Almost each social group has its own myth about 1956. By using archive sources, the author attempts revealing social roots of the revolution and showing reasons why working masses turned against the policy of the regime. The merit of the study is analysing the internal structure of the working class and showing that different reasons motivated commuters and city workers, older skilled workers and the young ones on the periphery. The broad dissatisfaction of people in the Rákosi regime (also) stemmed from the misery of the working class. Thus satisfying their material needs substantially contributed to the relatively rapid consolidation of the following Kádár regime.

The study makes an attempt finding the minimum language, the least common denominator of concepts, which can be used by both antagonist political and social powers as they own on speaking about the heritage of 1956. The author believes that the field with the largest chance for consensus is the attitude towards workers councils – because workers regarded them as their own and they had protected factories and their jobs.

Poland hosted a comprehensive international conference in 1997 on the martial law introduced in December 1981. The top headline at the conference was the publication of the notebook of Marshal Kulikov's secretary Viktor Anoshkin, who kept regular entries during the events. Many of the participants even questioned the authenticity of the document. Based on debates and events of the era and on other sources, the author of the study believes that the notebook is original. The bottom line was, of course, whether the Soviet Union should give military "help" to the Polish Communist Party to manage the situation.