The intensely political cultural production that erupted during Hungary's short-lived Soviet Republic of 1919 encompassed music, art, literature, film and theatre. Painting the Town Red is the little-known history of these developments. The book opens with an overview of the political context in Hungary after the First World War and how the Soviet Republic emerged in the chaotic months which followed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. It looks at the subsequent roles during the Soviet Republic of artists, film-makers, actors, musicians and writers, and the attitude of the newly established People's Commissariat for Education and Culture, in which the future internationally renowned Marxist Gyorgy Lukacs played a leading role. At its centre are the questions: why did so many prominent people in the arts world participate in the Soviet Republic and why did their initial enthusiasm later subside? Painting the Town Red is an important contribution to the lively debate about the interaction between art and politics.

The views of Budapest by the River Danube are unparalleled in Europe. On one side, the Buda Hills reach almost to the riverside, with Castle Hill and Gellert Hill offering outstanding panoramas. Pest, linked to Buda by a series of imposing bridges, with its mixture of late nineteenth-century Historicist and early twentieth-century Art Nouveau architecture, is still very much a "turn-of-the-century" city. For more than fifty years prior to the Second World War, Budapest was one of the outstanding cultural capitals of Central Europe, on a par with, and in some ways in advance of Vienna and Prague. Now, no longer "hidden" behind the Iron Curtain, much of that old atmosphere has returned. With its rich and often turbulent history, its unique thermal baths, its excellent public transport system, its street cafes and broad-ranging cultural scene, Budapest is a captivating metropolis, currently being rediscovered as one of the liveliest cities in the region. The city of Danube: Straddling the majestic river, Budapest's location is unique, its architecture stunning; the story of Castle Hill, overlooking the Danube, recalls the birth of the city as well as the sixteenth-century monarch, King Matthias, and Hungary's "golden age" associated with his reign. The city of Fusions: Bartok and Kodaly fused folk and classical; the tradition continues with Budapest's vibrant mixture of live folk, gypsy, klezmer and jazz. The city of the Unknown: Breaking through the barrier of the Hungarian language, often described as impenetrable, presented here are writers and poets deserving international recognition.

The intensely political cultural production that erupted during Hungary's short-lived Soviet Republic of 1919 encompassed music, art, literature, film and theatre. Painting the Town Red is the little-known history of these developments. The book opens with an overview of the political context in Hungary after the First World War and how the Soviet Republic emerged in the chaotic months which followed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. It looks at the subsequent roles during the Soviet Republic of artists, film-makers, actors, musicians and writers, and the attitude of the newly established People's Commissariat for Education and Culture, in which the future internationally renowned Marxist Gyorgy Lukacs played a leading role. At its centre are the questions: why did so many prominent people in the arts world participate in the Soviet Republic and why did their initial enthusiasm later subside? Painting the Town Red is an important contribution to the lively debate about the interaction between art and politics.

The views of Budapest by the River Danube are unparalleled in Europe. On one side the Buda Hills reach almost to the riverside, with Castle Hill and Gellert Hill offering outstanding panoramas. Pest, linked to Buda by a series of imposing bridges, with its mixture of late nineteenth-century Historicist and early twentieth-century Art Nouveau architecture, is still very much a "turn-of-the-century" city.
For more than fifty years prior to the Second World War, Budapest was one of the outstanding cultural capitals of Central Europe, on a par with, and in some ways ahead of, Vienna and Prague. Now no longer "hidden" behind the Iron Curtain, much of that old atmosphere has returned. With its rich and often turbulent history, its unique thermal baths, its excellent public transport system, its street cafes and broad-ranging cultural scene, Budapest is a captivating metropolis, currently being rediscovered as one of the liveliest cities in the region.
* City on the Danube: Straddling the majestic river, Budapest's setting is unique; bridges and baths, cafes and squares; an architecture than recalls the pre-1914 era.
* City of fusions: Bartok and Kodaly fused folk and classical; the tradition continues with Budapest's vibrant mixture of live folk, gypsy, klezmer and jazz.
* City of the unknown: Breaking through the barrier of the Hungarian language, often described as impenetrable, presented here are writers and poets deserving international recognition.