Misplaced Pages

#798201

105-547: It was founded on November 24, 1918, as Party of Communists in Hungary, and was in power between March and August 1919 when Béla Kun ran the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic . The communist government was later overthrown by the Romanian Army , Kun was exiled to Vienna and later he including many other communists moved to Moscow and during those years membership was becoming smaller every year. During World War II

210-582: A Central Committee in the downtown of Moscow. Led by Béla Kun , the inner circle of the freshly established party returned to Budapest from Moscow on 16 November. On 24 November, they created the Party of Communists from Hungary (Hungarian: Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja , KMP). The name was chosen instead of the Hungarian Communist Party because the vast majority of supporters were from the urban industrial working class in Hungary which at

315-770: A Hungarian withdrawal at the request of the Triple Entente. Later that month, there was an attempted coup by the Social Democrats of Budapest, which was retaliated by the communist government. On 20 July, the republic launched a new attack on the Romanian posts who were deep in Hungary at the Tisza river. After a few days of the Hungarian advance, the Romanians managed to stop the offensive and break through

420-535: A Provisional Central Committee, which attempted to keep the party together despite its illegal status in Hungary. Throughout the 1920s, many Hungarian Communists moved to Moscow, with Kun among them. Kun's actions in Russia, most notably the organization of a massacre of White Russian prisoners-of-war in 1921, drew censure from the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and other prominent Bolsheviks. Nonetheless, Kun maintained

525-574: A campaign of violence against communists, leftists , and Jews , known as the White Terror . Many supporters of the Hungarian Soviet Republic were executed without trial; others, including Péter Ágoston , Ferenc Bajáki , Dezső Bokányi , Antal Dovcsák , József Haubrich , Kalmár Henrik , Kelen József , György Nyisztor , Sándor Szabados, and Károly Vántus , were imprisoned by trial ("comissar suits"). Actor Bela Lugosi ,

630-611: A demonstration turned violent on 20 February and the protesters attacked the editorial office of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary's official newspaper called Népszava ( People's Word ). In the ensuing chaos, seven people, some policemen, were killed. The government arrested the leaders of the Communist party, banned its daily newspaper Vörös Újság , and closed down the party's buildings. The arrests were particularly violent, with police officers openly beating

735-531: A legal entity in Hungary, despite the Horthy government's alliance with Nazi Germany . This movement was quickly put to an end, however, as mass arrests in 1942 effectively destroyed the leadership of the KMP. This, coupled with the dissolution of Comintern in 1943, spelled the end of the KMP as a functioning party for the time being. In an effort to continue their actions, Hungarian Communists under János Kádár founded

840-497: A minority in the newly founded party. Initially, the group was small in number and boasted only its founders and a handful of leftist Social Democrats . Nonetheless, the political instability of the government under Mihály Károlyi and the growing popularity of the Bolshevik movement prompted the Social Democrats to seek a coalition with the KMP. For the Social Democrats, an alliance with the KMP not only increased its standing with

945-540: A neutral state. The move backfired horrendously; the Arrow Cross Party forces seized the capital, took power, and set the stage for a four-month battle that claimed thousands of lives and left Budapest in ruins. The city was finally liberated in February 1945. Despite rapid growth in membership immediately following the war, the party refounded under the name MKP received 17 percent in the elections, equal to

1050-723: A new party, dubbed the Peace Party , as a replacement for the KMP. This designation lasted until late 1944, at which point the Peace Party reverted to its designation as the Communist Party. By this point, Horthy was frantically trying to end Hungary's role in the war. Attempts to scale back the involvement on the German end failed, and so, with the Red Army approaching the country's borders, Horthy tried to declare Hungary

1155-550: A newspaper, called Vörös Újság ( Red News ) and concentrated on attacking Károlyi's liberal government. The party became popular among the Budapest proletariat, it also promised that Hungary would be able to defend its territory even without conscription . Kun promised military help and intervention of the Soviet Red Army , which never came, against non-communist Romanian, Czechoslovak, French and Yugoslav forces. During

SECTION 10

#1732765717799

1260-491: A number of conflicts with the local population, some of which turned violent. The situation of the Hungarian Communists began to deteriorate in the capital city Budapest after a failed coup by the Social Democrats on 24 June; the newly composed Communist government of Sándor Garbai resorted to large-scale reprisals. Revolutionary tribunals ordered executions of people who were suspected of having been involved in

1365-482: A prominent position with Comintern until 1937, when he was arrested and executed during one of Joseph Stalin ’s purges. Furthermore, Kun was the unquestioned leader of the KMP during the interwar period, with his main rival, Jenő Landler , dying in 1927. The party also organised a legal cover party, the Socialist Workers Party of Hungary (MSzMP), to act as its representative in Hungary. However,

1470-528: A role as well. The most notable operation on this front, Operation White Sword , saw an unsuccessful advance towards the Russian capital of Petrograd in the autumn of 1919. The defeated anti-Bolshevik Russians went into exile, congregating in Belgrade , Berlin , Paris , Harbin , Istanbul , and Shanghai . They established military and cultural networks that lasted through World War II (1939–1945), e.g.

