Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

by Michael Korda

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was not just an extraordinary and dramatic event—perhaps the most dramatic single event of the Cold War—but, as we can now see fifty years later, a major turning point in history. Here is an eyewitness account, in the tradition of George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia . The spontaneous rising of Hungarian people against the Hungarian communist party and the Soviet forces in Hungary in the wake of Stalin's death, while ending unsuccessfully, demonstrated to the world at large the failure of Communism. The Russians were obliged to use force on a vast scale against armed students, factory workers, and intellectuals in the streets of a major European capital to restore the Hungarian communist party to power. For two weeks, students, women, and teenagers fought tanks in the streets of Budapest, in full view of the Western media—and therefore the world—and for a time they actually won, deeply humiliating the men who succeeded Stalin. The Russians eventually managed to extinguish the revolution with brute force and overwhelming numbers, but never again would they attempt to use military force on a large scale to suppress dissent in their Eastern European empire. Told with brilliant detail, suspense, occasional humor, and sustained anger, Journey to a Revolution is at once history and a compelling memoir—the amazing story of four young Oxford undergraduates, including the author, who took off for Budapest in a beat-up old Volkswagen convertible in October 1956 to bring badly needed medicine to Budapest hospitals and to participate, at street level, in one of the great battles of postwar history. Michael Korda paints a vivid and richly detailed picture of the events and the people; explores such major issues as the extent to which the British and American intelligence services were involved in the uprising, making the Hungarians feel they could expect military support from the West; and describes, day by day, the course of the revolution, from its heroic beginnings to the sad martyrdom of its end. Journey to a Revolution delivers "a harrowing and horrifying tale told in spare and poignant prose—sometimes bitter, sometimes ironic, always powerful."* * Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Genres: History, Hungary, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, European History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 19, 2006

About the author

is an English-born writer and novelist who was editor-in-Chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City.

Reviews

[Geza Tatrallyay · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who lived through the Hungarian Revolution as a child and wrote a book about it (FOR THE CHILDREN), I found this to be an excellent read. What made it special was the personal nature of the writing and the little vignettes. Korda went to Hungary at the time of the Revolution with some fellow students from Oxford and it recounts the experiences of these out-of-place British students in the middle of Hungary's fight for freedom. Highly recommended!

[Carol Tensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Korda's Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 is more history than memoir. The first hundred or so pages are very informative, though not the most pleasurable reading. Once the memoir part kicks in, the dryness abates. In my favorite part, he writes about meeting Graham Greene, a family friend, for advice before he drives into Hungary. Korda is given a phone number to call if he finds himself in dire straits. As he is about to pocket it, Greene admonishes him and makes him memorize it. Then he burns it over his dinner plate.

The remainder of the book was quite entertaining though I found Korda's entitlement grating. How many youth today get the luxury of following adventure and looking for excitement in someone else's war - and are bankrolled by their parents to boot? Am I envious of his upper class wealth - perhaps. Am I jealous that his parents were friends of Graham Greene and even consulted him regarding Michael's education? You bet your sweet ass I am.

[Ronja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good rundown of Hungarian history and the 1956 revolution by a guy who was present in Budapest cause he 'couldn't miss out on the action' and who regretted not witnessing the spanisch civil war (Guy's a white male oxford student lol).
Decided 'over a sherry at eleven (in bond's room, where the Oxford elite met)' it was their duty to take part in the revolution (their part was burdening everyone present and giving false hope in order to be celebrated as humanitarians who risked their lifes to come to hungary)
So many off hand comments on women bleh. Plus his father was friends with Horthys (Europe's first fascist??) son????
Very telling for sure, but I don't get how this guy isn't embarrassed to tell this story.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For those who survived, life goes on, and even looking back in time, for those of us who were there, the events of October and November 1956 seem remote now, something out of another age." (p 205)

