I saw in a post from last year a discussion about books about Hungary. I have two more of interest from the time of the imposition of Hungary's second communist regime (counting the Bela Kun regime in 1919 as its first). Comes the comrade by Alexandre Orme is a somewhat lighthearted (as much as possible in view of the circumstances) account of the Soviet occupation/takeover at the end of WW2.
The Struggle Behind the Iron Curtain by Ferenc Nagy is a memoir by Hungary's Smallholder Party prime minister of 1946-1947, detailing how the Communist Party of Hungary gradually took over full political power with the crucial help of the Soviet occupation forces. The Smallholder Party won the 1945 elections by a landslide, but had to keep the Communists in the coalition government, and from that foothold they were able to consolidate power, and Nagy's book recounts how they did it.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20458 posts
Reading in advance always heightens the experience. The places you will read about are by and large still intact.
I read Endre Marton and Katie Marton's books on the events from 47 to 56. One by the man that lived it the other by his daughter after digging through the records after the change.
Then we stumbled upon the prison Endre and his wife were held in and even were offered an impromptu tour by one of the guards .... then the stories really came to life.
Thank you for the titles. More to read on the next flight.
Posted by
San Francisco
15020 posts
We can assume the results of the 1945 elections were that of a fair election. By the end of 1947 all of the what was to be the Soviet bloc countries with the presence of the Red Army on their soil had coalition governments, the Communists were not in control in any minus Albania and Tito's Yugoslavia, where the Red Army was not present.