On October 23, 1956, a popular uprising against Soviet rule swept through Hungary like a force of nature, only to be mercilessly crushed by Soviet tanks twelve days later. Only now, fifty years after those harrowing events, can the full story be told. This book is a powerful eyewitness account and a gripping history of the uprising in Hungary that heralded the future liberation of Eastern Europe. Paul Lendvai was a young journalist covering politics in Hungary when the uprising broke out. He knew the government officials and revolutionaries involved. He was on the front lines of the student protests and the bloody street fights and he saw the revolutionary government smashed by the Red Army. In this riveting, deeply personal, and often irreverent book, Lendvai weaves his own experiences with in-depth reportage to unravel the complex chain of events leading up to and including the uprising, its brutal suppression, and its far-reaching political repercussions in Hungary and neighboring Eastern Bloc countries. He draws upon exclusive interviews with Russian and former KGB officials, survivors of the Soviet backlash, and relatives of those executed. He reveals new evidence from closed tribunals and documents kept secret in Soviet and Hungarian archives. Lendvai's breathtaking narrative shows how the uprising, while tragic, delivered a stunning blow to Communism that helped to ultimately bring about its demise. One Day That Shook the Communist World is the best account of these unprecedented events.

Introduction 1Chapter 1: A Day That Shook the Communist World 5Chapter 2: The Road to Revolution 25Chapter 3: A Night of Cataclysmic Decisions 45Chapter 4: The Legend of the Corvinists 55Chapter 5: Wrestling for the Soul of Imre Nagy 67Chapter 6: Deadlocked 75Chapter 7: A Turnaround with a Question Mark 83Chapter 8: The General, the Colonel, and the Adjutant 89Chapter 9: The Dams Are Breaking 101Chapter 10: The Condottiere, the "Uncle," and the Romantics 109Chapter 11: Decision in the Kremlin: The End of Patience 119Chapter 12: Double Dive into Darkness 127Chapter 13: The Puppeteers and the Kádár Enigma 139Chapter 14: Operation Whirlwind and Kádár's Phantom Government 149Chapter 15: The Yugoslav-Soviet Conspiracy 163Chapter 16: The Second Revolution 173Chapter 17: The Moral Bankruptcy of the U.S. Liberation Theory 185Chapter 18: Worldwide Reactions 195Chapter 19: The Barbarous Vendetta of the Victors 211Chapter 20: 1956-1989: Victory in Defeat? 225Epilogue: Whose 1956? 241Acknowledgments 247Chronology 249Notes 255Bibliography 279Index 285