Michael Korda is able to combine history and memoir in one package that at times reads like a novel, but at its heart is a very personal story of one man and his Hungarian heritage. The history is an inspiring story of the David versus Goliath battle that took place in Hungary in 1956. Korda was a student at Oxford who traveled to Budapest to bring help, medicine for hospitals, and to participate in one of the great moments in postwar European history. "The Hungarians stood up to the Soviet Union, bravely and alone; and although they lost, inevitably, they created a deep fissure in the monolith of communism" (p 204) that was omnipresent throughout Eastern Europe behind the "Iron Curtain."
Korda begins his story, after an introductory chapter, with an all too brief history of Hungary, a nation that was not unfamiliar with oppression by foreign rulers from the invasions of the Huns to the Empire of the Hapsburgs, but it had a proud culture. Its' recent history was one of decline throughout the twentieth century. The two world wars had been particularly harsh in the toll they took on the country's fortunes. I was impressed with the way Korda was able to transition from this history into his family's and ultimately his own position as a young man at Oxford - thus leading the reader into the main section of the book detailing the brutal details of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. His own adventures as an eyewitness add credibility to his account and his lucid and readable style make this a successful memoir and history. Reading this in combination with some of the literature produced by Hungarian writers added to my enjoyment of both the literature and the history.

[Ken French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Korda is an excellent writer in general, and his personal experience of being in Budapest in 1956 adds a lot to this account.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book from my sister for Christmas and just finished reading it. I loved it! It was so interesting and helpful to better understand the history of Central/Eastern Europe and the importance of the events that took place in 1956. Of course, my grandfather was Hungarian and I have visited the country, so I have a special interest in the place and the people.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book while searching for a different Michael Korda title. Having recently (no wait, that was 3 1/2 years ago...really!?) read Victor Sebestyen's Twelve Days, I thought this might be an interesting comparison between the native Hungarian perspective of events and that of Korda's first generation British son-of-Hungarian-immigrants western view. Both books explore the political underpinnings of the revolution, the aftermath of a collapsed empire, being on the losing side in two world wars, and having been effectively bartered into Soviet hands by the allies in 1945. While Sebestyen takes the deeper historian's dive, both works set the stage pretty nicely. It is with the flashpoint start of fighting in the streets of Budapest that these two accounts part company. While Sebestyen continues with great precision to chronicle events and identify the players involved, Korda moves on to the "personal memoir" promised in his book's subtitle. As an Oxford undergraduate, Korda takes a trans-European road-trip (in a VW Beetle) with a few like-minded Brit students to ostensibly deliver some medical supplies to Budapest, though in truth, looking for adventure. What could possibly go wrong? Once there, while the situation is certainly more than any of the students bargained for, their experiences put a very human face on the life and death struggle playing out before them. I for one was very much struck by the absolute confidence the revolutionaries had that, once engaged, the British and/or Americans ("the west" in any case) would soon be breaching the borders and have tank columns of their own rolling into Budapest to run the Soviets off once and for all. Thanks for that Radio Free Europe. Events in the middle east (Egypt/Suez/Sinai) monopolized the world's attention, however, and things of course ended badly (once again) for the Hungarians. Despite the differences between their books, both Sebestyen and Korda communicate this in quite gripping fashion. I can not, however, say that one book is better than the other. If you want a more clinical historian's dissection of the Hungarian revolution, go with Sebestyen. For the more humanized view, go with Korda. Better still, read them both. The two accounts compliment one another quite nicely indeed.

[Richard1955 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read by Michael Korda. The first two were his joint biography of his famous father and uncles (Charmed Lives), and his account of the history of the best-seller list. His writing style is quite fluid, personal, often humorous, very easy. This book is a light account of the place of the 1956 Hungarian revolution in history, its causes and aftermath, his 22 year old Oxford joinder in the latter half of those events by bringing medical supplies to Budapest, his journey there and back.

Korda's account has great charm as memoir - he's personal, warm, often funny in his self-deprecation. He has insights into the motivations of the participants, their strengths and weaknesses and the fault of other nations.

I think Korda's too hard on the British (distracting the world from influencing a possibly better result in Hungary due to its creation/involvement of the Suez Canal conflict). Egypt had grossly violated all treaty obligations in shutting off the Suez Canal, had been shelling Israel for months - it had to be stopped.

Unless the Americans were prepared to intervene militarily in Hungary - which they neither were (nor ever said they would - except in the most general exhortations to the people in central and eastern Europe to resist Soviet domination - and how could they not?) the conflict ended quite predictably. However, Korda rightly says that it was the 1956 Revolution that made it predictable how the Soviets would react in such a situation.

