Mimi Hallman

Budapest Betrayal Mimi Hallman

When the Hungarians revolted against their Russian occupiers in October 1956, their initial success, especially in Budapest, seemed to assure intervention by the West, as Radio Free Europe had almost openly encouraged. But the West abandoned them, their full attention focused on the Suez crisis, and the Soviets brutally crushed the uprising. Young, impetuous 14 year old Elenya Daranyi is embittered by this betrayal. Adding to her fury and despair, an insidious rumor starts not long after her father Geza is appointed to a prominent post in the Communist Government that he is a member of the hated AVO Secret Police. Elenya and Geza are suddenly ostracized and shunned. At his new office, she confronts him, accusing him of neglecting her and her mother who is dying of cancer. Bitterly castigating him for serving the despised Russians, she fails to see the young Russian officer Andrei, who is Geza's assistant, until she whirls about to leave. Then, in a startling moment of ungovernable emotion, the 2 are entrapped in an impossible love. Four short turbulent meetings with Elenya follow before Andrei is assigned to Poland. Eleven years later, in 1968, they meet again in New York, where Andrei has a temporary assignment in the Soviet Mission, and Elenya, a secretary in the Hungarian Mission is assigned to help him. Andrei is determined to marry her before he returns to Europe, but Elenya escapes home on temporary leave, only to discover Geza wants her help working in the Underground, particularly as the Czech crisis looms. When Geza is caught passing military information and dies of a heart attack, Elenya, who has been forced to return to New York, is immediately suspect, and Andrei is forced to give her false information to entrap her. In anguish, knowing he has no choice but to obey these orders, he must face whether or not she has betrayed him.