1575-652: A series of military victories against the Czechoslovak army, the Hungarian Red Army started to disintegrate due to tension between nationalists and communists during the establishment of the Slovak Soviet Republic. The concession eroded support of the communist government among professional military officers and nationalists in the Hungarian Red Army; even the chief of the general staff Aurél Stromfeld, resigned his post in protest. When

1680-595: A strategy he later called salami tactics . Within two years, the MKP had broken the power base of the Independent Smallholders Party (FKGP), the majority party in the new government, and by 1948, every party but the Social Democrats had either vanished or taken over by fellow travelers willing to do the Communists' bidding. The Social Democrats were eliminated in 1948 by a forced merger with

1785-530: A treaty of alliance with the Russian SFSR. The Russian SFSR refused because it was itself tied down in the Russian Civil War . On 23 March, Lenin gave an order to Béla Kun that Social Democrats must be removed from power, so that Hungary could be transformed into a socialist state ruled by a "dictatorship of the proletariat". Accordingly, the Communists started to purge the Social Democrats from

1890-761: The "Armed Forces of the South of Russia" in January 1919. The Southern Front featured massive-scale operations and posed the most dangerous threat to the Bolshevik Government. At first it depended entirely upon volunteers in Russia proper, mostly the Cossacks, among the first to oppose the Bolshevik Government. On 23 June 1918, the Volunteer Army (8,000–9,000 men) began its so-called Second Kuban Campaign with support from Pyotr Krasnov . By September,

1995-531: The Czechoslovak Army crossed the northern borders. On 13 November, the Romanian Army crossed the eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary . During the rule of Károlyi's pacifist cabinet, Hungary lost control over approximately 75% of its former pre-World War I territories (325,411 km²) without armed resistance and was subject to foreign occupation. For their part, the neighboring countries used

2100-701: The Czechoslovak Legions , who were then stranded in Siberia by the Bolshevik Government, who had barred them from leaving Russia, and with the Japanese, who also intervened to help the Whites in the east. Admiral Alexander Kolchak headed the eastern White Army and a provisional Russian government. Despite some significant success in 1919, the Whites were defeated being forced back to Far Eastern Russia, where they continued fighting until October 1922. When

2205-733: The German Empire in its extended occupation of western Russia , the Baltic states , Poland , and Ukraine on the Eastern Front in the closing days of the World War, debating whether or not to ally with it. The Whites wanted to keep from alienating any potential supporters and allies and thus saw an exclusively monarchist position as a detriment to their cause and recruitment. White-movement leaders, such as Anton Denikin , advocated for Russians to create their own government, claiming

SECTION 20

#1732765717799

2310-805: The Harbin and Shanghai Russians . Afterward, the White Russians' anti-communist activists established a home base in the United States, to which numerous refugees emigrated. Moreover, in the 1920s and the 1930s the White movement established organisations outside Russia, which were meant to depose the Soviet government with guerrilla warfare , e.g., the Russian All-Military Union , the Brotherhood of Russian Truth , and

2415-643: The Hungarian Social Democratic Party . But the appointment of party secretary László Rajk as Minister of the Interior, coupled with the presence of the Red Army in the country and strong support for the MKP within other parties, allowed the Hungarian Communists time to whittle away their political opponents. Party leader Mátyás Rákosi implemented a strategy of pressuring the non-Communist parties to gradually push out their more courageous elements as "fascists" or fascist sympathizers,

2520-569: The Hungarian Soviet Republic due to an early mistranslation in the press) was a short-lived communist state that existed from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919 (133 days), succeeding the First Hungarian Republic . The Hungarian Soviet Republic was a small communist rump state which, at its time of establishment, controlled approximately only 23% of Hungary 's historic territory. The head of government

2625-570: The Hungarian Working People's Party which became the next ruling party of Hungary. It was also a member of Comintern and its successor Cominform . The Communist Party of Hungary (KMP) was first established as The Party of Communists in Hungary in late 1918 by Béla Kun , a former journalist who fought for Austria-Hungary in World War I . After spending time in a Russian POW camp, Kun, along with several associates, set up

2730-577: The Lenin Boys formed a mobile detachment under the leadership of József Cserny . 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 (e.g. armed with hand grenades and using their rifles' butts they disbanded religious ceremonies). They executed victims without trial, and this caused

