Hungarian People's Republic
The Hungarian People's Republic (Hungarian: Magyar Népköztársaság) was a one-party socialist state from 20 August 1949[5] to 23 October 1989.[6] It was governed by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, which was under the influence of the Soviet Union.[7] Pursuant to the 1944 Moscow Conference, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin had agreed that after the war Hungary was to be included in the Soviet sphere of influence.[8][9] The HPR remained in existence until 1989, when opposition forces brought the end of communism in Hungary.
This article is about the Communist state. For the republic of 1918-1919, see First Hungarian Republic.
Hungarian People's RepublicMagyar Népköztársaság (Hungarian)
Warsaw Pact and Comecon member
- Secular state
(de jure) - State atheism
(de facto) - Catholic (dominant)
- 1949–1956:
Unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic under a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship[1] - 1956-1989:
Unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic
31 May 1947
20 August 1949
14 December 1955
23 Oct.–4 Nov. 1956
1 January 1968
23 October 1989
93,011[2] km2 (35,912 sq mi)
9,204,799
10,322,099
10,375,323
0.915[4]
very high
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right
The state considered itself the heir to the Republic of Councils in Hungary, which was formed in 1919 as the first communist state created after the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR). It was designated a "people's democratic republic" by the Soviet Union in the 1940s. Geographically, it bordered Romania and the Soviet Union (via the Ukrainian SSR) to the east; Yugoslavia (via SRs Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia) to the southwest; Czechoslovakia to the north and Austria to the west.
The Communists spent the next year and a half after the Moscow Conference consolidating their hold on power and weakening the other parties. This culminated in October 1947, when the Communists told their non-Communist coalition partners that they had to cooperate with a reconfigured coalition government if they wanted to stay in the country.[10] The process was more or less completed in 1949, when a newly elected legislature chosen from a single Communist-dominated list adopted a Soviet-style constitution, and the country was officially recast as a "people's republic."
The same political dynamics continued through the years, with the Soviet Union pressing and maneuvering Hungarian politics through the Hungarian Communist Party, intervening whenever it needed to, through military coercion and covert operations.[11] Political repression and economic decline led to a nationwide popular uprising in October–November 1956 known as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which was the largest single act of dissent in the history of the Eastern Bloc. After initially allowing the Revolution to run its course, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops and tanks to crush the opposition and install a new Soviet-controlled government under János Kádár, killing thousands of Hungarians and driving hundreds of thousands into exile. By the early 1960s, however, the Kádár government had considerably relaxed its line, implementing a unique form of semi-liberal Communism known as "Goulash Communism". The state allowed imports of certain Western consumer and cultural products, gave Hungarians greater freedom to travel abroad, and significantly rolled back the secret police state. These measures earned Hungary the moniker of the "merriest barrack in the socialist camp" during the 1960s and 1970s.[12]
One of the longest-serving leaders of the 20th century, Kádár would finally retire in 1988 after being forced from office by even more pro-reform forces amidst an economic downturn. Those influences remained supreme until the late 1980s, when turmoil broke out across the Eastern Bloc, culminating with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union's dissolution. Despite the end of communist control in Hungary, the 1949 constitution remained in effect with amendments to reflect the country's transition to liberal democracy. On 1 January 2012, the 1949 constitution was replaced with the current constitution.
History[edit]
Formation[edit]
Following the occupation of Hungary by the Red Army, Soviet military occupation ensued. After seizing most material assets from German hands, the Soviets tried to control Hungarian political affairs, with some success.[13] Using force, the Red Army set up police organs to persecute the opposition, assuming this would enable the Soviet Union to seize the upcoming elections, together with intense communist propaganda to attempt to legitimize their rule.[14] Despite all efforts, in the elections of November 1945 the Hungarian Communist Party was trounced by a Smallholder-led coalition, receiving only 17% of votes. The coalition, under Prime Minister Zoltán Tildy, thus frustrated the Kremlin's expectations of ruling through a democratically elected government.[15]
The Soviet Union, however, intervened through force once again, resulting in a puppet government that disregarded Tildy, placed communists in important ministerial positions, and imposed several restrictive measures, like banning the victorious coalition government and forcing it to yield the Interior Ministry to a nominee of the Hungarian Communist Party.
Communist Interior Minister László Rajk established the ÁVH secret police, in an effort to suppress political opposition through intimidation, false accusations, imprisonment and torture.[16]
In early 1947, the Soviet Union pressed the leader of the Hungarian Communists, Mátyás Rákosi, to take a "line of more pronounced class struggle". American observers likened communist machinations to a coup and concluded that "the coup in Hungary is Russia's answer to our actions in Greece and Turkey",[17] referring to US military intervention in the Greek Civil War and the building of US military bases in Turkey pursuant to the Truman Doctrine.
Rákosi complied by pressuring the other parties to push out those members not willing to do the Communists' bidding, ostensibly because they were "fascists". Later on, after the Communists won full power, he referred to this practice as "salami tactics".[18] Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy was forced to resign as prime minister in favour of a more pliant Smallholder, Lajos Dinnyés. In the 1947 elections, the Communists became the largest party, but were well short of a majority. The coalition was retained with Dinnyés as prime minister. However, by this time most of the other parties' more courageous members had been pushed out, leaving them in the hands of fellow travellers.[19]
In June 1948 the Communists forced the Social Democrats to merge with them to form the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP). However, the few independent-minded Social Democrats were quickly shunted aside, leaving the MDP as a renamed and enlarged Communist Party. Rákosi then forced Tildy to turn over the presidency to Social Democrat-turned-Communist Árpád Szakasits. In December, Dinnyés was replaced by the leader of the Smallholders' left wing, the openly pro-Communist István Dobi.
At the elections of May 1949, voters were presented with a single Communist-dominated list, comprising candidates from all parties and running on a common programme. By this time, there was virtually no opposition left in the country. On 18 August, the newly elected National Assembly passed a new constitution – a near-carbon copy of the Soviet constitution. When it was officially promulgated on 20 August, the country was renamed the People's Republic of Hungary.