Soviet Republic in Hungary

On 21 December 1944, in the Soviet controlled eastern town of Debrecen, the “Provisional Hungarian ‘National’ Assembly”, with the approval of the commander of the Soviet occupational forces, formed a so-called ‘Provisional National Government’, while, in the larger German controlled part of the country, a government – approved by the Germans, was still in power. The new provisional government declared war on Germany, though it never got into an actual state of war and, on 20 January 1945, signed the Moscow Armistice Agreement with the Soviet Union. The Provisional Government initiated a land reform, nationalizing the large land holdings of over 100 acres, but leaving the estates of the “kulaks“, the well-to-do farmers, intact up to 200 acres. On 1 January 1946, the mines were nationalized, and on 1 February 1946, the Hungarian Republic was declared. With a three- year plan, the clearing of war ruins and the rebuilding of the country began. At the end of 1946, the largest industrial plants were nationalized; and in 1947, the large banks, then the industrial enterprises employing more than 100 workers were also taken over by the state.

On the political front, a determined effort was started by the Communists to obtain total control of the government. Though the Communist Party lost the first parliamentary elections, with the support of the Soviet occupation forces, the Communists were able to begin transforming the country’s economic and political life along the Soviet pattern. In 1946 they dissolved about 1500 independent social organizations and replaced them with a few state, i.e., Communist controlled organizations (Pioneers for Children, Young Communist League, etc). Though on 4 January 1948, the Soviet Union officially assured Hungary that only those troops will remain in the country that would be necessary to maintain a line of supply and communication with the Soviet troops in Austria, a large part of the Russian occupying forces remained in Hungary until the collapse of the Communist system decades later; they finally left on 16 June 1991.

In 1946, in the face of Soviet occupation, the political struggle for control of Hungary sharply escalated. Mátyás (Matthias) Rákosi returned with his comrades from the Soviet Union in 1945, and soon became the Secretary General of the Hungarian Communist Party, delivering an ultimatum to the Smallholders’ Party – the strongest non-Communist party in the Government – that unless the Smallholders removed the right-wing elements from their party, the Communists would cease to cooperate in the Coalition Government. The President of the Smallholders, Ferenc (Francis) Nagy, was obliged to concede to this demand, and with this began the liquidation of the democratic forces in Hungary. The Smallholders’ Party attempted to resist, but was forced to retreat on the warning of Puskin, the Soviet Ambassador to Hungary, who signaled that the Communists enjoyed the full backing of the Soviet Union, whose occupying forces were in actual control of Hungary.

Soon began the liquidation of the still existing independent social and civic organizations. The military intelligence service, led by Lieutenant-general Pálffy, discovered a “conspiracy “, thereby initiating the final crushing of the Smallholders’ Party. At the beginning of 1949, the Soviet authorities arrested and deported into captivity in the Soviet Union Béla Kovács, the Secretary General of the Smallholders’ Party, and in May they informed Ferenc (Francis) Nagy, the Prime Minister, who was then visiting Switzerland, that a similar fate would await him if he returned. Ferenc Nagy had no alternative but to resign and stay abroad. In 1947 the left-wing parties, the stongest being the Communist Party, and the largest the Social Democratic Party, they formed an alliance; even then they resorted to various chicaneries and outright forging of ballots – which they later admitted – although even in this way they only gained 22% of the votes. The rules of the coalition were such however that even this number allowed them to govern. The second party was the Democratic People’s Party, despite loosing about one million voters who had earlier been deprived of their right to vote because of their “reactionary views“. The Independence Party, which also did well in the elections, was simply stripped of its mandate and the functioning of the other still existing opposition parties was made impossible. The President of the Democratic People’s Party and the right-wing leaders of the Social Democratic Party, Anna Kéthly and Károly (Charles) Peyer, were forced to flee abroad.

In 1948, the remainder of the Social Democratic Party united – under duress – with the Communists under the new name: the Hungarian Workers’ Party (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja). By this time, the opposition parties existed only on paper. 1948, the year of the Communist takeover, was given the name: “the year of the turning point“ by the Communists. In the same year – on false charges – they arrested and imprisoned the highest office-holder of the Catholic Church in Hungary, Archbishop József (Joseph) Mindszenty. In the Soviet pattern, sabotage trials followed with death sentences, in which the state’s new organ of terror: the State Security Authority (Államvédelmi Hatóság – ÁVH) played the key role. By 1948 Hungary had lost her economic and political independence and the Communists began the construction of a one-party state, based on the Soviet system.