2835-704: The National Alliance of Russian Solidarists , a far-right anticommunist organization founded in 1930 by a group of young White emigres in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Some White émigrés adopted pro-Soviet sympathies and were termed "Soviet patriots". These people formed organizations such as the Mladorossi , the Eurasianists , and the Smenovekhovtsy . A Russian cadet corps was established to prepare

2940-493: The National Alliance of Russian Solidarists . Other organizations either dissolved, or began concentrating exclusively on self-preservation and/or educating the youth. Various youth organizations, such as the Russian Scouts-in-Exteris, promoted providing children with a background in pre-Soviet Russian culture and heritage. Some supported Zog I of Albania during the 1920s and a few independently served with

3045-779: The Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War . White Russians also served alongside the Soviet Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang and the Islamic rebellion in Xinjiang in 1937 . After the February Revolution , in western Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared themselves independent, but they had substantial Communist or Russian military presence. Civil wars followed, wherein

3150-468: The Romanian forces. It is often referred to as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English sources, but this is a mistranslation: the literal translation is "Republic of Councils in Hungary"; this was chosen to avoid any strong Hungarian ethnic connotation, and to express the proletarian internationalist doctrine of the new Communist regime . Austria-Hungary 's Habsburg monarchy collapsed in 1918, and

3255-563: The Romanian Army in the east. Despite promises for the restoration of the former borders of Hungary, the Communists declared the establishment of the Slovak Soviet Republic in Prešov on 16 June. After the proclamation of the Slovak Soviet Republic, the Hungarian nationalists and patriots soon realized that the new communist government had no intention of recapturing the lost territories, only in spreading communist ideology and

Hungarian Communist Party - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-738: The Socialist Revolutionary Party , and others who opposed Lenin's Bolshevik coup in October 1917. Depending on the time and place, those White Army supporters might also exchange right-wing allegiance for allegiance to the Red Army. Unlike the Bolsheviks, the White Armies did not share a single ideology, methodology, or political goal. They were led by conservative generals with different agendas and methods, and for

3465-478: The Triple Entente powers in an effort to gain back some of the land that Hungary was set to lose in the postwar negotiations. For the 133 days that the Hungarian Soviet Republic existed, the KMP concentrated mostly on trying to fix the widespread economic chaos that had resulted from Hungary's defeat in World War I. Unfortunately, Kun's economic policy created higher inflation and led to food shortages across

3570-467: The Vix Note proved fatal to the government, which was by then devoid of significant support. Károlyi and Berinkey had been placed in an untenable situation when they received a note from Paris ordering Hungarian troops to further withdraw their lines. It was widely assumed that the new military lines would be the postwar boundaries. Károlyi and Berinkey concluded that they were not in a position to reject

3675-510: The Whites (Бѣлые / Белые, Beliye ), was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the communist Bolsheviks , also known as the Reds , in the Russian Civil War (1917–1923) and that to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945). The movement's military arm

3780-470: The unilateral self-disarmament of the Hungarian Army . This happened under the direction of Minister of War Béla Linder , on 2 November 1918. Due to the unilateral disarmament of its army, Hungary was to remain without a national defence at a time of particular vulnerability. The Hungarian self-disarmament made the occupation of Hungary directly possible for the relatively small armies of Romania,

3885-526: The Bolsheviks in January 1918) could be convened. They worked to remove Soviet organizations and functionaries in White-controlled territory. Overall, the White Army was nationalistic and rejected ethnic particularism and separatism . The White Army generally believed in a united multinational Russia and opposed separatists who wanted to create nation-states. The propaganda service of

3990-591: The Civil War. The Volunteer Army in South Russia became the most prominent and the largest of the various and disparate White forces. Starting off as a small and well-organized military in January 1918, the Volunteer Army soon grew. The Kuban Cossacks joined the White Army and conscription of both peasants and Cossacks began. In late February 1918, 4,000 soldiers under the command of General Aleksei Kaledin were forced to retreat from Rostov-on-Don due to

4095-716: The Communists in June 1948 which formed the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP). However, the few independent-minded Social Democrats were quickly shunted aside, leaving the MDP as essentially the MKP under a new name. In 1949, elections were held in which voters were presented with a single list from the Communist-controlled Independent Democratic Front. Hungarian Soviet Republic The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary (widely known in English sources as

4200-410: The Communists was also heavily dependent on their promise of restoring Hungary's former borders. The government took steps toward normalizing foreign relations with the Triple Entente powers in an effort to gain back some of the lands that Hungary was set to lose in the post-war negotiations. The Communists remained bitterly unpopular in the Hungarian countryside, where the authority of that government

