The Bridge at Andau

I haven’t read James Michener in at least two decades and was surprised to find a book of his that I hadn’t already read. But, I was looking for something about the history of Hungary and I found this nonfiction book that he wrote in 1957, a year after the Soviets crushed the Hungarian revolt against communist rule. I was aware that the revolt had occurred, but knew nothing else about it. If the topic interests you, then this is an excellent source of data about the exceedingly brutal reaction that the Soviet’s had to the Hungarian rebellion. The Bridge at Andau is the story of the rebellion, about 300 pages rather than one of Michener’s usual 1,000 page tomes. His research was extensive and his stories of the real individuals on both sides of the rebellion was graphic and moving.

Michener wrote in the forward, “In this book I propose to tell the story of a terror so complete as to be deadening to the senses.” He achieved that goal. As is typical of Michener, he did give some ancient history that helped understand the people who occupied Hungary and how they were of a different genetic heritage than other European countries. But the main action in the book was the rebellion itself and the Soviet’s reaction to it. The author wrote of the Russian response, “In areas already subdued, Russian tank crews ran wild and roared their tanks through the streets, firing on any groups of civilians they saw. There were three instances in which women in queues were shot to death…. Children were killed, hospitals were fired upon, and young men were executed merely upon suspicion.”

 

The bridge itself was in a remote section of Hungary that bordered Austria. It was a place where Hungarian citizens could flee to the safety of a country that welcomed them, but it was remarkably dangerous. Still, some 20,000 people were able to make it across the bridge before the communists dynamited it. Although Russia did crush the rebellion, in 1957 Michener saw that they would eventually lose the overall war. If the Hungarians were trying to throw off the yoke of communist oppression, the author commented that the communist system was sure to falter although he had no idea how and when that would come about. I would not have found this book had I not been headed to Hungary, and although the brutality that was described was difficult to read, the book provided precisely the historical background that I was looking for.