Bela Kiraly

As a major general in the Hungarian Army, in 1951 Kiraly was arrested on political charges and sentenced to death. But in 1956 he was released from prison -- weeks before the Hungarian Revolution of October 23, when the people of Hungary spontaneously revolted against the harsh Stalinist regime. Kiraly tried to marshal various Hungarian security forces into a National Guard to fight the Soviets, but "to tell the truth," he said long afterward, "there was no central command of the freedom fighters; it was spontaneous fighters, here and there. Freedom, liberty, was the idea, everyone fought for that -- and independence." Despite knowing the tiny country couldn't repel the huge Soviet army -- "Not for a moment" did he think they could win, he said -- Kiraly fought back anyway. It was not in vain, he said: "The Hungarian Revolution was an inspiration for resistance against Bolshevik rule, resistance against Soviet imperialism" -- the first step that led to the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. Kiraly fled, first to Austria and then to the U.S., where he received a PhD from Columbia and taught history at Brooklyn College. When the communist bloc finally withdrew in 1989, Kiraly returned and was elected to parliament in the country's first free elections after the Soviet era. He died July 4, at home in a free Hungary, at 97. From This is True for 5 July 2009 Suggestions for further reading: The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman Amazon Price: $10.20 Customer Review: This is a wonderful book, especially if you're interested in Russian literature and the whole graduate school experience. Elif Batuman is incredibly funny and smart and manages to be both glancingly anecdotal and profound. This is one of those great ...   Red Inferno: 1945: A Novel by Robert Conroy Amazon Price: $10.20 Customer Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the story, with an interesting mix of historical and fictional characters, and what I believe is a chillingly accurate description of the strategy/tactics that would have been used by both sides. An actual debate over using the ...   The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous L... by David Hoffman Amazon Price: $23.10 Customer Review: I bought this book as I've always been interested in the Cold War and the history around the Soviet Union - although I've never researched or read up on it. This book, as other reviews mention, was a little dry in certain sections - but this still di...   The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Amazon Price: $12.24 Customer Review: Dostoevsky delves into his characters like few writers have the gift of doing. One grows very fond of sweet, compassionate Alyosha, crazed, heartbroken Dmitri, and cynical, intellectual Ivan, despite all of their flaws. This book is not exciting or e...   Last Exit to Utopia: The Survival of Socialism in a Post-Soviet Era by Jean Francois Revel Amazon Price: $16.29 Customer Review: A wonderful book written by a major intellectual who deserves a far wider audience, and especially should have been more widely read in the West while he was still alive. Densely written with masses of facts this serves as a very good pre...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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