4305-438: The Elders of Zion . Although Denikin's troops committed only 17.2% of the pogroms (most of which were carried out by Ukrainian nationalists or by rebel armies not affiliated with any side), "white" officers praise soldiers who commit anti-Semitic crimes, some of whom even receive bonuses. British parliamentary influential leader Winston Churchill (1874–1965) personally warned General Anton Denikin (1872–1947), formerly of

Hungarian Communist Party - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-399: The Franco-Serbian army and the armed forces of the newly established Czechoslovakia. On the request of the Austro-Hungarian government, an armistice was granted to Austria-Hungary on 3 November by the Allies. Military and political events changed rapidly and drastically thereafter. On 5 November, the Serbian Army , with the help of the French Army , crossed southern borders. On 8 November,

4515-411: The French promised the Hungarian government that Romanian forces would withdraw from the Tiszántúl , Kun withdrew his remaining military units who had remained loyal after the political fiasco in Upper Hungary; however, following the Red Army's retreat from the north, the Romanian forces were not pulled back. Kun then unsuccessfully tried to turn the remaining units of the demoralized Hungarian Red Army on

4620-429: The Hungarian Red Army were recruited from the volunteers of the Budapest proletariat. In June, the Hungarian Red Army invaded the eastern part of the newly forming Czechoslovak state (today's Slovakia ), the former so-called Upper Hungary . The Hungarian Red Army achieved some military success early on: under the leadership of Colonel Aurél Stromfeld , it ousted Czech troops from the north, and planned to march against

4725-471: The Hungarian government soon took steps to abolish the MSzMP, and by 1927, the party existed in name only. For the remainder of the interwar period, the internal leadership of the KMP beyond Kun fluctuated tremendously, and membership was minuscule. After the deadly derailment of a passenger train at Biatorbágy by Szilveszter Matuska in 1931, the government declared martial law and used the opportunity to arrest suspected communists. Two of those arrested, and

4830-579: The Hungarian lines. Kun and most of the government fled to Vienna. The Social-Democrat–Communist government was succeeded by an exclusively Social Democratic one on 1 August. The communists left Budapest and went abroad. Despite the opposition from the Entente, the Romanians entered Budapest, the Hungarian capital, on 4 August. The Hungarian heads of government applied controversial doctrinal measures in both foreign (internationalism instead of national interests during wartime) and domestic policy (planned economy and heightened class struggle) that made them lose

4935-515: The Imperial Army and later a major White military leader, whose forces effected pogroms and persecutions against the Jews: [M]y task in winning support in Parliament for the Russian Nationalist cause will be infinitely harder if well-authenticated complaints continue to be received from Jews in the zone of the Volunteer Armies. However, Denikin did not dare to confront his officers and remained content with vague formal condemnations. Aside from being anti-Bolshevik and anti-communist and patriotic,

5040-427: The Japanese withdrew, the Soviet army of the Far Eastern Republic retook the territory. The Civil War was officially declared over at this point, although Anatoly Pepelyayev still controlled the Ayano-Maysky District at that time. Pepelyayev's Yakut revolt , which concluded on 16 June 1923, represented the last military action in Russia by a White Army. It ended with the defeat of the final anti-communist enclave in

5145-429: The Jews were more complex. Some historians distinguish the White movement from the so-called "democratic counter-revolution" led mainly by the Right SRs and the Mensheviks that adhered to the values of parliamentary democracy and maintained democratic anti-Bolshevik governments ( Komuch , Ufa Directory ) until November 1918 and then supported either the Whites or the Bolsheviks or opposed both factions. Following

5250-487: The Red Army due to military and ideological disunity, as well as the determination and increasing unity of the Red Army. The White Army operated in three main theatres : White organising in the South started on 15 November 1917, ( Old Style ) under General Mikhail Alekseyev . In December 1917, General Lavr Kornilov took over the military command of the newly named Volunteer Army until his death in April 1918, after which General Anton Denikin took over, becoming head of

5355-425: The Romanian Army broke through the weak lines of the Hungarian Red Army on 30 July. Béla Kun, together with other high-ranking Communists, fled to Vienna on 1 August with only a minority, including György Lukács , the former Commissar for Culture and noted Marxist philosopher, remaining to organise an underground Communist party. Before they fled to Vienna, Kun and his followers took along numerous art treasures and

SECTION 50

#1732765717799

5460-413: The Romanians with Hungarian-Romanian War of 1919 . The Hungarian Soviet found it increasingly difficult to fight Romania with its small force of communist volunteers from Budapest, and support for both the war and the Communist party was waning at home. After the demoralizing retreat from northern Hungary (later part of Czechoslovakia), only the most dedicated Hungarian Communists volunteered for combat, and

