The 1956 HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION
A History in Documents


Edited by

Csaba Békés, Senior Researcher, Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Budapest,
Malcolm Byrne, Research Director of the National Security Archive in Washington D.C. and
János M. Rainer, Director, Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Budapest

With a foreword by Charles Gati and an Introductory Essay by Timothy Garton Ash

If there had been all-news television channels in 1956, viewers around the world would have been glued to their sets between October 23 and November 4. This book tells the story of the Hungarian Revolution in 120 original documents, ranging from the minutes of the first meeting of Khrushchev with Hungarian bosses after Stalin's death in 1953 to Yeltsin's declaration made in 1992. Other documents include letters from Yuri Andropov, Soviet Ambassador in Budapest during and after the revolt. The great majority of the material appears in English for the first time, and almost all come from archives that were inaccessible until the 1990s.

600 pages, CEU University Press, 2002
ISBN: 963-9241-48-2 cloth $67.95 / £43.95
ISBN: 963-9241-66-0 paperback $29.95 / £18.00

This is the third volume in the series National Security Archive Cold War Readers Series, editor: Malcolm Byrne

ISSN 1587-2416

The sample documents were compiled by Mr. Malcolm Byrne and are originally available on the website of the National Security Archives, Washington, D.C. as part of the "Electronic Briefing Books Series".

"There is no publication, in any language, that would even approach the thoroughness, reliability, and novelty of this monumental work.
Unlike all the other documentary collections, The 1956 Hungarian Revolution is based mainly on recently opened original sources in the Hungarian, Soviet and US archives."

- István Deák, Columbia University

Sample documents available for download:
1) Study Prepared for U.S. Army Intelligence, "Hungary: Resistance Activities and Potentials," January 1956
24 pages
2) Minutes of 290th NSC meeting, July 12, 1956
5 pages
3) Report from Anastas Mikoyan on the Situation in the Hungarian Workers' Party, July 14, 1956
6 pages
4) National Security Council Report NSC 5608/1, "U.S. Policy toward the Soviet Satellites in Eastern Europe," July 18, 1956
2 pages
5) Jan Svoboda's Notes on the CPSU CC Presidium Meeting with Satellite Leaders, October 24, 1956
6 pages
6) Working Notes and Attached Extract from the Minutes of the CPSU CC Presidium Meeting, October 31, 1956
4 pages
7) Minutes of the Nagy Government's Fourth Cabinet Meeting, November 1, 1956
2 pages
8) Report by Soviet Deputy Interior Minister M. N. Holodkov to Interior Minister N. P. Dudorov, November 15, 1956
4 pages
9) Situation Report from Malenkov-Suslov-Aristov, November 22, 1956
8 pages
10) "Policy Review of Voice for Free Hungary Programming, October 23-November 23, 1956," December 5, 1956
28 pages
11) Romanian and Czech Minutes on the Meeting of Five East European States' Leaders in Budapest (with Attached Final Communiqué), January 1-4, 1957
9 pages
12) Minutes of the Meeting between the Hungarian and Chinese Delegations in Budapest, January 16, 1957
9 pages