On October 30, 1918, the civil democratic revolution won in Hungary. However, the young republic was unable to succeed over the severe problems after the war. In the Spring of 1919, the Hungarian Soviet Republic took over the republic, but failed after 133 days

Both revolutions tried to protect the country's independence and to realize the communist society with aggressive means. The Hungarian state managed to consolidate in 1921 in accordance to the demands of the victorious Entente and to European political norms.

Soviet Republic in Hungary

After the resignation of the Károlyi government, on March 21, 1919, a government with communist-social democratic politicians was formed. The new state organism was based on the Soviet type council. Its domestic policy was characterized by socialization and military communist measures. Its social support was owed, to a large extent entirely, to the heroic struggle fought in favour of the defence of the country.

The Peace Treaty of Trianon

In 1920, the Peace Treaty of Trianon was a decision signifying one of the greatest tragedies of Hungary's history. Hungary lost 67 % of its territory and 64 % of its population. 30 % of the population of the disannexed territories spoke Hungarian and were of Hungarian origin, and almost half lived in a coherent block in the proximity of the country's border.

The Quarter of a Century of the Horthy Era

Hungary was a constitutional kingdom without a king. It was led by the regent, Admiral Miklos von Horthy, which had a wide sphere of authority. It was conservative in its content, but as far as the methods are concerned, it was a political system which mixed parliamentarism with autocratism, and which was based on an unstable political compromise between the great land-owning aristocracy, the plutocracy and the so-called genteel middle class. From the second half of the 1930s, on the account of the land revisions and the strengthening German orientation, the domestic policy of the system gradually advanced towards the extreme right, and as far as internal affairs are concerned, Hungary was drifting inevitably into entering the war.

The consolidation of Bethlen

It is the era of the development of the political basis and the economic stabilization of the counter-revolutionary system. The name derives from the most significant politician of the period, Count Istvn Bethlen.

The New Political Style

Under the influence of the economic crisis, the deepening social and political tension ended the relatively peaceful period of the Horthy era. The 1930s were characterized by a new political style. The major representative of this was the prime minister, Gyula Gömbös, (1932-1936), who, following the Italian example, aimed at organizing an open authoritarian state system. At this time, his efforts, tending to the introduction of a one-party regime, failed but, his social reform policy contributed to the strengthening of the extreme right.

The Land Revision and the War

The Peace Treaty of Trianon meant such a national humiliation and social burden for Hungary that it resulted in the presence of revisionist and social radicalism in the domestic policy. From the 1930s, it became more and more apparent that the market, needing economic recovery and the Hungarian territorial revisionism claims, could only be realized in a German-led Middle Europe. Every political force considered revision as a universal national interest.

Austro-Hungarian Monarchy>> Hungary during the two world wars >> Behind the Iron curtain

See also

Hungarian History