5565-770: The Slavo-British Aviation Corps (S.B.A.C.). The Russian ace Alexander Kazakov operated within this unit. The White movement's leaders and first members came mainly from the ranks of military officers. Many came from outside the nobility, such as generals Mikhail Alekseyev and Anton Denikin , who originated in serf families, or General Lavr Kornilov , a Cossack. The White generals never mastered administration; they often utilized "prerevolutionary functionaries" or "military officers with monarchististic inclinations" for administering White-controlled regions. The White Armies were often lawless and disordered. Also, White-controlled territories had multiple different and varying currencies with unstable exchange-rates. The chief currency,

5670-418: The Soviet Republic was followed by a year-long anticommunist purge, known as the White Terror, by the new nationalist government under István Bethlen in which anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people were killed, and thousands more were imprisoned and tortured. Much of the old KMP leadership was executed or exiled, primarily to Vienna. There, remnants of the KMP Central Committee, once again led by Kun, reformed into

5775-473: The Triple Entente that would lead to the lifting of the economic blockade, the improvement of the new borders or the recognition of the new government by the victorious powers of World War I . A small volunteer army was organized mostly from Budapest factory workers and attempts were made to recover the territories lost to neighboring countries, an objective that had widespread support from many working class people in some larger cities, not only those favorable to

5880-522: The Volunteer Army comprised 30,000 to 35,000 members, thanks to mobilization of the Kuban Cossacks gathered in the North Caucasus . Thus, the Volunteer Army took the name of the Caucasus Volunteer Army. On 23 January 1919, the Volunteer Army under Denikin oversaw the defeat of the 11th Soviet Army and then captured the North Caucasus region. After capturing the Donbas , Tsaritsyn and Kharkiv in June, Denikin's forces launched an attack towards Moscow on 3 July, (N.S.). Plans envisaged 40,000 fighters under

5985-412: The Volunteer Army grew from 64,000 to 150,000 soldiers and was better supplied than its Red counterpart. The White Army's rank-and-file comprised active anti-Bolsheviks, such as Cossacks, nobles, and peasants, as conscripts and as volunteers. The White movement had access to various naval forces, both seagoing and riverine, especially the Black Sea Fleet . Aerial forces available to the Whites included

6090-523: The Volunteer Army's ruble, had no gold backing . The Whites and the Reds fought the Russian Civil War from November 1917 until 1921, and isolated battles continued in the Far East until June 1923. The White Army—aided by the Allied forces ( Triple Entente ) from countries such as Japan , the United Kingdom , France , Greece , Italy and the United States and (sometimes) the Central Powers forces such as Germany and Austria-Hungary —fought in Siberia , Ukraine , and in Crimea . They were defeated by

6195-436: The Volunteer Army, the Osvag  [ ru ] ( Russian : ОСВАГ (ОСВедомительное АГентство) , romanized :  OSVAG (OSVedomitelnoe AGentstvo) , lit.   'Informing Agency'), made the claim that "the Jews must pay for everything: for the February and October revolutions, for Bolshevism and for the peasants who took their land from the owners". The organization also reissued The Protocols of

6300-429: The White movement had no unifying political convictions, as members could be monarchists, republicans, rightists, or Kadets . Among White Army leaders, neither General Lavr Kornilov nor General Anton Denikin were monarchists, yet General Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel was a monarchist willing to fight for a republican Russian government. Moreover, other political parties supported the anti-Bolshevik White Army, among them

6405-444: The Whites had no set ideology or main leader. The White Armies did acknowledge a single provisional head of state in a Supreme Governor of Russia in a Provisional All-Russian Government , but this post was prominent only under the leadership in the war campaigns during 1918–1920 of Admiral Alexander Kolchak , formerly of the previous Russian Imperial Navy . The movement had no set foreign policy. Whites differed on policies toward

SECTION 60

#1732765717799

6510-454: The abolition of aristocratic titles and privileges, the separation of church and state , codified freedom of assembly and freedom of speech , and implemented free education and language and cultural rights to minorities. 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 . Public support for

6615-423: The advance of the Red Army. In what became known as the Ice March , they traveled to Kuban in order to unite with the Kuban Cossacks , most of whom did not support the Volunteer Army. In March, 3,000 men under the command of General Viktor Pokrovsky joined the Volunteer Army, increasing its membership to 6,000, and by June to 9,000. In 1919 the Don Cossacks joined the Army. In that year between May and October,

6720-472: The anti-communist side may be referred to as White Armies, e.g. in Finland the White Guard -led, partially conscripted Finnish White Army  [ fi ] ( Finnish : Valkoinen Armeija ) who fought against Soviet Russia -sponsored Red Guards . However, since they were nationalists, their aims were substantially different from the Russian White Army proper; for instance, Russian White generals never explicitly supported Finnish independence. The defeat of

