Colchester, Oxford, Trafalgar Square

While 1956 is remembered for the military attacks on Egypt and Hungary in the autumn, the first signs of what was to develop came earlier, with Nikita Khruschchev's criticism of Stalin at the Soviet Communist Party's twentieth congress in February, followed in July by the Egyptian government's nationalization of the Suez Canal. The Khruschchev speech produced ferment inside the Communist movement, while the canal takeover led to immediate military preparations by the British government, including the call-up of reservists.

British and French forces launched their attack on Egypt at the end of October; at the same time, Soviet forces in Hungary attacked demonstrators in Budapest and elsewhere and arrested the prime minister, Imre Nagy, who had announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and had promised to hold free elections, Nagy was subsequently executed.

In Britain an impressively large demonstration against the Suez adventure took place in London, and the world reaction against the invasion brought Eden's departure from office. On the left, the Hungarian tragedy pitched the Communist Party into a deep crisis, which saw a third of the membership resign; the combined impact of the twin conflicts of Suez and Hungary led to the development of the ‘New Left’, which sought to break with stereotyped Cold War thinking.