Days of Tragedy and Farce

Abstract

On Tuesday, 30th October, 1956, after a week of street-fighting in Budapest between Hungarian insurgents and Soviet troops, Imre Nagy announced the formation of a multi-party government. Its Communist members-Nagy himself as Prime Minister, Geza Lozonczy, and Jinos Kidir-represented a repudiation of the detested regime of the former Party boss, Mityis Rgkosi; Kidir, indeed, had been imprisoned and tortured under Rikosi's rule. The other Ministers were drawn from the Social-Democratic Party, the Smallholders' Party, and the National Peasant Party (just renamed the Petofi Party in honour of the democratic revolutionary hero of 1848). The people were promised that elections would be held, but the four parties envisaged a period of 'democratic collaboration'.