Hungarian Soviet Republic.html

Magyarországi Tanácsköztársaság
Hungarian Soviet Republic

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History

- Established

March 21, 1919

- Downfall

August 6, 1919

The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary (Hungarian: Magyarországi Tanácsköztársaság) was a Communist regime established in Hungary from March 21 until August 6, 1919, under the leadership of Béla Kun. It was the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia which brought the Bolsheviks to power in that country. Lasting only four months, the Soviet republic fell apart when Romanian forces occupied Budapest. The successor to the state was the Kingdom of Hungary formed after the Romanian Army pulled out of Hungary.

1 Formation
2 Communist policies
3 Foreign policy
4 Downfall
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading

Formation

The immediate cause of the formation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic was the failure of Count Mihály Károlyi's government of the re-born state of Hungary to organize the country's social and economic life after the loss of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.^{citation needed} After less than six months in power, Károlyi was dismissed by a coalition of Social Democrats and Communists.

The Hungarian Communist Party was small at this time, but its members were very active and it began expanding. An initial nucleus of the party had been organized just a few months earlier, in a Moscow hotel on November 4, 1918; when a group of Hungarian prisoners of war and some other Communist sympathizers formed a Central Committee. Led by Béla Kun, they soon left for Hungary and started to recruit new members and propagate the party's ideas, radicalising many of the Social Democrats in the process. By February 1919, the party numbered 30,000 to 40,000 members, including many unemployed ex-soldiers, young intellectuals and ethnic minorities. ^[1]

History of Hungary

Early history
Prehistory (before AD 896)
Pannonia (AD 9-443)
Medieval Hungary (896-1526)
Early Modern period
Ottoman Hungary (1541-1699)
Royal Hungary (1541-1699)
Principality of Transylvania (1571-1711)
Modern Hungary
1848 Revolution
Austria-Hungary (1867-1918)
Hungarian Soviet Republic (1919)
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
interbellum
World War II
People's Republic of Hungary (1949-1989)
1956 Revolution
Republic of Hungary (since 1989)
Other Topics
Military history of Hungary
History of the Székely people
History of the Jews in Hungary
Music history of Hungary
History of Transylvania
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Kun founded a newspaper, called Vörös Újság ('Red News'), and concentrated on attacking Károlyi's government. During the following months, the Communist Party's power-base rapidly expanded. Their supporters began to stage aggressive demonstrations against the media. In one crucial incident, a demonstration turned violent on February 20 and the protesters attacked the editorial office of the Social Democrats' official paper, called Népszava (People's Word). In the ensuing chaos, seven people - including policemen - were killed. The government arrested the leaders of the Hungarian Communist Party^[1], banned Vörös Újság and closed down the party's buildings. The arrests were particularly violent, with police officers openly beating the communists. This resulted in a wave of public sympathy for the Communist Party. On March 1, Vörös Újság was given permission to publish again, and the Communist Party's premises were re-opened. The leaders were permitted to receive guests in their prison, which allowed them to keep up with political affairs.

On March 20 Károlyi announced that the Dénes Berinkey government would resign. On March 21 he informed the Council of Ministers that only the Social Democrats could form a new government, as they were the party with the highest public support. In order to form a governing coalition, the Social Democrats started negotiations with the Communist leaders - who were still imprisoned - and decided to merge their two parties under the name of Hungarian Socialist Party.^{citation needed} President Károlyi, who was an outspoken anti-Communist, was not informed about this fusion. Thus, while believing to have appointed a Socialist government, he found himself faced with one dominated by Communists.

Communist policies

Leaders of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Tibor Szamuely, Béla Kun, Jenő Landler. Monument in Budapest.

