We had never had it so good - a post-war Britain was in full bloom. Then, 50 years ago this week, it all changed. The Hungarian uprising and the Suez crisis sparked the rise of the Soviets and the end of the British empire. Dominic Sandbrook recalls how this newspaper reported events, and played a crucial part in them

In the middle of the night I was woken by my parents and told we were leaving our home. That was it - no explanation, no arguments. I was given a small rucksack and told I could choose one thing to take with me. I was five years old; I chose my teddy bear. I was told that we were escaping and that I mustn't tell anyone, because it would be extremely dangerous if the wrong people found out.

In the first of a three-part series to mark the uprising in Budapest that shook the world half a century ago, the Guardian looks at how the past still divides people