A small but significant change and ominous signs

On this day Imre Nagy relocated his office from the communist party headquarters to parliament. Although only a distance of a few blocks and only a few minutes’ walk, the symbolic gesture was still significant. With this, the leader of the country would no longer be operating from the headquarters of the one-party state, but instead would now be based in the parliament building, the symbol of democracy in Hungary.

Bad news was on the horizon, however, for on this day Israel (to be joined by the UK and France several days later) launched its attack on Egypt and with it the Suez Crisis began. While the UN Security Council had placed the Hungarian question on its agenda, the Suez Crisis would in many ways divert attention from the events in Hungary.

Zoltán Csipke