The Unexpected Revolution [antikvár]

PREFACE The following study deals with the genesis of a revolutionary situation in Hungary, rather than with the revolutionary events themselves. Looking at the climax of October 23,1956, one has the impression of a sudden jump from political stability to chaos. On closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that the political situation had been in flux for a number of years before the final explosion. Indeed, in Hungary, as well as in the other countries of East Central Europe that passed into the Soviet orbit, political and social changes of the greatest moment had been compressed into a decade. The totalitarian rigidity of Stalinism was imposed upon these nations abruptly, almost without any period of transition. With Stalin gone, the inevitable relaxation of his system in the Soviet Union released a number of centrifugal, disruptive tendencies in the dependent territories. My purpose has been to show the interrelated social and political effects both of the forcible imposition of the Stalinist pattern and of its disintegration. Hungary, as an extreme case in both respects, offers particularly instructive evidence concerning the mechanism of the two processes. For valuable criticisms and suggestions, I am indebted to Hans Speier, Joseph M. Goldsen, Herbert S. Dinerstein, Leon Gouré, and Myron Rush of The RAND Corporation, as well as to Robert C. Tucker of Indiana University, and to Henry L. Roberts, Alexander Dallin, and Paul Zinner of Columbia Uni-