Army and Arms, 1956

The (first) book co-authored by two prominent researchers – military historian Miklós Horváth and museologist Vilmos Kovács – entitled Army and Arms, 1956 gives the readers an insight into the everyday life of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight, and provides information about: the major tasks and inner conflicts of the Hungarian People’s Army; the institutional system for the use of the security organisation; the characteristics of the “division of labour” between the army and other armed organizations; the circumstances of the decisions related to the deployment of the Soviet troops in Hungary; key phases in the activity of the insurgent-freedom fighter and other armed groups and the national guards. One of the main novelties of the present publication is the unique and in-depth presentation of the armament and the important pieces of military equipment used in the revolution and freedom fight. The sources explored by the latest research and published in this book for the first time offer us a further opportunity to broaden our historical knowledge of this era.