After nearly three decades of dutiful service to the Communist Party, Imre Nagy led the popular uprising against the Soviet authorities during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Two years later he was disgraced and executed. How did the formerly loyal Party servant become one of its most ardent critics? How did he reconcile his own beliefs with the demands of the Party for so long -- and what finally drove him to take a stand? And how should we understand his legacy for the modern democracy of Hungary?

This definitive biography of the Communist leader traces his life from his conventional, petty bourgeois childhood in south-west Hungary, through his tremendous political achievements and ultimate dramatic failure. The first complete portrait of this complex and contradictory figure, Imre Nagy is vividly brought to life as an enigmatic figure whose actions shaped Hungary's destiny in 1956 and ever since.

If there had been all-news television channels in 1956, viewers around the world would have been glued to their sets between October 23 and November 4. This book tells the story of the Hungarian Revolution in 120 original documents, ranging from the minutes of the first meeting of Khrushchev with Hungarian bosses after Stalin's death in 1953 to Yeltsin's declaration made in 1992. Other documents include letters from Yuri Andropov, Soviet Ambassador in Budapest during and after the revolt. The great majority of the material appears in English for the first time, and almost all come from archives that were inaccessible until the 1990s.