1. What social, economic, and political factors existed in Hungary after the fall of communism that enabled the country to view a bank robber in a favorable light? Were the circumstances in Hungary similar to or different from those in other former Communist Eastern European countries?
2. Discuss the role played by the United States in reshaping Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Did the actions of the U.S. have a positive or negative impact? How were they viewed by the locals?
3. Could the story of the Whiskey Robber happen today?
4. Identify some other places and time periods in which circumstances enabled a criminal to become a folk hero, e.g., Depression-era America and John Dillinger.
5. What drove Attila Ambrus?
6. What role did the media play in creating the legend of the Whiskey Robber? How did the media change after the fall of communism?
7. What factors and incidents were responsible for the crazy capitalism of the “Wild Wild East,” and how did it differ from the capitalism of other Western nations?
8. Why were the police in Hungary viewed so negatively? Was the country’s spiraling crime problem in the 1990s better or worse than the crime rates in the United States? Was it better or worse than under communism?
9. Does Attila Ambrus belong in the pantheon of masterful robbers and escape artists? Or was he a lucky crook who happened to commit his crimes at just the right time?
10. If you had lived in Hungary in the 1990s, would you have supported the Whiskey Robber?
11. Did you find Attila sympathetic? Maddening? A bad guy? Do you think that if he’d been born into different circumstances, he would still have been a criminal?