1848-1920

The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 brought a new epoch to the Hungarian history. On the 10th of April in 1848 the so called April Laws sanctioned by Emperor Ferdinand the Fifth implemented the civilian democratic rule, strengthened the civic liberties like suffrage, (limited) freedom of press, abolition of censorship and the equal rights of Christian denominations.

The defeat in the War of Independence was followed by absolutist oppression, lasting almost two decades. The Hungarian nation chose the path of “passive resistance” against the suppression by not paying taxes and not participating in common issues expressed its objection against the squelching of the achievements of the revolution and the War of Independence. The “Compromise” of 1867 brought the beginning of the “Golden Ages” and Hungary took the form of a constitutional monarchy and a limited parliamentary democracy. In this epoch of dualism the law on nationalities and equal rights of the Jewish religion came into force.

Shortly after the First World War the Austro Hungarian Monarchy dissolved. The short-lived first Hungarian Republic subsequent to the Aster Revolution expanded the right of suffrage, promised equal rights and announced land distribution to the serfs. However all these measures never became implemented as the Károlyi Government handed the power over to the Communist dictatorship. During its 133 days of existence the Soviet Hungarian Republic of 1919 introduced the 8 hour work day, declared the rights of the nationalities, but at the same time they started nationalizing the private property and expropriating large and medium sized estates. Furthermore they acted ruthlessly against the enemies of the new system: during the so-called Red Terror approximately 200-300 people got assassinated. On 1 March 1920, the National Assembly of Hungary re-established the Kingdom of Hungary, but chose not to recall the deposed King Charles IV (Károly IV of Hungary) from exile as the return of the Habsburg Emperor on the Hungarian throne was unacceptable to the Entente powers. Instead, with National Army officers controlling the parliament building, the assembly voted to install Horthy as head of state.

 

1920-1945

The interwar period in Hungary started with the elaboration of the traumatic event caused by the Trianon Treaties which led to the dispartment of the country. Even though Hungary lost two third of its territory, the restoration of the country quickly set into motion. In spite of the difficulties, a stable consolidation period followed which can be characterized by the relative prevalence of human and civil rights (suffrage for example was limited). According to several historians, in this epoch and in the region, solely Hungary can be regarded as a democratic state ruled by law, up until the German occupation.

In the second half of the era - as a result of the shift to the extreme right and the external German pressure – the so called Anti-Jewish measures came into existence which limited the rights of citizen of Jewish religion or origin. Shortly after the German occupation of Hungary the systematic round-ups of groups declared as undesirable by the Nazis, their deportation and termination set off. During the Hungarian Holocaust several hundred thousands of compatriots were annihilated. At the same time many Hungarians – contravening the collaborators – risked their lives to rescue the Hungarian Jews from the sure death. Besides those of Jewish origin several hundred thousand people – both military and civilian – died during the World War. Approximately a total of 830-950 thousand people fell victim to the War, which makes Hungary third in regard to the proportion of victims and population.

 

1945-1953

By the end of the World War II Hungary became occupied by the Red Army. As part of the Soviet sphere of interest a communist government was planned to be installed in Hungary. Mátyás Rákosi “the best pupil of Stalin” was appointed General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party. The Hungarian communists – with the support of the occupying Soviets – cut the centre-right Party of Independent Smallholders off “like slices of salami” and later in 1948, they forced the Social Democrats to merge with them to form the Hungarian Working People's Party. A year later, elections were held with a single list of candidates, which had been unprecedented in the 100 years old election history of Hungary. This fact marked the onset of undisguised Communist rule in Hungary. Due to the effects of threats and the lack of alternatives 94% of the population cast their votes.

The regime’s ideology consisted of Leninism, Marxism and Stalinism. Its main business was class struggle which made social classes fight against each other. In its vision class struggle would have ended up with the overall victory of the working class, which potentially would have lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat. The communist system had the right to exclude or eliminate all those who were contrary of its mainstream ideology. Even though the Hungarian system was a party dictatorship with one single mass party the proletariat in reality was far from the power.

The communists’ only aim was to seize power by all means, which they acquired by force between 1945 and 1949. These four years and the following ones were characterized by severe violation of human rights in Hungary: massive deportations, internments, confinements, arresting, jailing and killing both real and imagined foes in various waves of Stalin-inspired political purges. The overall goal was the destruction of free thinking, the individuum and any kinds of autonomy and civil society. The word civil could not exist.

The regime used terror, violence and existential mortification as tools to hold control over the people. Gábor Péter was the absolute leader of the State Protection Authority (Államvédelmi Hatóság – ÁVH) responsible for a lot of cruelty, brutality and political purges. The excessive terror, however, triggered a self-generating process that reached even the level of leaders and resulted in so-called show trials. One of the victims of these show trials was László Rajk, an insider communist. Rákosi, who saw Rajk as a threat to his power, decided to accuse him on false charges and had him arrested on May 1949 on trumped up charges. Rajk, who was popular among the communists before, soon became sentenced to capital punishment and was executed for treason.

The regime worked out also the so-called kulak lists. All land-owning peasants had to pay impossibly high extra taxes, disregarding the size of their property. Their private properties were sequestrated. Collectivization of agriculture set off, which caused urban migration and pauperization of thousands of small landholders. The irrational economic policies created high inflation while leading to food shortages across the country.

Also the Churches were regarded as the enemy of the system. Hungary saw no hesitation by the regime in launching policies aimed at whittling down and taming the Churches. The less organized Protestant Churches quickly succumbed to communist pressure while the Catholic Church put up tougher resistance. In 1949 the leader of the Hungarian Catholic Church, Cardinal József Mindszenty, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason.

Internment was also one of the most significant characteristics of the system. In Tiszalök, Kazicbarcika, and Kistarcsa collecting or forced labour camps were operating, in Recsk the most infamous camp had exterminating function as well. More than 400 thousands of people were detained and in these places many of them perished.

After the death of Stalin (1953) Rákosi was removed from power and was followed by Imre Nagy, a reformist. Two years later Ernő Gerő, a Rákosist got to power, which led to public discontent and to the Revolution of 1956.