People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Béla Kovács Kovács Béla The Smallholders' general secretary whose Soviet abduction triggered his party's destruction
- László Rajk Rajk László Interior minister who built the ÁVH secret police, then fell as the first major victim of Stalinist show trials in Eastern Europe
- Ferenc Vida Vida Ferenc A communist judge who enforced political trials
- János Kádár Kádár János Architect of 'goulash communism', enforcer of the 1956 reprisals
- Béla Király Király Béla The general and contested witness of 1956
- Ferenc Donáth Donáth Ferenc A politician who linked revolution and reform while carrying the wounds of dictatorship
- Géza Losonczy Losonczy Géza A reform communist journalist
- József Szilágyi Szilágyi József Refused to cooperate at his show trial: tried separately and hanged two months before Imre Nagy
- Pál Maléter Maléter Pál A soldier caught between negotiation and armed resistance
- András Hegedüs Hegedüs András A young premier who bore responsibility at the revolution’s threshold
- Sándor Kopácsi Kopácsi Sándor A police chief who stood between state orders and guns aimed at the people
- Rezső Nyers Nyers Rezső A party leader who pushed market reform within socialism
- Gyula Horn Horn Gyula Hungarian foreign minister who cut the Iron Curtain, and reform prime minister
- Imre Pozsgay Pozsgay Imre The reformist Politburo member who called 1956 a 'popular uprising' and dismantled his own party's orthodoxy
- Géza Jeszenszky Jeszenszky Géza A historian who carried the memory of 1956 into diplomacy
- Miklós Németh Németh Miklós Hungary's reform premier who opened a gate in 1989
- Viktor Mihály Orbán Orbán Viktor From anti-communist youth leader in 1989 to architect of 'illiberal democracy'