The Hungarian Soviet Republic or, literally, the Soviet Republic in Hungary (Hungarian. Magyarországi Tanácsköztársaság), which arose in late March 1919 and existed 133 days before the beginning of August 1919, was the second in the world socialist state after Soviet Russia. The head of state was President Shandor Garbai.
After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, following the results of the First World War, on November 16, 1918, the Hungarian People's Republic was formed, headed by President Count Mihai Károlyi and Prime Minister Denes Berinkei. France considered Hungary as part of the defeated Austria-Hungary and demanded territorial concessions from it in favor of the countries neighboring Hungary. Unwilling to obey such demands and unable to reject them, Berinkei resigned on March 20, 1919.
The next day, Karolyi announced to the other members of the current government that the new cabinet could be formed only by the Social Democrats, as the party that had the most support in the country. Secretly from the president and with the hope of forming a more sustainable government, the Social Democrats entered into negotiations with the leaders of the Hungarian communists, who were imprisoned at that time. It should be noted that by February 1919, the party of Hungarian communists, created only six months ago, already comprised from 30 to 40 thousand members, including a large number of unemployed ex-servicemen, young intellectuals and representatives of national minorities. Every day it became more and more popular, and its supporters became more and more active.
The Social Democrats and the Communists agreed to unite into the Hungarian Socialist Party. Thus, Karoyi, who had resigned on March 21, himself a staunch anti-communist, handed over power to the government dominated by the Communists, and was immediately arrested by this government, but he managed to escape and leave the country.
The Hungarian Socialist Party that came to power created a government called the Revolutionary Governing Council, which proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Initially, the government represented a coalition of socialists and communists led by Shandor Garbai, but only a few days later the communists withdrew the last socialists from it. After this, the new communist government proclaimed the abolition of all aristocratic titles and privileges, separation of church and state, guaranteed freedom of speech and assembly, free education, linguistic and cultural rights for national minorities. Also, the Communists nationalized industrial and commercial enterprises, housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions and all land ownership, the size of which exceeded 40 hectares.
To ensure the protection of the republic, the formation of the Red Guard began, headed by Matthias Rakosi, later reorganized into the Red Army.
In the meantime, the counter-revolutionary government of Count Gyula Karolyi was formed in the territories occupied by the Entente countries, during which the National Army of Miklos Horthy was formed. At the same time, Romania, with the support of the Entente, attacked Hungary from the southeast - its army quickly advanced throughout the country, soon cutting off all paths leading to the capital. The Hungarian Red Army was forced to fight on the outskirts of Budapest. The battle was lost, and on August 1 most of the members of the government were forced to leave the country. On August 6, the Romanian troops entering Budapest put an end to the history of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. A “white terror” followed.
Many supporters of the Soviet Republic were shot without trial or investigation, a significant part of them went to prison as a result of the so-called “commissar trials”. Most of these prisoners were subsequently exchanged on the basis of an exchange agreement between Soviet Russia and Hortist Hungary, concluded in 1921 (according to this agreement, 415 prisoners were issued to Russia. Many of them played an important role in subsequent events in Russia and Hungary).
The material was prepared by S.V. Khristenko
