Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 1944–1948

This is the first book in a Western language to describe in detail the establishment of a Communist regime in Hungary. Hungary was the last ally of Nazi Germany, and as such suffered dreadful destruction in the course of the fighting during the last year of the war. The war discredited the political and social elite and gave opportunity for a new beginning. Early optimism in democratic circles, however, quickly dissipated. With the help of the Soviet Army, the Communists, who had negligible indigenous support, in a short time managed to destroy any organized opposition to their taking power. In this concise book, which is based on archival and other primary sources, Peter Kenez describes the methods of Communist conquest of power in one country in Eastern Europe and therefore allows us to better understand the origin of the Cold War.

Peter Kenez is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition (2006); Varieties of Fear (1995); Cinema and Soviet Society (1992); The Birth of the Propagand State (1985); Civil War in South Russia, 1918 (1971); and Civil War in South Russia, 1919-1920 (1976). He is the editor, with Abbot Gleason and Richard Stites, of Bolshevik Culture: Experiment and Order in the Russian Revolution (1989).