Fifty Years Later
Fifty Years Later

Summary/Abstract: The above text is taken from Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt © 2006 Charles Gati, all rights reserved. Published by arrangement with Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press. "Reduced to its essentials, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution parallels the story of David and Goliath. Oppressed for a decade by the Soviet Union and its local Communist acolytes, Hungarians rose to assert their right to independent existence. The Revolution consumed both the Kremlin and world opinion, but it failed; after thirteen days of high drama, of hope and despair, the mighty Red Army prevailed. The Hungarian government surrendered, its members arrested, kidnapped, or co-opted. The Soviet empire survived, the Cold War continued. Soon enough, the cautious, post-Stalin search for détente resumed. Though in its 1956 year-end issue Time magazine honoured the Hungarian freedom fighter as its Man of the Year, by the end of 1957 the choice fell on the Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev, also known as the “Butcher of Budapest”.[...]

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