ABSTRACT
This contribution examines the place of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in the wider context of world and European history, and explores its place in time, in alternative characterisations of the twentieth century and the changing character of revolutionary change. Its significance can be understood in several ways: as the greatest single attempt to challenge the Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe in the post-war period; as an early reflection of the contradictions and instability of the Soviet communist system; as the context that enabled the introduction of what was perhaps the most viable form of a reformed version of the Soviet-type system under the Kádár regime; and as the subject of a still unfinished contest over the legacy and historical memory of the revolution.