Following Lenin's model, the newly united Socialist Party created a government called the Revolutionary Governing Council, which proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic and dismissed President Károlyi on March 21. Initially, this government consisted of a Socialist-Communist coalition led by Sándor Garbai, but Kun, as Commissar of Foreign Affairs, held the real power. Under Kun, the Communists leaped into action and managed to dismiss the Social Democratic ministers within days in a coup. Afterwards, the new Communist government decreed the abolition of aristocratic titles and privileges, the separation of church and state, and they codified the freedom of speech and assembly, free education, language and cultural rights to minorities (the latter four ideals were not implemented in practice).^[1]

The Communist government also nationalized industrial and commercial enterprises, and socialized housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and all landholdings of more than 40 hectares. The public support for Communists was also heavily dependent on their promise of restoring Hungary's imperial borders.^[1]

In a radio dispatch to the Russian SFSR, Kun informed Lenin that a "dictatorship of the proletariat" had been established in Hungary and asked for a treaty of alliance with the Russian SFSR. ^[1] The Russian SFSR refused because it was itself tied down in the Russian Civil War. The Hungarian government was thus left on its own, and a Red Guard was established under the command of Mátyás Rákosi. In addition, a group of 200 armed men - known as the Lenin Boys - formed a mobile detachment under the leadership of Cserny József. This detachment was deployed at various locations around the country where counter-revolutionary movements were suspected to operate. The Lenin Boys, as well as other similar groups and agitators killed and terrorised many people (eg. armed with hand grenades and using their rifles' butts they disbanded religious ceremonies)^[2]. They executed victims without trial^[3]. This caused a number of conflicts with the local population, some of which turned violent.

Foreign policy

In late May, the HSR invaded today's Slovakia, then controlled by Czechoslovak forces and declared a Slovak Soviet Republic based on the belief that granting the territory where Hungarians were still an ethnic majority to the newly-formed Czechoslovakia following World War I was unjust. With Czechoslovak advances and American and French threats, the Hungarian army retreated by 17 July. Following the army's retreat from the north, Kun's Hungary turned to Romania in an attempt to regain Transylvania on the same principles. The war was unsuccessful and by 30 July Romanians occupied Budapest. On 1 August the Hungarian Soviet Republic was ousted by the Romanian Army. ^[1]

Downfall

József Pogány speaks to revolutionary soldiers.

The situation of the Hungarian Communists began to deteriorate when, after a failed coup by the Social Democrats on June 24, the new Communist government of Antal Dovcsák resorted to large-scale reprisals. Revolutionary tribunals ordered 590 executions of people who were suspected of having been involved in the attempted coup. This became known as the "Red Terror", and greatly reduced domestic support for the government.

The Hungarian Soviet found it increasingly difficult to fight Czechoslovakia and later Romania with the small volunteer force, and support for both the war and the Communist Party were waning at home, partly due to the most dedicated Communists having gone and volunteered for combat. On 30 July Romania launched an attack on Budapest. Romania was eventually successful, and Béla Kun fled to Austria on August 1^[1] together with other high-ranking Communists with only a minority remaining in Budapest, including György Lukács, the former Commissar for Culture and noted Marxist philosopher, to organise an underground Communist Party.^{citation needed} The Budapest Workers' Soviet elected a new government, headed by Gyula Peidl, which only lasted a few days before the Romanian forces entered Budapest on August 6, putting an end to the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

In the power vacuum created by the fall of the Soviet Republic and the presence of Romanian Army, the Conservative forces of István Bethlen and Miklós Horthy gradually took control of Western Hungary (which was outside the control of re-established Hungary).^{citation needed} Semiregular detachments (technically under Horthy's command, but mostly independent in practice) initiated a campaign of violence against Communists, leftists and Jews, known as the White Terror [1]. Many supporters of the Hungarian Soviet Republic were executed without trial, others (e.g., Ágoston Péter, Bajáki Ferenc, Bokányi Dezső, Dovcsák Antal, Haubrich József, Kalmár Henrik, Kelen József, Nyisztor György, Szabados Sándor, Vántus Károly) were imprisoned by trial ("comissar suits"). Most of them were later released to the Soviet Union by amnesty during the reign of Horthy, after a prisoner exchange agreement between Hungary and the Russian Soviet government in 1921. In all, about 415 prisoners were released as a result of this agreement.^[4] Kun himself and an unknown number of other Hungarian communists were executed in Stalin's purge of foreign communists in late 1930s.^[1]

References

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h The Library of Congress Country Studies - Hungarian Soviet Republic
^ Kodolányi, János [1941] (1979). Süllyedő világ (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magvető. ISBN 9789632709352. OCLC 7627920.
^ See resources in the article Red Terror.
^ 2000 - BŰN ÉS BŰNHŐDÉS

Hungarian Soviet Republic.html

Contents

Formation

Communist policies

Foreign policy

Downfall

See also

References

Further reading