Revised from the Hungarian original, this edition of The History tracks the domestic and international evolution of military higher education during a crucial historical period. These years saw Hungary rapidly switch from a post World War II democracy to a single-party dictatorship, a carbon copy of the Soviet Bolshevik system. Internationally, an intense East European Cold War developed within the global Cold War. Preparation for war with Yugoslavia (1948-53) led to an increase in the number of Soviet captive nations' soldiers never seen during peacetime. Only after Stalin's death in 1953 were these armies reduced.

The educational system itself was also a copy of the Soviet pattern enforced by Soviet "advisers"-in which not talent or level of education but loyalty to Stalin was the only qualifying factor. Probably no other army in the world had so many generals and staff officers taught at only the elementary level.