Over the past years, writer Albert Wass has become known to an ever expanding range of readers and we can say also becoming a literary-political idol. His literary standard and works can be questioned but his commitment to extreme right, hungarist political views cannot.

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.

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 author summarises and analyses historical lessons from the 1956 workers councils. He shows that present-day falsifications and silence about the history of workers councils is related to the fact that the councils set up in factories and on the shop-floor aimed transforming state ownership to social ownership also rejecting the restoration of capitalism and fought against attempts bringing back private ownership.