Failed Illusions

by Gati, Charles

• ISBN13: 9780804759649
• ISBN10: 0804759642
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-06
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr
• More Book Details

Summary

Winner of the 2007 Marshall Shulman Prize The 1956 Hungarian revolution, and its suppression by the U.S.S.R., was a key event in the cold war, demonstrating deep dissatisfaction with both the communist system and old-fashioned Soviet imperialism. But now, fifty years later, the simplicity of this David and Goliath story should be revisited, according to Charles Gati's new history of the revolt. Denying neither Hungarian heroism nor Soviet brutality,Failed Illusionsnevertheless modifies our picture of what happened. Imre Nagy, a reform communist who headed the revolutionary government and turned into a genuine patriot, could not rise to the occasion by steering a realistic course between his people's demands and Soviet geopolitical and ideological interests. The United States was all talk, no action, while Radio Free Europe simultaneously backed the insurgents' unrealizable demands and opposed Nagy. In the end, the Soviet Union followed its imperial impulse instead of seeking a political solution to the crisis in the spirit of de-Stalinization. Failed Illusionsis based on extensive archival research, including the CIA's operational files, and hundreds of interviews with participants in Budapest, Moscow, and Washington. Personal observations by the author, a young reporter in Budapest in 1956, bring the tragic story vividly to life.

Author Biography

Charles Gati is a political scientist who fled his native Hungary during the 1956 revolt, and is now Senior Adjunct Professor of European Studies at Johns Hopkins University. His previous positions have included teaching Central and Eastern European as well as Russian politics and foreign policy at Union College and Columbia University. He served as a Senior Adviser on the Department of State's Policy Planning Staff in the early 1990's. His publications include The Bloc That Failed: Soviet-East Relations in Transition (1990), and Hungary and the Soviet Bloc (1986).

Table of Contents

Series Preface	p. xi
Preface to the Paperback Edition	p. xvii
Introduction to the Argument	p. 1
The Inadvertent Revolutionary	p. 23
Washington and Budapest before the Explosion	p. 69
Moscow and Budapest before the Explosion	p. 113
The Revolt That Failed	p. 141
The Revolt That Did Not Have to Fail	p. 205
Epilogue: Memories Repressed and Recovered	p. 223
Acknowledgments	p. 239
Selected Bibliography	p. 243
Index	p. 253
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