The sights, sounds, smells of Budapest over the week that Korda was there - are vividly presented, and the attitudes, the atmosphere of those with whom Korda dealt are memorably brought home to the reader.

The book is rather light reading - and very enjoyable. I feel I know Korda's style - and it's one that encourages me to read whatever he writes. This is a particularly intriguing - because personal - account. I would certainly recommend it to others.

[Thomas Petri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the story very much. Hungarian born myself, I have known a few of those who left Hungary in the wake of the Revolution. However I never thought to ask them about their experiences. Why not I don't know, but I do remember a childhood friend of my mother's who had been in the fighting (having spent a few post war years coal mining in Siberia) looking at a picture of a 13 or 14 year old boy with a cigarette and a rifle and telling me about being one of the burial detail for the boy. There was great sadness in his voice but no other emotions on his part. But I felt a great sorrow and a little shame comparing myself to a kid little older than myself who had fought so bravely in such a noble cause. An aside my family reached U.S. in 1951. Back to the book I have some scepticism about his summary of Hungarian History, even knowing he is quoting an acknowledged history scholar. I have never heard that the Huns were direct ancestors of the Magyars. The Huns had settled along the Danube 500 years before Arpad led the Magyars into the Carpathian basin. They may have intermingled. Or maybe I am just putting my ignorance on parade. Anyway! When he gets to his being in Budapest and describing the events' I was completely swept along. The danger, the excitement, and the urgency of the Hungarians aspirations, and their disappointment at the lack of support from the Western powers comes alive in his writing. History from a first hand source. I found it very informative and well worth the reading.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing and historical sections were fine, but the amount that Korda brought himself into the narrative (outside of events he actually witnessed, and thus could accurately describe) was so annoying! Korda grew up as, and still is I assume, a wealthy member of the British elite, and he writes like it. He constantly brought up his famous father, or uncle, or their friendship with Graham Greene, and how that helped pave his way to safety during their stupid trip to the Hungarian Revolution. There was no thought to the privilege afforded to him. It's all very flippant and careless.

I also think Korda's own involvement was absolutely stupid--I hate how wealthy men in the 20th century (and maybe still today, I don't know) felt they needed a ~taste of adventure~ and thus went off to wars and conflicts that had nothing to do with them (Spanish Civil War, and I guess.. The Hungarian Revolution??). It's none of your business and why go around throwing away money and giving people false hope of Western European help (especially during the Hungarian Revolution) when you're just bringing some medical supplies as an excuse to go witness some 'fun' or something... Also, Korda still holds some lovely 1950s stereotypes of women. Am I really surprised, at this point?

While I disliked Korda's injections into this story, I found the early historical section about Hungary rather interesting, and when he was able to take himself out of it, his account of the last few days of the Revolution was engaging.

[Paul Frandano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, albeit narrowly focused, narrative, with a very nice bit of brief introductory chapters that situate Hungary in history and, after the second world war, as a Soviet satellite state and member of the Warsaw Pact. Korda is a remarkably good "noticer" as well as a prodigious memory. I'll presume he kept a journal (that is never mentioned in the book) that provided the basis for some interesting conversations with Hungarian whose eyes grew wide when they found themselves in conversation with a young man who bore the well-known Hungarian name "Korda," which belonged to the author and, more significantly, to his estimable filmmaker and set designer uncles.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating personal account of the Hungarian Revolution including a lot of historical background. Also interesting is the author himself, essentially a privileged young man who, with his friends, have a Boy’s Own idea of war and revolution and become tourists to the tragedy unfolding. Ultimately I entirely sympathise with the British embassy’s exasperation with this group of adventure seekers. Still, makes for an interesting and very readable story and the background information research into what was happening politically is very insightful and interesting.

[Cabe Cupit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Journey to a Revolution is a great mix of both memoir and historical recount. The book flows well and presents the history of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in such a way that truly makes you feel for the Hungarian people and their struggle. The book is great in its approach as it shows how a people were pushed to the edge in a time where Stalinism reigned supreme. Overall, a great read on the history of the first Eastern nation to contest Soviet occupation.

