A hot autumn in the cold war

"Nineteen fifty-six."

"It is only eleven years since one of the most destructive wars fought in human history ended. It is already for eleven years since human history began to be overshadowed by the most destructive weapons ever known. These days it seems as if the bitter cold political climate might be warming again. The opposing sides are talking of mutual coexistence, on speakers' platforms and round negotiating tables. Then in the autumn, the world seems to jump out of the new order. Grave crises arise in the middle of a divided Europe and in the Middle East."

This films offers a gap-filling summary by presenting the history of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in a world political context. It considers the development of a normality after the Second World War, the characteristics of the Cold War period, and the antecedents of the Hungarian Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe and at home. It uses contemporary documents to present the foreign reactions to the events and failure of the revolution, and the political considerations and behaviour of the Great Powers. It covers the exodus that followed the revolution and the human cost of the reprisals on those who stayed behind.

The visual material in this informative historical documentary has been greatly enriched by the use of clips from recently rediscovered contemporary film reports from American, French, English, German and Russian archives.