On the 24th of October, 1956, the English language announcer for Free Radio Budapest shared an alarming

news story with the citizens of Hungary.

In the early hours of the morning,

Soviet troops have started an attack against the Hungarian deputy.

It was the third time in 12 years that hostile foreign tanks had rolled into Budapest,

but the impact of this invasion was much longer lasting.

In this episode I examined the dual one of the seats of government of the dual monarchy of the powerful Austro-Hungarian

empire by Landmass, the second largest country in Europe.

But despite the Grandiose palaces and its impressive military, it was a

fractured nation. In the 1990s, religious and ethnic differences bubbled to the surface causing Yugoslavia to descend in civil war and violence.

But back in 1918, most of the territory that eventually became Yugoslavia was just one segment of a much larger

and vast multicultural empire. Its inhabitants spoke more than a dozen languages.

Religiously, it was divided among Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims.

While Poles, Romanians, Italians and Czechs were among the multitude of ethnic groups,

living uneasily alongside each other, under the rule of an ailing monarch.

The defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its allies in World War I

was the first step on the road towards the events of 1956. In fact in 1919 the Soviet-style communist regime briefly seized power in Hungary

before the forces of nationalism arose and the monarchy was restored. But two decades later, under pressure from

its powerful neighbours, Hungary allied itself with this erstwhile ally Germany and joined the Axis powers in World War II.

Initially, Hungary was focused on fighting the USSR in aiding German attempts to conquer Yugoslavia.

Despite the unease of a conservative, yet comparatively moderate king and prime minister,

Hungary inevitably declared war on the Western powers and it became a key ally of Nazi Germany.

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