6825-426: The attempted coup. This became known as the Red Terror , and greatly reduced domestic support for the government even among the working classes of the highly industrialized suburb districts and metropolitan area of Budapest. In late May, after the Entente military representative demanded more territorial concessions from Hungary, Kun attempted to fulfill his promise to adhere to Hungary's historical borders. The men of

6930-512: The command of General Vladimir May-Mayevsky storming the city. After General Denikin's attack upon Moscow failed in 1919, the Armed Forces of the South of Russia retreated. On 26 and 27 March 1920, the remnants of the Volunteer Army evacuated from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, where they merged with the army of Pyotr Wrangel . The Eastern Front started in spring 1918 as a secret movement among army officers and right-wing socialist forces. In that front, they launched an attack in collaboration with

7035-407: The common people but also gave it a potential link to the increasingly powerful Russian Communist Party, as Kun had ties with prominent Russian Bolsheviks. After the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in March 1919, Kun set about nationalising private industry while embarking on a massive agricultural collectivization project. He also took steps towards normalising foreign relations with

7140-464: The communists. This resulted in a wave of public sympathy for the party among the masses of Budapester proletariat. On 1 March, 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 prison, which allowed them to keep up with political affairs. On 20 March, Károlyi announced that the government of Prime Minister Dénes Berinkey would resign. The presentation of

7245-502: The country, signalling the end of all military hostilities relating to the Russian Civil War. Headed by Nikolai Yudenich , Evgeni Miller , and Anatoly Lieven , the White forces in the North demonstrated less co-ordination than General Denikin's Army of Southern Russia. The Northwestern Army allied itself with Estonia , while Lieven's West Russian Volunteer Army sided with the Baltic nobility . Authoritarian support led by Pavel Bermondt-Avalov and Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz played

7350-429: The direct participation of the workers' councils (soviets) from which it took its name, the newly united Socialist Party created a government called the Revolutionary Governing Council, which proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic and dismissed President Károlyi on 21 March. 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

7455-445: The establishment of other communist states in Europe, thus sacrificing Hungarian national interests. The Hungarian patriots in the Red Army and the professional military officers saw this as a betrayal, and their support for the government began to erode (the communists and their government supported the establishment of the Slovak Communist state, while the Hungarian patriots wanted to keep the reoccupied territories for Hungary). Despite

7560-443: The favor of the majority of the population. The attempt of the new executive to profoundly change the lifestyle and the system of values of the population proved to be a resounding failure; After the withdrawal from Slovakia, the application of some measures aimed at regaining popular support was ordered, but without great success; in particular, the ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages was repealed, and attempts were made to improve

7665-447: The figure of Alexander Kolchak as its principal leader. It defended the ideal of pre-revolutionary Imperial Russia , and its positive program was largely summarized in the slogan of " united and indivisible Russia  [ ru ] " which meant the restoration of imperial state borders and its denial of the right to self-determination ; the movement is associated with pogroms and antisemitism , although its relations with

7770-419: The following months, the Communist party's power-base rapidly expanded. Its supporters began to stage aggressive demonstrations against the media and against the Social Democratic Party. The Communists considered the Social Democrats as their main rivals, because the Social Democrats recruited their political supporters from the same social class: the industrial working class of the cities. In one crucial incident,

7875-627: The founder of the country's National Trade Union of Actors (the world's first film actor's union), managed to escape. Most 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. Kun himself, along with an unknown number of other Hungarian communists, were executed during Joseph Stalin 's Great Purge of

7980-543: The gold stocks of the National Bank. The Budapest Workers' Soviet elected a new government, headed by Gyula Peidl , which lasted only a few days before Romanian forces entered Budapest on 6 August. In the power vacuum created by the fall of the soviet republic and the presence of the Romanian Army, semi-regular detachments (technically under Horthy 's command, but mostly independent in practice) initiated

8085-673: The government on the next day. The government was formally led by Sándor Garbai, but Kun, as the Commissar of Foreign Affairs, held the real power because only Kun had the acquaintance and friendship with Lenin. He was the only person in the government who met and talked to the Bolshevik leader during the Russian Revolution, and Kun kept the contact with the Kremlin via radio communication. The ministries, often rotated among

8190-548: The impossibility of joining forces with the Red Army because of the ongoing Russian Civil War contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Republic. When the Republic of Councils in Hungary was established in 1919, it controlled about 23% of the territory of Hungary 's previous pre-World War I territories (325,411 km ). It was the successor of the First Hungarian Republic and lasted from 21 March to 1 August of

