The publication, prepared by Russian and Hungarian historians and archivists, includes unique documents about the 1956 popular uprising in Hungary and the policies of the Soviet leadership. The basis of the book was made up of documents classified until recently from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, Center for the storage of modern documentation and the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation - telegrams of the USSR Ambassador to Hungary Yu. V. Andropov, recordings of conversations between Soviet diplomats and Hungarian political and public figures, minutes of meetings and resolutions of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, reports of the Minister of Defense of the USSR G.K. Zhukov and Chairman of the KGB of the USSR I.A. Serov. The materials of the Russian archives are supplemented with documents from the archives of Hungary and the Hungarian press in 1956. The collection is provided with comments and a scientific reference apparatus.