Federal Hungarian Socialist Council Republic

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Government Members (1919)

The Federative Hungarian Socialist Council Republic ( Hungarian : Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság ), but mostly only known as the Hungarian Council Republic (Hungarian: Magyarországi Tanácsköztársaság ), was proclaimed on March 21, 1919 and existed until August 1, 1919. The journalist and newspaper editor Béla Kun (1886–1938) played a key role in its creation. He also advanced to become the leading figure within the Hungarian council government. After the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in the course of the October Revolution in 1917, Hungary was the second country in the world in which a council system could be established.

history

After the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy , the Hungarian government under Mihály Károlyi , which was still installed by Emperor Charles I , declared Hungary's independence as a republic . The new state was not only confronted with enormous social and economic problems as a result of the lost World War , but also with the extensive territorial claims of Czechoslovakia , Romania and the SHS state , which were supported by the Entente powers . The occupation of large parts of the former Kingdom of Hungary by Czechoslovak, Romanian , Yugoslav and French troops as well as the national bitterness of Hungarians over this "robbery" of their historical territory contributed significantly to the end of the bourgeois-social-democratic Berinkey government (Károlyi had meanwhile become head of state) on 21 March 1919 at. The republic, which had previously been dominated by the bourgeoisie (with the participation of the Social Democrats), has now been replaced by a soviet republic led by Sándor Garbai . Béla Kun only held the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the new council government, but soon gained significant influence on government affairs.

After the elections held in the first half of April 1919, the National Councils' Congress of Deputies from the counties , towns and municipalities met from June 14th to 24th of the same year , which constituted the highest legislative body in the country and adopted a constitution. This body now proclaimed the Federative Hungarian Socialist Council Republic and elected the Revolutionary Government Council, whose chairman was again Sándor Garbai . On June 25, 1919, the dictatorship of the proletariat was proclaimed, whereupon banks, large-scale industry, tenement houses and companies with more than 20 employees were nationalized. Property over 100 yokes was expropriated and organized into agricultural production cooperatives. Around 590 people were executed as part of the so-called “Red Terror” by revolutionary tribunals , but also by party militias such as the notorious “ Lenin boys ” (Hungarian: Lenin-fiúk ).

The Hungarian Soviet Republic collapsed when Romanian troops occupied the capital Budapest in the Hungarian-Romanian War . The successor state was the Kingdom of Hungary under imperial administrator Miklós Horthy . Former functionaries, supporters and sympathizers of the council system, but also countless bystanders who had been the victims of targeted denunciation, were killed between the summer of 1919 and the end of 1920 during the so-called “White Terror” by the troops of Horthy and their affiliated militants (e.g. those of the notorious Pál Prónay ), some of them brutally executed. Estimates of the number of victims of this "white" counter-terrorism amount to up to 5000 people.

terminology

Like its Slovak counterpart , the Hungarian republic has the addition of councils instead of soviets . The name Soviet republic was not adopted until 1922/23 with the establishment of the Soviet Union . At that time, both states no longer existed.

A memorial for the Soviet Republic, based on a propaganda poster of the same, stands in Budapest's Szobor Park .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Hungarian Revolution 1918–1919  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See also The Entente occupies other areas of Hungary. (...) Michael Károlyi has abdicated and handed over public powers to the proletariat. In:  Pester Lloyd , Morgenblatt, No. 68/1919 (LXVI. Volume), March 22, 1919, p. 1. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / maintenance / pel.
  2. ↑ The following brief description of the political and military development during the existence of the Hungarian Soviet Republic essentially follows Joseph Rothschild: East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars (= History of East Central Europe 9). University of Washington Press, Seattle et al. 1990, ISBN 0-295-95357-8 , pp. 137–153 and Karl-Heinz Gräfe: Myth and historical reality of a world event. Civil-democratic people's revolution and socialist council revolution in Hungary 1918–1919. In: In: Christian Koller and Matthias Marschik (eds.): The Hungarian Soviet Republic 1919. Inside views - outside perspectives - consequences. Promedia Verlag, Vienna 2018, pp. 17–46.
  3. ↑ See counter-revolution in Hungary. (...) The counter-revolution must be stifled in blood. In:  Grazer Tagblatt , evening edition, No. 174/1919 (XXIXth year), June 26, 1919, p. 1 middle. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / gtb.
  4. ↑ See also Béla Bodó: Actio and Reactio. Red and White Terror in Hungary 1919–1921 . In: Christian Koller and Matthias Marschik (eds.): The Hungarian Soviet Republic 1919. Inside views - outside perspectives - consequences. Promedia Verlag, Vienna 2018, pp. 69–82.