From 1948 onward, Hungary’s ÁVH secret police were known as the communist party’s fist. The secret police terrorised young and old, men and women equally, making no distinction whatsoever. This…
Stories of the proverbial poet at the fore of the revolution are common, and in many cases these poets, at least according to legend, are even the ones who start…
Although everyone had a constitutional right to an apartment under the dictatorship, many people still did not receive one from the state. Despite handing in their applications, there simply weren’t…
Regarding the events of the 1956 Revolution, the youth undeniably set the whole thing in motion. One of their remarkable achievements was getting the Communist Party to back off on…
“Várj reám, s én megjövök, hogyha vársz nagyon” (“Wait for me, and I’ll arrive if you really wait”) was the name of a popular song played on television call-in shows…
With the rise of communism power after 1945, western newspapers and news agencies were left without correspondents in Budapest. The only two exceptions to this were the husband and wife…
Why was the radio building so important? At the time Hungary did not yet have television broadcasts, with the first experimental transmission occurring only in 1957, after the revolution. Therefore,…
The communist party needed people in the period prior to 1956 who would fit the propaganda mold of growing up in abject poverty only to later become successful in life.…
News of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution caught the world off guard, which at the time had been preoccupied with the changes going on in Poland. After the revolution began on…
One of the most uplifting stories from the revolution is how the people democratically elected their self-governing organizations. The despised communist leaders were cast aside and new people were democratically…