Dread
As Michener records his experiences and those of the citizens he interviews in Budapest, he highlights the dread which they live with every day. In a war-torn area the people prioritize their lives differently. They aren't allowed to plan decades into the future. In fact, sometimes the focus is just on the present day or the next. Most of the people interviewed explain how they are merely waiting between conflicts. Inevitably they believe that the violence will continue; the only variable is who will initiate. After the Hungarian Empire falls, the people lived through a window of time where they were free. No world leader was dictating their actions or affiliations, but they did not enjoy that time because they understood what it symbolized: impending doom. Not long after the soviets rolled in to formally gain control of Budapest. The locals' dread was not unfounded.
Fear
So much of the people's experience is fearful. They are living under constant threat of death, but they are engaged in a war for ideologies as well as survival. Their way of life is being threatened as well as their actual lives. Legacy is in play. Reading the eye-witness interviews, one can come to sense the specific kind of fear with which the Hungarians in Budapest live: the fear of insignificance. Within the grand scheme of the Soviet Union, little tiny Budapest is almost negligible, and its inhabitants are afraid that they will be either wiped out completely for efficiency's sake or that no representative from the region will be designated under the new rule, and consequently they will be subject to grotesque abuse without local representation. Their concerns revolve around survival, but their fear extends beyond the immediate to the ultimate. They are terrified that their children will live meaningless lives in which they serve a state that cares nothing about them or their land.
Social Cooperation
As Michener depicts through his interviews with the locals, they are learning to set aside their personal concerns to benefit the country as a whole. They are viewing the war as an opportunity to serve their community in order to preserve it, so the individuals are willing to sacrifice a great deal of what is personally important to them in order to ensure the survival of their entire society's way of life. This sort of synecdoche reflects an almost Soviet mentality, but it is born of an entirely different motivation. While the Soviet Union is seeking to unite all in service of the empire, these people are looking to preserve their greater community by sacrificing smaller needs out of personal concession. The result of their efforts is a strong sense of social unity and an even stronger dedication to geographical space as the unifying element.