Hungary 1956 Revisited [antikvár]

Preface Generally speaking, adding any kind of preface to a book is a questionable practice - at least, any preface which contains more than technical information or acknowledgements. Anj^thing else would seem to be a futile attempt to apologise for this or that featiu-e of the text which, if it does not stand on its own, cannot in any case be protected by a preface. But in this particular case certain aspects of our presentation of the Himgarian revolution need some introduction. First of all, we should like to dispel any appearance of Hungarian nationalism and a hypertrophy of Hungarian self-advertisement. True, we have stated repeatedly and from several viewpoints in this book that Hungary in 1956 played a world-historical role. The Hungarian revolution was the first to assault the unjust and oppressive world-system created by the signatories to the Yalta and Potsdam agreements. It was the Hungarian revolution that taught the lesson, after too long a period of belief to the contrary, that a totalitarian regime can be toppled from within. Hungary in 1956 and her revolution put an end to the illusion of the Popular Front policy. The Himgarian revolution triggered the exodus of the communist intellectuals from their parties. Is to say all this to say too much? Is this a fair description of the events within the limits of reaUstic assessment? There is an im-deniable tendency in many (if not all) individuals to aggrandise the events of their own lives. Similarly, there is a tendency in the members of most (if not all) national commimities to assign an exaggerated importance to everything that happens to them, while we have to admit that objectively there are in fact very few national conununities in history whose 'life processes' exert continuous impact on himiankind as a whole. Let us set the record straight at this crucial point: we have never entertained illusions regarding such a continuous world-historical role for Hungary; but we have two firmly held opinions on the matter. The first is that there are national communities in the East European region under Soviet domination which have played -