The new political system was legalized by the 1949 Constitution based on the Soviet pattern. The actual control of the country was in the hands of a small group of Communist exiles, which had returned from the Soviet Union in 1945. They abolished both the principle and practice of the separation of powers: the legislative, judiciary and executive branches of the government, now all came under their sole control.. The National Parliament, 70% of which was composed of party members, became only a façade for the legitimacy of the regime. It was used only to rubber-stamp decisions already made by the party elite. The powers of the state became amalgamated with those of the party, i.e., the Hungarian Workers’ Party, which was in fact the Communist Party under a new name, and the post of Prime Minister lost all of its significance. The most powerful person in the country was Mátyás Rákosi, the General Secretary of the Hungarian Workers’ Party – the Communist Party – who was called the “best Hungarian student of Comrade Stalin“. A personality cult – similar to that surrounding Stalin – developed around him. He secured his position by means of the AVH (the State Security Authority – in other words the Secret Police), which was placed directly under his control.

In 1950, the Communists set up the Tanács, or (Soviet) Council system of public administration, destroying any vestiges of real self-government at the local levels as well. No guarantees of personal freedom remained and people could be and were arrested without a judicial warrant. The press lost all of its independence, and its only role was to serve as a propaganda machine for the Communist Government, praising its achievements in ever increasing crescendos and maintaining an atmosphere of fear and suspicion against the phantom of the “internal and external enemies of the “People’s Democracy“ – a common misnomer for the Soviet satellite states of Eastern Europe at that time. The press sang accolades about the ever-increasing standard of living, while in reality even the most basic food and other everyday items were in short supply. Politically reliable henchmen were appointed to lead all enterprises; most of them had no expertise in the area they were supposed to direct. The basic economic law that demand determines the market, was ignored and the production of goods was turned upside down. Factories were given quotas from the bureaucracy about what and how much they were to produce. On the Soviet pattern, 3- and 5-year plans were introduced, which predetermined the production of fixed quotas for all economic enterprises, and the fulfillment or over-fulfillment of the plan became the main goal regardless of quality or salability of the product. To increase the military potential of the Soviet Union – the Eastern Bloc countries, including Hungary -- were obliged to develop their heavy industries artificially at the expense of their light industry (producing consumer goods) and agriculture. After the nationalization of the large estates, a campaign was started aiming at the liquidation of agricultural smallholdings and their consequent collectivization in the mould of the Soviet kolkhoz system. First, the oppression of the well-to-do farmers (in Communist phraseology: the kulaks) began aggressively. By the use of various administrative and punitive measures, their land was confiscated, and they and their children were barred from all but the most menial of occupations. Those who showed even the slightest resistance were put in concentration camps. In 1952, a tax-in-kind system was introduced, which forced the small landholder to hand in to the state without compensation, or at best at nominal prices, a disproportionate share of his own produce and, if he did not actually produce enough to cover the quota, he was forced to buy it to avoid being charged with agricultural sabotage. The result was a 50% decline of per capita income in the countryside. By 1953, two thirds of the people working in agriculture had no grain for food or seed and Hungary – always an exporter of agricultural products – was forced to import grain and ration coupons had to be introduced for people working in agriculture.

Though Mátyás Rákosi was replaced as the unquestioned ruler of Hungary in 1953, and there were some half-hearted efforts by the Communists at both economic and political reforms, the pent-up hatred of the alien political, social and economic system forced on the Hungarian people by Soviet oppression through its proxies, the Hungarian Communists, a spontaneous popular uprising of elemental force shook the Communist regime on its foundations. The armed uprising of October 1956 turned on the hated State Security Authority (AVH), the only armed body that was willing to defend the regime, demanding a freer life and the withdrawal of the Soviet occupational forces. The AVH was disarmed and a large part of the Soviet occupying troops were reluctant to fight against the Hungarian people. In two weeks, peace was restored and normal life began in a temporarily free Hungary, until November 4, when the invasion of 200,000 Soviet troops with 3000 tanks and the use of air power crushed the Revolution.

Since the Hungarian Revolution inflicted a mortal wound on the ideology of the Soviet Union, János (John) Kádár, the Moscow-appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party and the new Prime Minister, was instructed to retaliate mercilessly against anyone who had participated in the Revolution however marginally. Summary judicial proceedings and deportations followed. An estimate puts the number of those deported to the Soviet Union in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution to 100,000. Death sentences were passed daily and Imre (Emeric) Nagy, the Prime Minister during the Revolution and Pál (Paul) Maléter, the Minister of Defense in the Revolutionary Government, shared a common fate on the gallows. With the crushing of the 1956 Revolution began the 32-year Kádár regime.

