Customer Reviews

Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

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My wife was born and raised in Hungary and her father and his family were arrested and returned to Budapest for trying to cross the border with Austria, so I was eager to read the book. Although the book is described as being about the revolution, it is really about the political history of Hungary from the beginning of the 1900s up to the '56 revolution, with a few tidbits beyond. I was glad to get the broader perspective.

The author is of hungarian descent and doesn't miss many opportunity to speak proudly of hungarians in general. While there have been many, many, examples of impressive hungarians on the world stage over the last century, it sometimes comes off as a bit over-the-top boastful in places, primarily the early part of the book. The other odd quirk is that he repeatedly refers to hungarians fleeing over the hungarian border with West Germany. The problem is that Hungary proper (as opposed to the Austro-Hungarian empire) never had a shared border with West Germany. Certainly not in '56. At first I thought this was a typo or simply a gramatical error, but it is repeated probably a half dozen times throughout the book. This is unfortunate because it makes you question the fact-checking.

But these irritations should not discourage readers interested in modern Hungary or even in understanding the "start of the end" of communism in central europe.

Uneven in coverage, but certainly readable and better written than I expected from a brief personal account- cum- history of (mostly) recent Hungary. Korda's own distinguished family background and his own military training as an interpreter in Russian as the Cold War heated up enriches his descriptions of how shells pass through an apartment, why bistros got their start, how a Molotov cocktail is shaken and stirred, why hussars were the rage in 19c armies, and how the autobahn petrol stations were spaced to match the tank capacity of a VW! And, more apropos, how Napoleon III redesigned wide straight Parisian avenues-- soon to be copied in other cities by European monarchies-- to aim artillery at restive crowds trying to revolt.

If you thrive on such details, often tangential but intriguingly selected, Korda's style will please you. Despite its errors, which did surprise me even as a "curious bystander." I add to those compiled two more: speakers of Finno-Ugric tongues do not converse in "the only non-Indo-European languages in Europe" (34). Basque survives from pre-IE times, unrelated to any other surviving language group. The letter Dr Hajnal wrote attesting to the delivery of the medical supplies has three instances in which a "silent correction" has been given to its transcription on p. 136 opposite the original note's reproduction. Inexplicably, the date is November 3rd on the note; the text has them arrive in Budapest on October 30-- the same day when they brought the medicine then to the doctor. No postdating of the letter is mentioned. No other time is given for a return visit to the hospital after the 30th, and certainly on November 3rd although it was the last day of the interim calm between the two battles Korda says nothing about a hospital visit or an encounter with the doctor. How primary evidence clashes with the narrative makes me wonder at who edited this.

He's stronger on his ability to fit the 1956 uprising into the Suez crisis, the position of the UN, and post-1956 events that led to the eventual melting of the Cold War. I wish he had explained more the colliding aims of the revolt by the workers, the students & intellectuals, and the army. It's now accepted that the revolt was for a gentler socialism (how far under a Communist ideology is not detailed by Korda) rather than a capitalist democracy. Korda rushes by these issues.

If you seek a dramatic personal tale of hairbreadth escapes and hilarious conversations under fire, you will only find Attila the prof discussing with Korda the merits of Waugh vs. Greene, admittedly while under bombing! The British students arrive after the first fight that gained control of the city by the rebels. They hide for their lives, understandably, during the counter-attack beginning November 4th, later making it to the British embassy for safety. There is inevitably a sense of Korda as a lagging witness to the actual revolution. Not to blame him, for he tells us what he knows. But he gets his story in the lull, the flash of time in which the Hungarians proclaimed their independent republic, in between the fights with the Soviets. As he begins his book, however, he reminds us that historical events are more easily understood when seen in the rear mirror rather than when they loom ahead and you're in the driver's seat!

Perhaps he could never be more than an indirect participant, which is unfortunate even if accurate, given Korda's British identification and his lack of any Hungarian, not to mention how he was suspected by both sides by his sudden arrival. You will encounter instead about 90 pages of background on Hungarian topics, three chapters about what Korda and his companions witnessed within what we later know about the revolt, and a closing chapter quickly summarizing the aftermath.

Korda reminds us this was the first revolt where so many of the world's journalists were able to document it and send out their pictures. He also points out how later these same photos in the Western press would be scrutinized as the "traitors" were hunted down by the vengeful Soviets and their collaborators. This made me wonder how the papers were gathered by spies and fellow-travellers, and sent back somehow to military intelligence within the communist Kadar regime. Another story that needs telling?

I did like how photos were interspersed rather than gathered into the middle of the book. Stalin's statue pictured with only its boots remaining on the plinth, a Hungarian flag across the massive stumps, sums up well the whole revolution. Twice, for instance, we see the people described in the text: blonde fighter Kati, and the dashing Borsalino-wearing guerrilla with the wooden leg.

