James, Cliff, Chas and Rudy join for a discussion on the events that take place in Hungary in 1956. We discuss the origins of the revolt, talking about the short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, the People’s Democracy period under Rákosi, the New Course and the roots of discontent. We then discuss the events themselves, as well as the reactions of the USSR and the wider Eastern Bloc and those of the West. We also talk about the program of the uprising, and what possible consequences it could have had had it succeeded, and how it reshaped Hungary after the Soviet intervention.
References:
Csaba Békés – Hungary’s Cold War: International Relations from the End of World War II to the Fall of the Soviet Union
Peter Fryer – Hungarian Tragedy
Charles Gati – Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt
Bennett Kovrig – Communism in Hungary: From Kun to Kádár
William Lomax – Hungary 1956
Mark Pittaway – From the Vanguard to the Margins: Workers in Hungary, 1939 to the Present
