The life story of Imre Nagy is one of the defining stories of 20th century Hungarian history. He was the first communist leader to become the symbol of a national revolution, who, in addition, withdrew from the Warsaw Treaty and stood up for democracy based on a pluralist party system. Many argue that the role he assumed in the revolution of 1956 and his continued loyalty to the notion of the revolution, which prevailed until his death, did not clearly follow from his communist convictions and his past experiences in Moscow.