V o L u m e I : a d

The Communist Party in Hungary had been illegal between the two

world wars; thus, many party activists spent these years in Soviet exile. When

they returned to Hungary with the Red Army at the end of World War II,

their chief mission was to grasp political power and introduce a Soviet-style

political-economic system. The communist takeover did not occur immedi-

ately, however.

In November 1944, Hungarian General Miklós Béla Dálnoki and the

Hungarian communists in exile negotiated a cease-fire agreement in Moscow.

In return, the Soviets offered Dálnoki the post of premier in the immediate

postwar Hungarian government. This Provisional National Government was

formed on 22 December 1944 in Debrecen in eastern Hungary, which had

already been liberated from German occupation.

As premier, Dálnoki reorganized the public sector, signed the cease-fire

agreement with the Red Army, began land reform, modernized elementary

education, and called for elections. These elections were held six months

after the end of the war, in November 1945. Four major parties participated:

the Smallholders’ Party, the Social Democrat Party, the Hungarian Peasant

Union, and the Communist Party. Of these, the Smallholders’ Party was the

most popular as well as the most conservative. Subverting the Smallholders’

Party was one of the main Communist Party goals.

Although the Smallholders’ Party won the November elections with 57

percent of the vote, under Soviet pressure a four-party coalition government

was formed with Zoltán Tildy as premier. He held this position until 1 Feb-

ruary 1946, when Hungary was declared a republic, whereupon he became

its president.

The new premier, Ferenc Nagy, also from the Smallholders’ Party, faced

three big challenges in inflation, nationalization, and growing pressure from

the Communist Party. A new currency was introduced in August 1946, which

helped stem inflation, but the other two problems defied solution. The com-

munists, meanwhile, held key positions in the government and used these to

undermine the democratic process. Secretary of the Hungarian Communist

Party and Vice Premier Mátyás Rákosi controlled the police, and Soviet troops

remained in occupation. Soviet expropriation of the German monetary assets

in Hungary was also a strong economic lever, and the communists claimed

credit for restoring the economy and the transportation system.

László Rajk, minister of the interior and head of police, directed a reign

of terror, while Rákosi embarked on what he called salami tactics, slicing off

one segment of the opposition after another. The communists also moved

against the Smallholders’ Party. Its leader, Béla Kovacs, was arrested and

accused of plotting to restore the Habsburgs. In May, Premier Nagy, on

vacation in Switzerland, was forced by threats from Moscow to resign by

telephone. The August 1947 parliamentary election, tainted by communist

fraud, reduced the strength of the Smallholders, and in March 1948 the

socialists were forced to merge with the communists into the Hungarian

Workers’ Party (MDP). In August 1948 President Tildy was also forced to

resign and was placed under house arrest. In 1949 Hungary became a People’s

Republic.

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Hungary

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The MDP soon nationalized the banks, factories, private schools, busi-

nesses, land, and other properties. Farmers were forced to join collective

farms. Resisters were promptly arrested by the State Protection Authority.

The party also maintained strict control over education and cultural life.

Rákosi, party general secretary and premier during 1952–1953, was the main

proponent of these policies.

The Roman Catholic Church opposed the communists. Primate of the

Hungarian church Archbishop József Mindszenty refused to recognize the

confiscation of Church lands and nationalization of its schools, and he also

refused to hide his conservative social and political views. Accused of being

a monarchist, he was arrested in December 1948, tortured, tried and found

guilty, and sentenced to life in prison.

Within a few months Rajk found himself on trial. A nationalist revolu-

tionary who enjoyed genuine popularity and was not beholden to Moscow,

he was found guilty of treason and spying and was executed in October 1949.

Rákosi, a pure Stalinist and the most unsavory of communist East European

leaders, now assumed formal control of the Hungarian Workers’ Party and

was the effective power broker until 1953.

Many Hungarians fell victim to Rákosi’s excesses, enforced by the dreaded

Allamvedélmi Hivatal (AVH, State Security Authority) secret police. By the

Hungary

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Soviet tanks parading through the streets of Budapest, Hungary, in 1952. (Library of Congress)

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summer of 1953, the Hungarian economy was in deep crisis. The party’s eco-

nomic policies carried out under the leadership of ErnoP GeroP, president of

the National Economic Council, had proven unsuccessful. Forced industri-

alization and agricultural collectivization combined with unrealistic goals all

took a heavy toll. Rákosi, however, failed to deal with the growing problems,

and on July 1953 Imre Nagy, now favored by the new Soviet leadership in

place following Stalin’s death, replaced Rákosi as premier.

Nagy soon introduced a reform program known as the New Course that

relaxed the pace of industrialization, allowed peasants to leave collective

farms, eased police terror tactics, reformed the bureaucracy, and improved the

standard of living. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev became concerned about

these reforms, however. When the political climate in Moscow changed in

favor of the hard-liner Rákosi, Nagy was forced to resign in the spring of

1955. Rákosi’s reappointment and the suspension of Nagy’s reforms were

greeted with great hostility in Hungary. To stave off widespread general dis-

content, Rákosi was replaced as general secretary of the party in July 1956 by

another hard-liner, GeroP. This was not the best of decisions, as GeroP was just

as unpopular as Rákosi. To add to the discontent, the reburial in early Octo-

ber of victims of the earlier purges led to widespread unrest.

All the while, Nagy’s popularity was increasing. Intellectuals and jour-

nalists demanded the implementation of his reform program. University stu-

dents were also committed to political change. On 23 October 1956, they

scheduled a peaceful demonstration that soon turned violent when shooting

erupted between police and the demonstrators. After an emergency meet-

ing of the party Central Committee on the night of 23 October, Nagy was

appointed premier. He held this position until 4 November.

During his brief tenure, Nagy attempted to bring events under control,

but at first he advocated only moderate reforms. His intention was to imple-

ment the political program of his first premiership in 1953. During the first

days of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he offered amnesty to the demon-

strators and promised the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Hungary.

Nagy soon realized that his program had been superseded by events when

the revolution spread to the rest of the country, with more demands. He

therefore agreed to the primary popular demands: the introduction of politi-

cal pluralism and Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. On 1 Novem-

ber he announced that Hungary intended to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact

and proclaimed Hungarian neutrality. These developments angered Moscow

and ultimately provoked a Soviet military intervention. Soviet forces in-

vaded the country on 4 November, following meetings two days earlier

between Soviet authorities and János Kádár, the newly appointed general

secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party. Meanwhile, Nagy sought asy-

lum in the Yugoslavian embassy in Budapest.

Kádár immediately denounced the plan for Hungary to withdraw from

the Warsaw Pact and, with Soviet military support, took control of the gov-

ernment. On 8 November he announced the formation of a Revolutionary

Worker-Peasant Government and its Fifteen-Point Program. The latter

included protection of the “people’s democratic and socialist system” from

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