This book came out around the same time as Victor Sebestyén's "Twelve Days" historical narrative, and a new study of how Moscow, London, and Washington connived and fumbled in Charles Gati's "Failed Illusions." Korda has skimpy endnotes and barely any printed sources credited. These lengthier studies presumably will enrich what Korda intriguingly only alludes to: the debate over the true messages sent by Radio Free Europe, the British encouragement of the revolt to distract Russia from the Suez Canal, and the postwar role of Hungarian Communists who had fled to Moscow vs. those who had stayed behind under fascism. Korda implies that the superpowers manipulated the hopes of the freedom fighters and the repression of Moscow both, but more detail, even in such a short account, would have helped clarify these vexing issues.

Very easy to read, but misleading to those who do not know European history or geography,and annoying to those who do. The non existing Hungarian-German border has already been pointed out, I would like to add a few more: Page 159 Kossuth Lajos Street leading to the Parliament House, page 43 Petofi's poem [Nemzeti Dal] an appeal to fight the Russians,[it was against the Austrians, or the Germans as he called them] Page 62 "Budapest like Prague has been spared by allied bombers" [as soon as Budapest was in reach for the bombers from occupied Italian airports we had regular daily visits]

This is a very misleading book. As long as one reads it as a memoir of a young advanture-seeking English university student, it may appear amusing. Unfortunately, the author (a renown US writer/editor) relying on few worthwhile sources and hearsay to sum up Hungary's history. This part of the book is riddled with a series of gross mistakes of geography and history. Just to name a few, Hungary does not share a border with West Germany, neither did Hungarians evolve from Attila's Huns.
Eventually, the author does get to Hungary in the midst of the 1956 uprising. His primary reasons for going was to search for adventure, to make up for "missing the Spanish civil war," he was too young then. Although he does have a recognizable Hungarian name, he speaks no Hungarian. He had arrived only a few days before the Red Army crushed the revolution. His interaction with the Hungarians was limited to a few English speaking locals. Mr. Korda does give an eyewitness' description of the devastation of Budapest after the Soviet invasion. After less than a week's stay, he left in a convoy under the protection of the British flag. The book is well written, it is interspersed with clever asides and historical allusions, whether they apply or not.

It was an event of the magnitude of what occurred more than thirty years later in China in Tiananmen Square. But in 1956 there were no 24 hour cable news networks. There is precious little footage of what took place in Budapest in late October of 1956. It is safe to say however that the events that took place there during those 12 days would have a profound effect on the future of the Soviet Union. Author Michael Korda, then a 24 year old undergraduate at Oxford and a descendant of a prominent Hungarian family, journeyed to Budapest at the height of the revolution to bring much needed medical supplies and to experience first-hand what was happening in the streets of the capital city. "Journey to A Revolution" is Michael Korda's personal memoir of those dozen amazing days. It is at the same time an overview of Hungarian history and of the events that would ultimately lead an unlikely coalition of students, intellectuals and factory workers to attempt the unthinkable. For a precious few days it appeared for all the world that the revolution had succeeded. And while the Soviet Union would move quickly to crush the revolution and restore a hard-line Communist regime the damage had been done. The Soviet Union was no longer viewed by its client states as invincible and within just three short decades it would collapse of its own weight. The Soviets won this battle but would ultimately lose the war.

While I did enjoy learning more about the specifics of the Hungarian revolution I must agree with Publishers Weekly who found Michael Korda's account of these events as "strangely flat". I am also concerned about the comments of a number of other reviewers who seem to have found numerous factual errors in this book. While "Journey To A Revolution" is not an awful book it is certainly not something I would recommend to others. It would appear to me that if you are seeking a much more thorough and well researched account of these momentous events then you might opt for Victor Sebestyen's 2006 offering "Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution".

Eyewitness accounts bring immediacy to history that cannot be replaced by anything else. As a student at Oxford, Michael Korda (the renowned author and book editor) reacted to the news of the Hungarian revolution against the Stalinist government by wanting to see what was going on. To make the effort more relevant, he persuaded a relative to buy antibiotics that he and his friends could carry to a hospital in Budapest.

Although he had never been to Hungary, Mr. Korda's family comes from a long line of proud Hungarians. His uncle and father were well-known in the country which made the trip a little more realistic.

The first half of the book provides a historical, social, and political perspective on the events leading up to the revolution which was ultimately crushed by Soviet tanks and troops while the British and French were off on a scheme to retake the Suez canal from Egypt. In that section, one fact stands out: The Hungarians showed the Soviets that they couldn't use overwhelming military force to maintain power in Eastern Europe again. That may have helped speed freedom for the Eastern Bloc countries, including Hungary.

