The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a nationwide uprising against the communist Hungarian government and, by extension, the Soviet Union, patron state of numerous communist countries during the Cold War. Nikita Khrushchev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, was successor to Joseph Stalin, who led the country until his death in March 1953. Khrushchev was keen to overhaul Stalin’s policies at home and abroad, as outlined in his “Secret Speech” before the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, just months before the outbreak of revolution in Hungary. I propose an examination of the Hungarian Revolution as an event that demonstrated fundamental differences between Khrushchev’s approach to leadership, which emphasized collaboration and consultation, and that of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin, whose dictatorial style circumscribed opposition to his personal prerogatives as supreme leader of the Soviet Union.