8295-592: The independent First Hungarian Republic was formed after the Aster Revolution . The official proclamation of the republic was on 16 November and the liberal Count Mihály Károlyi became its president. Károlyi struggled to establish the government's authority and to control the country. The Hungarian Royal Honvéd army still had more than 1,400,000 soldiers when Mihály Károlyi was announced as prime minister of Hungary. Károlyi yielded to United States president Woodrow Wilson 's demand for pacifism by ordering

8400-556: The initial workings of the KMP in the downtown of Moscow in October 1918. These first members returned to Hungary in November, and on the 24th officially created the KMP. The Communist Party chose "The Party of Communists in Hungary" (Hungarian: Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja) as its name, instead of "Hungarian Communist Party", since the vast majority of its represented social class, the factory workers, still did not have ethnic Hungarian roots in Budapest, and ethnic Hungarians were only

8505-492: The land. Opposition began to grow, led by Miklós Horthy , and in June, an attempted coup made the KMP launch a violent terror campaign through its secret police. The Soviet Republic fell on August 1, 1919, after the Hungarian Army's crushing defeat by Romania . The invading Romanians seized Budapest from the Communists, exiled Kun to Vienna and forced the KMP to hand over power to the Social Democrats. The fall of

8610-556: The last decade. Besides, Stalin's purges in the late 1930s had taken a heavy toll on the Hungarian émigrés in Moscow. The KMP entered the 1940s a shell of what it once was. In late 1941, following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, the Central Committee advised Party members to work with non-Communist resistance groups in order to present a united anti-German front. This prompted the KMP to attempt to re-establish itself as

8715-634: The late 1930s in the Soviet Union, to which they had fled in the 1920s. Rákosi, one of the survivors of the soviet republic, would go on to be the first leader of the second and longer-lasting attempt at a Communist state in Hungary, the People's Republic of Hungary , from 1949 to 1956. White Movement Central Powers intervention : Separatists: Other factions: The White movement (Russian: pre–1918 Бѣлое движеніе / post–1918 Белое движение , romanized : Beloye dvizheniye , IPA: [ˈbʲɛləɪ dvʲɪˈʐenʲɪɪ] ), also known as

8820-560: The leading party members Imré Sallai and Sándor Fürst , were executed the following year. The KMP was damaged to the point that the Comintern dissolved it in 1936. Further throwing the communists into disarray were the inconsistent policies of the Comintern throughout the 1930s, which culminated in the 1939 Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact and the abandonment of the Popular Front tactic, which had marked communist ideology for

8925-421: The main force behind the movement were the conservative officers, and the resulting movement shared many traits with widespread right-wing counter-revolutionary movements of the time, namely nationalism, racism, distrust of liberal and democratic politics, clericalism, contempt for the common man and dislike of industrial civilization; in November 1918, the movement united on an authoritarian-right platform around

9030-541: The military could not decide in Russians' steads. Admiral Alexander Kolchak succeeded in creating a temporary wartime government in Omsk , acknowledged by most other White leaders, but it ultimately disintegrated after Bolshevik military advances. Some warlords who were aligned with the White movement, such as Grigory Semyonov and Roman Ungern von Sternberg , did not acknowledge any authority but their own. Consequently,

9135-594: The military defeat of the Whites, remnants and continuations of the movement remained in several organizations, some of which only had narrow support, enduring within the wider White émigré overseas community until after the fall of the European communist states in the Eastern European Revolutions of 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990–1991. This community-in-exile of anti-communists often divided into liberal and

9240-433: The monetary situation and food supply. Unable to apply these policies effectively, the republic had already lost the support of the majority of the population between June and July, which led, together with the military defeats, to its downfall. The failure of internal reform was compounded by the political and economic isolation imposed on Hungary by the Triple Entente, the military failures against neighboring countries, and

9345-544: The more conservative segments, with some still hoping for the restoration of the Romanov dynasty . In the Russian context after 1917, "White" had three main connotations which were: Defunct Above all, the White movement emerged as opponents of the Red Army . The White Army had the stated aim to reverse the October Revolution and remove the Bolsheviks from power before a constituent assembly (dissolved by

9450-408: The most part they operated quite independently of each other, with little coordination or cohesion. The composition and command structure of White armies also varied, some containing hardened veterans of World War I, others more recent volunteers. These differences and divisions, along with their inability to offer an alternative government and win popular support, prevented the White armies from winning

9555-570: The name of the Hungarian Socialist Party. President Károlyi, who was an outspoken anticommunist, was not informed about the merger. Thus, he swore in what he believed to be a Social Democratic government, only to find himself faced with one dominated by Communists. Károlyi resigned on 21 March. Béla Kun and his fellow communists were released from the Margit Ring prison on the night of 20 March. The liberal president Károlyi

