The Hungarian Revolution 1956 (Elite) [Paperback]

Erwin Schmidl (Author), László Ritter (Author), Peter Dennis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Elite | Publication Date: November 28, 2006

The Hungarian Revolution of October 1956 was the most important armed rising against the USSR during the Cold War (1946-1991). Inspired by riots in East Germany (1953), and the example of Soviet troop withdrawal leading to Austrian neutrality (1955), there were spontaneous demonstrations by students and workers, mainly in Budapest. When the Hungarian police tried to crush them, Hungarian soldiers joined the insurgents and fought back so effectively that the first Soviet troops sent in were forced to withdraw. After only three years of uneasy power after Stalin's death, the Moscow leadership, including Nikita Kruschev, could not let this pass. After a brief hopeful pause, stronger Soviet forces invaded again in November, including NKVD units, tanks, paratroopers, and troops from non-European republics, who were particularly brutal.

Despite tragic radio appeals for NATO troops to intervene, the Suez crisis paralysed the West, though it was persistently rumored that US Special Forces were in place on the Austrian border tasked with capturing a T-55, the latest Soviet tank, if an opportunity arose. The rebels were crushed, and their leaders executed, including Prime Minister Imre Nagy and Defence Minister General Pal Maleter (who had driven his tank into the gates of security police HQ in the first rising). Nearly 200,000 refugees crossed the Austrian border, sparking at least one skirmish between Red Army troops and Austrian border police; but Hungary sank back into the Soviets' icy embrace, until the collapse of the USSR in 1989.

New sources and freedoms now allow an interesting re-assessment of 1956 in collaboration with Hungarian academics for this 50th anniversary.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...gives a thorough and evenhanded summary of the causes and consequences of the uprising... lists ample sources for further study, while presenting a wealth of archival photographs... as well as an excellent spread of color illustrations by English artist Peter Dennis." -Jon Guttman, Military History

"The authors have done a superlative job of not only explaining the background for the revolution, but also in providing a description of the fighting and its surroundings... As with most of the Elite series, there are superb drawings, this time by Peter Dennis, showing the various clothing and equipment of the people involved. I have to say this was a fascinating read that I found difficult to put down." -Scott Van Aken, modelingmadness.com

About the Author

Dr Erwin Schmidl is an Austrian government historian who is on the staff of a Vienna museum. In 2003 he edited a scholarly anthology on the revolution for Austrian & German publishers. The author lives in Wien, Austria.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (November 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184603079X
• ISBN-13: 978-1846030796
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.2 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,031,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent but Limited by Source Material, May 15, 2007

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Hungarian Revolution 1956 (Elite) (Paperback)

Osprey's The Hungarian Revolution 1956, number 148 in the Elite series, must have been a difficult volume to write. The Soviet suppression of this Hungarian uprising in Budapest resulted in the death or execution of many of those Hungarians involved and the survivors were imprisoned and harassed for years; all of that adds up to limited eye-witness source material. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, the amount of Soviet-related reference material available was not exactly encouraging either. In any event, the two authors have constructed a reasonable account of the Hungarian Uprising and its suppression, which packs more military detail than is normally available in other accounts. That is not to say that this is a detailed military history - it is not - but readers will get a decent overview of the main areas of fighting in Budapest, the forces involved and casualties.

The authors spend six pages discussing the background to the Uprising, which was sparked by the death of Stalin in 1953 and subsequent clumsy reforms by local Communists that undermined the already fragile Hungarian economy. At several points in the volume, the authors make the point that not all participants in the uprising shared the same objectives - some wanted to drive out the Soviet occupiers while others merely sought improvements in their standard of living or redress for crimes committed by the former regime. Due to these factors, the political content tends to be dominant in the first part of this volume, but once the shooting starts in October 1956 the focus shifts to military operations. Unlike other civil insurrections, the rebels in Budapest were fairly well armed and had the support of some Hungarian regular army troops. Soviet units initially fared poorly in the city fighting and the authors' description of how one Soviet mechanized unit was ambushed and virtually destroyed while still in column of march was eerily similar to what happened to a Soviet mechanized unit in Grozny in 1996.

Color plates in the volume include depictions of police and insurgents at the start of the uprising, then two pages of well-armed insurgents during the height of the uprising, Hungarian Army troops (both loyal to the regime and those supporting the rebels), Soviet troops and Austrian border troops. The photographs throughout the volume are very good, although there are relatively few of Soviet troops in Budapest. The authors note that several of the photographs of insurgents were used to identify, arrest and execute individuals participating in the fighting.

After spending about 20 pages discussing the first and second Soviet interventions, the authors then outline the opposing forces. A Soviet order of battle is included. The level of military detail varies throughout this volume, from good to vague. While some actions around the Corvin Passage in Budapest are discussed in some detail, the actual organization of insurgent units is hardly touched upon. While several insurgent groups are named, it is not clear what their size or capabilities were (were these platoon or company size groups?) or how they interacted with rebellious Hungarian Army units. Nor does the volume really discuss how the Soviet troops crushed the rebellion, except to note a preference for firepower over close combat. Overall, this volume certainly whets the appetite for anyone interested in this subject, but fails to satisfy a serious thirst.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice introduction, November 7, 2010

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hungarian Revolution 1956 (Elite) (Paperback)

I read this book to give me some introductory information on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. I am not too familiar with this subject. The book proves to be well research and well written, giving me a pretty good understanding of this short event. The book also gave me a clear understanding for the reason why this revolution got started and why it failed so completely. It appears that the Hungarians simply lack a singular purpose when they started this, there were no clear goals outside of getting rid of the Russians and their Hungarian cronies. But there were apparently no clear unity or methods in achieving that goal outside of unorganized student-worker demonstrations and creation of some hoc amateur paramilitary groups. Although the book mentioned about uprisings taking place in other areas of Hungry, it didn't go into any details. This book appears to be showcased strictly to the City of Budapest.

But this short book gave some interesting insights into this revolution. But military details appears to be bit on the short side. The book stated that nearly 3,000 Hungarians and over 700 Russians died during this short period but details are pretty slim. Of course, after the failure, you had your typical purges where many Hungarians who were photographed during the uprising were arrested and many were shot by the government they failed to overthrow. I was led to wondered what were the fate of those two teenagers on the cover of this book.

But overall,,,pretty good book and I feel encourage to read a thicker book on the subject. Any recommendation out there from anyone on a good book on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956??

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent review of a lost cause, August 28, 2009

By 

James D. Crabtree "Doc Crabtree" (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Hungarian Revolution 1956 (Elite) (Paperback)

In 1956 the Hungarian people rose up and decided that they wanted change. They didn't know what kind of change, but they decided it was time to get rid of the Communist Party which had been put in charge of them by the Soviets at the end of WWII. This book looks at the uprising which looked like it might just succeed.

The book includes excellent photos from a variety of sources as well as several color artist plates showing the uniforms worn by both sides. Maps and diagrams make this a valuable addition to any military history collection. The narrative is short (as they all are in this series) but concise. This made reading the book very ebjoyable.