History of Hungary

This is the history of Hungary. See also the history of Europe, the history of present-day nations and states, Hungary before the Magyars, and Hungary.

Reds and Whites (1918-1919)

In 1918, as a result of defeat in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed. On October 31 1918, the success of the Aster Revolution in Budapest brought the liberal count Mihály Károlyi to power as Prime-Minister. The new government officially declared Hungary an independent republic in November, after the end of the war. On 22 november 1918 the Central Romanian Council of Romanians from Transylvania announced the Hungarian gouvernment that it had assumed control of Transylvania. On 1 December 1918 the gathering of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) proclaimed union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania.

Related Topics:
1918 - October 31 - Aster Revolution - Mihály Károlyi - Romanians - Transylvania - Alba Iulia

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By February 1919 the government had lost all popular support, having failed on the domestic and military fronts. On March 21, after the Entente military representative demanded more territorial concessions from Hungary, Károlyi resigned. The Communist Party of Hungary came to power, led by Béla Kun, and proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

Related Topics:
1919 - March 21 - Béla Kun - Hungarian Soviet Republic

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The Communists – "The Reds" – came to power largely thanks to being the only group with an organized fighting force, and they promised that Hungary would regain the lands it had lost (possibly with the help of the Soviet Red Army). The Communists also promised equality and social justice. Initially, Kun's regime achieved some impressive military successes: the Hungarian Red Army, under the lead of the genius strategist, Colonel Aurél Stromfeld, ousted Czechoslovak troops from disputed lands, proclaimed an ephemeral Slovak Soviet Republic, and planned to march against the Romanian army in Transylvania. In terms of domestic policy, the Communist government nationalized industrial and commercial enterprises, socialized housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and all landholdings of more than 400,000 square metres.

Related Topics:
Red Army - Aurél Stromfeld - Slovak Soviet Republic

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Still, the popular support of the Communists proved to be short lived. In the aftermath of a coup attempt, the government took a series of reprisals (called the Red Terror) by half-regular and half-militarist detachments, the "Lenin boys". A total of 590 people were executed without trial, which alienated much of the population. Land reform took land from the nobles but did not effectively distribute it amongst peasants. The Soviet Red Army was never able to aid the new Hungarian republic. Although it did not lose any battles, the Hungarian Red Army gave up land under pressure from the Entente. In the face of domestic backlash and an advancing Romanian force, Béla Kun and most of his comrades fled to Austria, while Budapest was occupied on August 6. All these events, and in particular the final military defeat, led to a deep feeling of dislike among the general population against the Soviet Union (which had not kept its promise to offer military assistance) and the Jews (since many members of Kun's government were Jewish, making it easy to blame the Jews for the government's mistakes).

Related Topics:
Red Terror - August 6 - Jew

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The new fighting force in Hungary were the Conservative counter-revolutionaries – the "Whites". These, who had been organizing in Vienna and established a counter-government in Szeged, assumed power, led by István Bethlen, a Transylvanian aristocrat, and Miklós Horthy, the former commander in chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Starting in Western Hungary and spreading throughout the country, a White Terror began by other half-regular and half-militarist detachments (as the police power crashed, there were no serious national regular forces and authorities), and many Communists and other leftists were executed without trial. Radical Whites launched pogroms against the Jews, displayed as the cause of all the difficulties of Hungary. The leaving Romanian army pillaged the country – the estimated property damage of their activity was so much that the international peace conference in 1919 did not require Hungary to pay war redemption to Romania. On November 16, with the consent of Romanian forces, Horthy's army marched into Budapest. His government gradually restored security, stopped terror, and set up authorities, but thousands of political sympathizers of the Károlyi and Kun regimes were imprisoned.

Related Topics:
Counter-revolutionaries - Vienna - Szeged - István Bethlen - Miklós Horthy - White Terror - Jew - November 16

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