[Isla McKetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of revolution tourism is not entirely new to me, but it still seems like a bad idea. This book was a good primer on recent-ish history of Hungary and about 100 pages in when Korda's memoir bit cuts in, the book starts to feel like a lark. An enjoyable one, but perhaps one that sets a bad precedent. Still a decent read in these times.

[Kenneth Chanko · Rating 4 out of 5]

As breezy as it is insightful, this memoir/history is an excellent introduction to the '56 Hungarian uprising and what led up to it. Having recently returned from Budapest, this was a most enjoyable book.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice combination of just enough history and memoir. The author’s Hungarian roots and his understanding of Hungarian culture help put the story of the 1956 revolution in context. I’ve read several books on this topic over the years and would place this one among the best.

[Tamula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this book before my trip to Hungary and finished it on the last day. It was just the right combination of history, eyewitness account, with a bit of self-deprecating humor.

[Slater Henatay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating memoir, I very much enjoyed reading it.

[joanna]

I read this while completing a thesis on the Hungarian Revolution and while this book isn’t the best book I read on this topic, it’s not the worst either. It’s half-baked at best and was likely written solely because of the 50th anniversary of 56. Still there’s some gems in here and some good commentary but it’s too rushed at the end of the book and overshadowed by Korda’s family tree.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1956 the Hungarian people revolted against the oppressive communist government that ruled their country thru terror and tyranny. Russia sent in 500,000 troops, tanks, and their Air Force to put down the revolt.

The first third of the book is dedicated to setting the scene by explaining the history in Hungary and Europe so you understand what is going on when the revolt starts. Then we pick up into the author's story, how he and some college friends decided to drive to Hungary from Oxford with medical supplies for the hospitals. Pretty much everyone thought they were crazy to travel to a war zone. They were fortunate not to be killed, indeed several times they had some close scrapes. While interesting and fun it remains an outsiders perspective (though the author is of Hungarian descent) as the author grew up and lived in England and did not experience what living in communist Hungary was like and saw the results of the fighting rather than participating in the actual fighting. Still, fascinating that he just decided to go on an adventure like he did.

The best book I've read so far on the subject remains James Mitchner's Bridge at Andau, a nonfiction book explaining what it was like living under communism in Hungary based on the stories of fleeing refugees and telling the story of the revolt. I highly recommend the latter and probably need to re-read it in the near future.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

he certainly is proud of his Hungarian heritage...except for the constant love fest this was a very interesting read. I enjoyed it and learned something along the way. Now for the really weird part---I'd never heard of his uncle, KORDA the director. He was mentioned a great deal in this book---and then, a day after I finished this book, I flipped to a random page in The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh and read that Nancy Mitford sold the rights to one of her books to the director KORDA for a movie.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library while planning our trip to Budapest. It was primarily the story of a few Oxford undergrads wandering around in the middle of a violent revolution. Somehow it reminded me of some of Connie Willis's time traveling characters. Korda did a fine job of recounting the state of affairs for anyone with a basic understanding of the events leading up to the Cold War, and a good job of explaining why the entire worlds' attention seemed to be focused elsewhere throughout the whole crackdown. I enjoyed the personal vignettes, even though the story was not an enjoyable one.

[Margarita Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It's not a blow by blow account of the Hungarian Uprising, but that was a good thing for me because I can find those sort of books a bit overwhelming. Michael Korda has a wonderful talent for summing up big historical events and periods in a pithy style which explains the situation perfectly and, at times, renders it even humorous. This is a personal account of the events he and his friends witnessed and it is written with warmth and insight.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great, quick read -- a memoir of someone who, as a young man, was in Budpest during the 1956 revolution and got to konw some of the student revolutionaries. Vivid, felt like I was there while reading it.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this after reading The Historian. I learned a lot about the tumultuous history of Budapest and Hungary from that book, and I wanted some more factual information to back it up. This was a fast read, really, and fascinating.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

i brought this along to hungary, but only just started on the plane ride back...

[Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book is the personal memoir and a little slow, but the second half gets more into the history of the Hungarian revolution and was pretty interesting.

[Anna Koczak · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unforgettable adventure.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read, half history and half memoir so not necessarily the most rigorous historical work, but good introduction to recent Hungarian history.