9660-466: The new regime. Initially, thanks to patriotic support from conservative officers, the republican forces advanced against the Czechoslovaks in north Hungary, after suffering a defeat in the east at the hands of the Romanian Army in late April, which led to a retreat on the banks of the Tisza . In mid-June, the birth of the Slovak Soviet Republic was proclaimed, which lasted two weeks until

9765-645: The next generation of anti-Communists for the "spring campaign"—a hopeful term denoting a renewed military campaign to reclaim Russia from the Soviet Government. In any event, many cadets volunteered to fight for the Russian Protective Corps during World War II, when some White Russians participated in the Russian Liberation Movement . After the war, active anti-Soviet combat was almost exclusively continued by

9870-548: The note although they believed that accepting it would endanger Hungary's territorial integrity. On 21 March, Károlyi informed the Council of Ministers that only Social Democrats could form a new government, as they were the party with the highest public support in the largest cities and especially in Budapest. To form a governing coalition, the Social Democrats started secret negotiations with the Communist leaders, who were still imprisoned, and decided to merge their two parties under

9975-421: The party changed its name to Peace Party but only a year later in 1944, they embraced a new name which they will hold until 1948. After the war, they regained power and their membership rose up quickly which led to Mátyás Rákosi suppressing other parties in the country besides the social democrats (which were aligned with them) to form a one-party state. In 1948, the party merged with the social democrats to form

10080-410: The same year. Though the de jure leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic was president Sándor Garbai , the de facto power was in the hands of foreign minister Béla Kun , who maintained direct contact with Vladimir Lenin via radiotelegraph. It was Lenin who gave the direct orders and advice to Béla Kun via constant radio communication with the Kremlin . It was the second socialist state in

10185-435: The so-called "struggle against communism ", first against the capitalist and liberal government of Count Mihály Károlyi and later against the soviet republic of communist Bela Kun, as a justification for their expansionist ambitions. An initial nucleus of a Party of Communists in Hungary had been organized in a hotel on 4 November 1918, when a group of former Hungarian prisoners of war and other communist proponents formed

10290-515: The time was largely made up of people from non-Hungarian ethnic backgrounds, with ethnic Hungarians a minority in the new party itself. The party recruited members while propagating its ideas, radicalising many members of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary 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. Kun founded

10395-411: The various members of the government, were: After the declaration of the constitution changes took place in the commissariat. The new ministries were: This government consisted of a coalition of socialists and communists, but with the exception of Kun, all commissars were former social democrats. Under the rule of Kun, the new government, which had adopted in full the program of the Communists, decreed

10500-600: The world to be formed, preceded only by Soviet Russia after the October Revolution in Imperial Russia which brought the Bolsheviks to power. The Hungarian Republic of Councils had military conflicts with the Kingdom of Romania , the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , and the evolving Czechoslovakia . It ended on 1 August when Hungarians sent representatives to negotiate their surrender to

10605-464: Was Sándor Garbai , but the influence of the foreign minister Béla Kun of the Party of Communists in Hungary was much stronger. Unable to reach an agreement with the Triple Entente , which maintained an economic blockade of Hungary, in dispute with neighboring countries over territorial disputes, and beset by profound internal social changes, the Hungarian Soviet Republic failed in its objectives and

10710-475: Was abolished a few months after its existence. Its main figure was the Communist Béla Kun, despite the fact that in the first days the majority of the new government consisted of radical Social Democrats . The new system effectively concentrated power in the governing councils , which exercised it in the name of the working class . The new Communist government failed to reach an agreement with

10815-503: Was arrested by the new Communist government on the first day; in July, he managed to make his escape and flee to Paris. For the Social Democrats, an alliance with the KMP not only increased their standing with the industrial working class but also gave them a potential link to the increasingly powerful Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) , as Kun had strong ties with prominent Russian Bolsheviks. Following Vladimir Lenin 's model but without

10920-413: Was often nonexistent. The Communist party and their policies had real popular support among only the proletarian masses of large industrial centers, especially in Budapest, where the working class represented a high proportion of the inhabitants. The Hungarian government was 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

11025-608: Was the White Army (Бѣлая армія / Белая армия, Belaya armiya ), also known as the White Guard (Бѣлая гвардія / Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya ) or White Guardsmen (Бѣлогвардейцы / Белогвардейцы, Belogvardeytsi ). Although the White movement included a great variety of political opinions in Russia opposed to the Bolsheviks, from the republican-minded liberals through monarchists to the ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds , and did not have universally-accepted leader or doctrine,

#798201