János Kádár’s appointment was due to the treatment he had received from Mátyás Rákosi, the pre-1956 Communist Dictator of Hungary. Since, under Rákosi’s rule, Kádár was imprisoned and tortured, the Soviet leaders thought that this would redeem him in the eyes of the Hungarian people. He was given instructions from Moscow that, after the severe reprisals ended, he should handle the Hungarians with a gloved fist, in order to keep them in the Soviet camp. Kádár accepted this role, which led to the so-called “Gulash Communism“and consequently to the heavy indebtedness of the country. During his long tenure, he succeeded in subverting Hungary’s national culture. Patriotic feelings and interest in politics all but disappeared and people became selfish and materialistic. By allowing abortion on demand, he caused a drastic reduction in the national birth rate, resulting in an almost catastrophic long-term decrease in the nation’s population. The policy that the Rákosi period introduced with terror, he continued with more humane methods, but the goals were the same: the amalgamation of Hungary into the Soviet Bloc and the destruction of Hungary’s national self-identity.

In 1989, the Soviet backed Communist government was replaced by a freely elected government and Hungary nominally became a democratic republic. However, the Hungarians would not feel totally free until all the Soviet troops left the country. At the state funeral of Imre (Emerich) Nagy, the young politician Viktor Orbán in his eulogy openly demanded the Soviet troop’s withdrawal from Hungary. The withdrawal of the Soviet troops began on 12 March 1990. This historic event occurred on 19 June 1991, when the last Soviet train left Hungary. During 15 months – on 1300 trains – 50,000 soldiers, with family members about 100,000 persons, 27,000 pieces of military equipment – among them atomic war heads – and half a million tons of materials left the country. The Soviet troops vacated 181 garrisons with 5732 buildings, leaving behind them destruction. Kerosene and other chemicals were poured into the ground by the tons at many sites. The pollution was spread by ground water, appearing in many wells in the countryside. In 1995 values, the cost of the damage was about 60 billion forints. Immediate environmental clean-up was only done in the most polluted areas – mostly near abandoned barracks and military airports – to prevent the spread of disease

On 30 June 1991, on the day of the official announcement of the complete withdrawal of the Soviet troops, a bell – made for this special occasion – was sounded in the town of Gödöllő. At this signal, all the church bells of the country began ringing and rang for an hour, celebrating the moment that Hungary regained her independence.

Although the Soviet troops left Hungary, it was difficult to get rid of the residue of 45 years of Soviet occupation. For some years, the country’s economy was still significantly connected to that of the Soviet Union and, after its dissolution, to those of the succession states. Another problem was that a large section of the new middle class, which was brought up and who developed their career under the Communist system, still harbored Communist ideas. The last holdovers from the Communist past finally lost their political influence in the 2010 elections, when a moderate civic union achieved an overwhelming majority at the polls. – B&T: 7665→Rákosi, Mátyás; “Black List”; People’s Court; People’s Commissar; People’s Republic; Blue Slip Election; Nationalization; Schools, Struggle for Control of; Conspiracy Trials; Show Trials; Front, MAORT Affairs; Apor, Baron Vilmos; Arany, Bálint; Asztalos, János; Kiss Szaléz László OMF; Mindszenty, József; Mindszenty Trial; Grősz, József; Grősz Trial; Rajk, Trial; Deportations; ‘Kolhoz’ in Hungary; Kádár, János; Kádár period; Nagy, Imre (2); Freedom Fight of 1956; Boys of Budapest; Massacre of Parliament Square; Massacre in Mosonmagyaróvár; Salgótarján, Massacre of; Gulyás, Lajos; Exploitation of Hungary; ‘Workers’ Guard’; Red Terror in Hungary; Victims of the Bolshevik Dictatorship in Hungary; Bolshevization Attempt of Hungary’s Culture; Orbán, Vikor; Liberation Day in Hungary.

The second astronaut was a Hungarian-born American, Charles Simonyi (Károly Simonyi), a billionaire software architect. He was born in Budapest, on 10 September 1948. When he was still in high school, he worked part-time as a night watchman at a computer laboratory. His interest in computing grew and, from an engineer, he learned programming. He developed a compiler and demonstrated it to a trade delegation from Denmark. Simonyi was hired by a Danish firm in 1966 and, in 1968 he moved to the USA, to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering in 1972. He worked for the Xerox Company. He obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University in metaprogramming in 1977. After working for Bill Gates’ Microsoft Company, Simonyi co-founded the International Microsoft Company. He spends a good part of his wealth on philanthropy. On 7 April 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-10m, he became the second Hungarian in space for 11 days. Between 26 March and 8 April 2009, aboard Soyuz TMA-14, he made a second trip to the International Space Station. – B: 1031, 1969, T: 7103.→Farkas, Bertalan; Simonyi, Charles.