It is hard to reconstruct the short history of the Revolution, which was an unorganized and spontaneous affair. The revolutionaries represented a wide variety of points of view, but what held them together, at least temporarily, was their hostility to the old regime. In all probability the national consensus would not have long survived victory. The revolution, like all great revolutions, was amorphous and its history lends itself to different interpretations. It is this aspect of 1956 that enables diametrically opposed political groupings to claim its heritage at the present time.