Commentary
This stunning and in-depth account of the failed 1956 Hungarian Uprising is written by one who was there in the midst of it. Paul Lendvai, born in Hungary, takes care to set down the context prior to the Uprising, describing the state of East-West relations and also the turbulent currents within worldwide Communism as Khrushchev moved to dismantle the hitherto unchallenged image of Stalin. Lendvai presents a narrative of the events during and after the Uprising, drawing from documents in the vast historical archives. And he presents vivid portraits of individuals and groups on both sides that came together in a historical event that, though it failed, confirmed many prevailing views about the Soviet rule of its Iron Curtain states, and which planted the seeds of history that were to change Europe many years later.

Publisher's Notes
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.