12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read; a few quirks, October 15, 2006
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"No more 'comrades'!", March 5, 2007
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very readable, but unfortunately full of false facts., January 8, 2007
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]
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