungary is in NATO and the Soviet Union is no more. But the experience faced by American officials, as they tried to balance two crises and watched events spin out of their control, is illuminated in "The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents," a new book of archival material published by the Central European University Press in cooperation with the National Security Archive in Washington." * New York Times *
"This collection of documents on the 1956 Hungarian revolution-perhaps the last in Europe that can be called truly spontaneous-is well worth its hefty price. Two prominent scholars from the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest (Csaba Bekes and Janos Rainer) and one from the National Security Archive (Malcolm Byrne) have edited this third volume in the series of Cold War readers published by the Central European University Press.... The 1956 Hungarian revolution is an indispensable research tool for scholars and advanced graduate students." * International Affairs *
"...scholars and general readers alike will find The 1956 Hungarian Revolution extremely handy in collecting these and many more documents under one cover ... an indispensable research tool." * H-Net Book Review *
"With the use and inclusion of hitherto unknown material recovered from Russian archives, the book will be a gold mine for any future interpretive work... an unsurpassed, thoroughly up to date collection of documents that is likely to stimulate further research and interpretation by future generations of scholars." * Contemporary Austrian Studies *
Book Information
ISBN 9789639241664
Author Csaba Bekes
Format Paperback
Page Count 664
Imprint Central European University Press
Publisher Central European University Press
Weight(grams) 1039g
About the Author
Csaba Bekes is Director of the Cold War History Research Centre and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest. Malcolm Byrne is Deputy Director and Director of Research at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. Janos Rainer is General Director of the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
Reviews
"One cannot stop reading. It is a sad story of hopeless struggle, of reckless Soviet actions, of the passivity of the west, and of the death of thousands of Hungarians. Nevertheless, it is also the tale of a heroic struggle that fatally wounded the Soviet empire and undermined the communist regimes, leading to victory in the long run." * Slavic Review *
"The Hungarian revolution began with mass demonstrations in Budapest in October that shocked the Russians and encouraged American officials hoping for a crack in the Soviet empire...Today, Hungary is in NATO and the Soviet Union is no more. But the experience faced by American officials, as they tried to balance two crises and watched events spin out of their control, is illuminated in "The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents," a new book of archival material published by the Central European University Press in cooperation with the National Security Archive in Washington." * New York Times *
"This collection of documents on the 1956 Hungarian revolution-perhaps the last in Europe that can be called truly spontaneous-is well worth its hefty price. Two prominent scholars from the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest (Csaba Bekes and Janos Rainer) and one from the National Security Archive (Malcolm Byrne) have edited this third volume in the series of Cold War readers published by the Central European University Press.... The 1956 Hungarian revolution is an indispensable research tool for scholars and advanced graduate students." * International Affairs *
"...scholars and general readers alike will find The 1956 Hungarian Revolution extremely handy in collecting these and many more documents under one cover ... an indispensable research tool." * H-Net Book Review *
"With the use and inclusion of hitherto unknown material recovered from Russian archives, the book will be a gold mine for any future interpretive work... an unsurpassed, thoroughly up to date collection of documents that is likely to stimulate further research and interpretation by future generations of scholars." * Contemporary Austrian Studies *
Book Information
ISBN 9789639241664
Author Csaba Bekes
Format Paperback
Page Count 664
Imprint Central European University Press
Publisher Central European University Press
Weight(grams) 1039g