Mr. Korda has a nice conversational tone to his writing, and you feel like you are there. One of my favorite sections is his description of helping a professor and some students tear up cobblestones to create a tank barricade just before the Soviet army returned to Budapest. The Budapest portion of the memoir is well illustrated with photographs taken by others at the time.

Unfortunately, Mr. Korda needed some help with his background section. Even though I know little about Hungary, I found numerous errors including references to Budapest not being bombed in World War II and Hungary abutting Western Germany (try Austria instead). I don't know what other things are wrong, so my advice is to read this book merely as a memoir . . . but a quite interesting, if brief, one. Perhaps it will whet your appetite for more substantive accounts of the revolution.

I recommend this enlightening and fun narrative of Korda's trip to Budapest as a great starting point in learning about the attempted revolution. While it surely lacks detailed information on policy and Cold War era geopolitical relations, it gives a great sense of what it was like to actually be there. Reading it makes me jealous of Korda's bold trip to a historical event like this. Buy this book for anyone, particularly an adventursome older child, or any reader who enjoys history. It is too bad that European history in the U.S. is taught only about England and France mainly. The Eastern countries have a history that's just as rich and more interesting. However I didn't even know about the revolution until I visited Budapest, and in college I still have to really seek out information on Hungary. This is the type of book that if more people read could break that unfairness and get more students to understand this increasingly important and beautiful country's past.

I'm going to start off bluntly by saying...not my cup of tea. But I must admit, Michael Korda's Journey to a Revolution was definitely intelligently written. The language and style of the book was certainly a challenge for me (hint: I don't really read). It's very smart and the character has a good sense of humor considering what is going on around him. This novel truly takes the reader on a journey from beginning to end. Basically, in a nut shell, the book goes over the history of Hungary, a small country that has gone through a whole lot to reach the freedom it has reached today. Korda gives us great insight to events before, during and after the 1956 Revolution. The 1956 Revolution was a huge milestone for Hungary in the sense that it showed the great courage of the Hungarians not only fighting for their country but fighting alone. And even though a happy ending came years from then, this revolution helped bring down a power that thought it could take over the world. Using elaborate details, the reader learns about what a Hungarian really is, their pride and courage, and every detail about Hungary's fight for freedom.
Best of all, the author, also the main character, was a true eye witness. He really did go on this journey to Hungary and described the events as seen by his owns eyes. He lived and breathed the events he speaks about while he was in Hungary in the time where the freedom fighters had thought they had won the revolution. Who better to tell a tale then a person who lives to tell? He describes scenes such as dead bodies hanging from poles and smells such as burned fleshed and gasoline. It leaves no room for sugar coating; just straight forward to what is being witnessed. Korda, in the novel, was a privileged young man, who gathers a couple of friends and some much needed items and road trips to Hungary. He has a couple of scares on the way dealing with situations that could've gotten them killed. But he is very intelligent and finds his way out of trouble. For example, they made a stop for gas in a bad neighborhood and basically find themselves in a bar like restaurant with a pretty mean crowd. Knowing that they might get jumped if they mention anything about money, the narrator trades liquor for gas and heads out on his continued journey to their destination.
Aside from that, the novel is well researched and very matter-of-fact. Also, we learn about some events that were happening elsewhere that kept the world's eyes off what was going on in the streets of Hungary. It was even mentioned that these events were on purpose and the Russians took advantage of that, pulling the rug from under the Hungarian's feet. The book is just full of history that not many people take into account. Though I usually don't read books of this genre, I give major credit to the author for giving a plate of history with a side of wit.

Perfect reading for a long airplane flight. Especially good for one with a desire to learn about, or be reminded of, the sad events of 1956; or, for one simply interested in a quick rundown on the history and culture of Hungary. Michael Korda is a gifted writer with a most interesting personal history. He relates this serious tale from his youth in a bemused, understated way.

Like previous reviewers, I found Michael Korda's recollections of his youthful trip/adventure in Hungary at the time of the 1956 Revolution very interesting (far more so than the first half of the book). That tragic event has fascinated me ever since I followed the story as a 19 year old and then saw the powerful photos in the LIFE picture history that was published.
What puzzled me was to note in Korda's Acknowledgements his expressions of gratitude to David McCullough, Michael Beschloss and several other eminent histroians for their reading of his manuscript and their many helpful suggestions. In view of the historical and geographical errors others have noted, one has to wonder if they did, indeed, read this book. And, thus, one wonders if others credited in such Acknowledgements in other books are similarly superficial and agree to "read" a friend's/colleague's book just to keep him/her happy. After all, how closely could these scholars have been reading to have failed to note Korda's multiple assertions of a German-Hungarian border in 1956?