Geography has never been kind to Hungary. Landlocked in the middle of Europe, the past century has seen it lose, lose and lose again. Vanquished in the first World War, two thirds of its territory, along with three million citizens, were parcelled off to neighbouring states.
Hungary, like Poland, was then caught as a buffer between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and ended up being occupied by both. The country was dragged into war with Russia after three cities in its eastern region were shelled, but as soon as Hitler broke with Stalin, the Nazis invaded Hungary and installed a puppet government. Assisted by the local Arrowcross militia, Nazis rounded up over 430,000 Hungarian Jews for deportation to death camps.
With the war already turning, the Red Army forced the Nazis into retreat. Hungarians joined Germans in the defence of Budapest and the capital was devastated in a two-month siege. Inevitably, one occupier was replaced by another although the Soviets lasted a little longer. In fact the last Russian soldier did not leave Hungarian soil until June 19th, 1991.
The second World War left Hungary in ruins, its population reduced by 10 per cent. Any ambitions of regaining political independence were eroded by its position as a frontline state in the ideological battle between East and West. In the general election of 1945 that struggle between left and right was decisively played out within its own borders.
The Hungarian Communist Party secured just 17 per cent of the vote but under the aegis of the Soviet-led Allied Control Commission the party assumed control of the all-powerful Interior Ministry, including the state police. Supporters of the Smallholders' Party, a westward-looking majority (with 57 per cent support), were intimidated and suppressed. When prime minister Ferenc Nagy was toppled by a 1945 coup the Hungarian Workers' Party, a leftist bloc, effected Hungary's introduction to a one-party state. That too would last for 40 years.
Hungarians soon discovered that the cessation of hostilities in Europe did not mean a return to peace. The post-war period was marked by one upheaval after another, with ethnic cleansing in the form of mass deportations of minorities, internment and execution of opposition figures, forced labour in work camps, collectivisation of private farms and severe repression of the Catholic Church.
The sheer scale of repression left its mark. According to official documents, about 150,000 Hungarians were forcibly deported to the Soviet gulag. Another 500,000 Hungarians were already in captivity there after being taken prisoner during the war. Their fate was as bleak as that of hundreds of thousands of other foreigners taken as slave labour. Remarkably, the last Hungarian prisoner-of-war, András Toma, returned home from Russia just five years ago.
Stalin died in 1953 and three years later Khrushchev denounced him by revealing crimes committed during the Stalin era. Despite ever-growing fear of surveillance and persecution, Hungarians took to the streets that same year. Demonstrations turned to revolution and for 12 days, led by reformist Imre Nagy, Hungary was free. Nagy's government withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact and appealed fruitlessly to the UN for assistance.
Marshalled by ambassador Andropov - who later became Soviet president - Moscow deployed tanks and crushed the revolt, reducing Budapest to rubble once again. Over 2,000 people were killed and almost 200,000 fled the country. Another 15,000 were imprisoned. Nagy was executed and the age for the death penalty was lowered to 16 so that patriotic young teenagers could join him.
Although the Communist influence lasted considerably longer than the Nazis, it is not surprising that Hungarians refer to their "double occupation". As it now seeks to emerge from the historical bulk of its neighbours, it is illegal to exhibit either the swastika or the hammer and sickle in public in Hungary today.
But nowhere is the double effect more visible than on fashionable Andrassy Út, near the diplomatic quarter. The impressive neo-Renaissance building at Number 60 was formerly headquarters ("House of Loyalty") for the dreaded Arrowcross militia during the days of Hungary's Nazi puppet government. The building was used for detention and execution but harrowing days of Nazi supremacy were merely a portent of what was to follow.
When the Soviets took over in 1945 the same building changed chameleon-like into headquarters for the Communist secret police (AVO - later the AVH). Its fearsome reputation as an interrogation and torture centre grew rapidly - even minister of the interior Laszlo Rajk, an AVO enthusiast, ended up interrogated here by former subordinates. The minister was forced into making a confession and duly sentenced to death.
Based on the Soviet-style Cheka secret police, AVO served up state-sponsored terrorism as a means of maintaining Communist Party control. Using an efficient informer system, it was given a carte blanche to target government opponents, priests, expatriates and political dissent of any kind. Like the former KGB headquarters in Vilnius, the atmosphere within these very walls offers a grim insight into how creatively the human mind can approach the darker arts.
Dealing with the burdens of the past is a difficult challenge to a country trying to move ahead. However, the premises at 60 Andrassy Út has been sensitively converted into a magnificent memorial to what happened under its own roof and throughout Hungary. Named Terror Háza ("House of Terror") it provides a cross-section of the country's recent past as well as honouring Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The photo gallery of victims on the ground floor is a sobering reminder that thousands who stepped through the doors of Terror Háza were never seen again.
Geography may not have been kind to Hungary but history has seldom been presented so skilfully. From the chilling torture cells in the basement to comical footage of the last Russian soldiers leaving town it's a museum that demands time and appreciation. Arguably, the current wave of property speculation represents Hungary's third occupation.
To help with their orientation, cheque book-wielding visitors to Budapest are strongly recommended to stop by Terror Háza. Anyone who spends time there will discover that Hungary offers more than bargain real estate but a storied past, both proud and painful.