TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93CT1721> <link 90TT0854> <link 90TT0662> <link 89TT2777> <title> Hungary--History </title> <history> Compact ALMANAC--CIA Factbook Europe Hungary </history> <article> <source>CIA World Factbook</source> <hdr> History </hdr> <body> Since the adoption of Western Christianity around 1,000 A.D., Hungary has been an integral part of Europe culturally and politically, and Hungarians consider themselves the eastern outpost of Western civilization in Europe. Hungary was a monarchy for nearly 1,000 years. Its constitutional-parliamentary system preceded, by several centuries, the establishment Western-style governments in other European countries. Sharing defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory and nearly as much of its population at the end of World War I. It had a brief but bloody communist dictatorship and counter-revolution in 1919, followed by a 95-year regency under Adm. Nicholas Horthy. Although Hungary entered and fought in World War II as a German ally, it fell under German military occupation, during which the Horthy regime was swept away by a pro-Nazi dictatorship in October 1944. German forces were driven out by advancing Soviet armies in a campaign that ended in April 1945, despite an armistice that had been signed at Moscow by the Hungarians on January 20, 1945. A peace treaty was signed with the Allied and Associated Powers at Paris on February 10, 1947, and entered into force on September 15, 1947. Meanwhile, free elections held in October 1945 had led to the establishment of a republic and a coalition government under the leadership of the majority Smallholders Party. Following nearly 2 years of parliamentary, coalition government, the communist minority succeeded--with the support and repeated intervention of the Soviet occupation authorities--in seizing power (May-June 1947) and establishing a communist dictatorship headed by Moscow-trained Matyas Rakosi. The communists had gradually undermined the coalition regime through the application of the famed "salami tactics." Through terror blackmail, and framed trials, the communists first broke the Smallholders Party by the end of 1947 and then proceeded to absorb, in January 1948, the Social Democrats. By February 1949, the communists forced all remaining opposition parties into the People's Independent Front, and on May 15 held an election in which communist-approved candidates, without opposition, polled 95.6% of the votes. On August 20, 1949, a new constitution patterned after the 1936 Stalinist model, proclaimed Hungary a "People's Democracy." With the opposition eliminated and the population terrorized, the country came under the virtual dictatorship of Rakosi. He carried out drastic purges of the rank and file and eliminated all real or potential rivals and opponents. By 1950, all private industrial firms with more than 10 employees were nationalized and freedom of the press, religion, and assembly greatly curtailed. But the forced industrialization and land collectivization soon led to serious economic difficulties and poverty, which reached crisis proportions by mid-1953. Fearing an explosion, Soviet leaders Malenkov and Khrushchev replaced Rakosi as premier with Imre Nagy in July 1953, whose "new course" was tantamount to a repudiation of most of Rakosi's policies on industry and agriculture and led to the release of thousands of political prisoners. Utilizing the power vacuum after Malenkov's fall in February 1955, Rakosi then engineered Nagy's removal as premier and even his expulsion from the party by branding Nagy with "rightwing deviationism." Rakosi's attempt to maintain Stalinism in Hungary failed following the denunciation of Stalin by Khrushchev in February 1956; by July that year, Moscow forced Rakosi to resign and accept exile in the Soviet Union. Although Erno Gero, Rakosi's closest lieutenant who succeeded him, sought to contain the growing ideological and political ferment, popular anger over the terror under Rakosi reached new heights during the public rehabilitation and reburial on October 6 of national communist leader Laszlo Rajk, who was executed following a show trial in September 1949. Within less than weeks, popular pressure for major changes in the political and economic model imposed by Rakosi became irresistible. On October 23, 1956, a peaceful march by Budapest students staged in support of Poland's confrontation with the Soviet Union turned violent when their request to have their 16-point demands read on radio was met with fire. The ensuing battle over the radio soon grew into a massive popular uprising as Gero called on Soviet forces, stationed in Hungary since 1945, to restore order. Fighting did not abate until after Nagy, who was brought back as premier under popular pressure, had met many of the popular demands, purged most Stalinists from his government, and had the Soviet forces withdrawn from Budapest by the end of October. Janos Kadar a moderate communist who had been imprisoned under Rakosi, succeeded Gero as first secretary of the fast disintegrating party. Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty, the Roman Catholic Primate of Hungary, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1949, was released by insurgents. Pressed by a progressively radicalized public opinion, Nagy formed a new coalition government, which also included Kadar. Receiving reports of fresh Soviet troops pouring in Hungary despite Soviet Ambassador Andropov's assurances to the contrary, Nagy on November 1 announced Hungary's neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. He asked the United Nations and the Great Powers for protection and that the request be placed on the agenda of the UN General Assembly. Preoccupied with the Suez Crisis, Hungary's case was not taken up until it was too late. The night of November 3-4, the Soviet Union launched a second and more massive military attack on Hungary; armed resistance by the National Guard (composed of the Hungarian Army and the freedom fighters) and a general strike lasted for a few weeks. Nagy and some of his associates, who had sought refuge in the Yugoslav Embassy, were abducted by Soviet forces despite a safe conduct guarantee from Kadar, exiled to Romania, and, after a secret trial, executed on June 16, 1958. After delivering an impassioned radio address in support of the "glorious revolution," and vowing to fight the Russians with his bare hands if they attacked Hungary, Janos Kadar defected from the Nagy cabinet to the Soviet side, surfacing on November 4 with a radio address from an unknown location, to announce the formation of a countergovernment. Kadar carried out severe reprisals against thousands of people, many of whom were imprisoned and executed despite Kadar's promise to the contrary. Forced collectivization, which had stopped in 1956, was carried out again during 1958-59. In the early 196Os, Kadar announced a new policy under the motto of "he who is not against us is with us." He declared a general amnesty, curbed over time some of the excesses of the secret police, and gradually allowed a relatively liberal cultural and economic course aimed at overcoming the post-1956 antagonism of the population toward him and his regime. Current Political Conditions The May 1988 party conference resulted in dramatic personnel changes. Janos Kadar was replaced by Premier Karoly Grosz, and six new politburo members replaced seats vacated by eight members of the old guard. The party revolt reflected widespread sentiment that the old leadership was incapable of introducing reforms necessary to resolve Hungary's serious economic and social problems. The policy statement adopted at the conference provides guidelines for introducing new political and economic reforms. The younger leadership, including some strong supporters of reform, is now attempting to translate its mandate into concrete and at times unpopular measures essential to solving Hungary's problems. By early 1989, many of Hungary's constitutional provisions affecting parliament, government, and the increasingly beleaguered HSWP were subject to change as economic and financial problems worsened. The HSWP's crisis deepened, and the long-dormant Hungarian public was politicized to a degree not seen since 1956. As the HSWP lost thousands of its members, scores of independent political and cultural organizations mushroomed, including the revived old coalition Smallholder's Party, Social Democratic Party, and the National Peasant Party, as well as a wide array of new political formations. The centerpiece of pending legislation is the adoption of a new constitution, with provisions for a multiparty system, guarantees of all freedoms and human rights ensconced in the UN Charter and other international covenants. As a result, the rapid pace of reforms promise to make many of the political institutions and divisions of power valid in early 1989 obsolete after the adoption by referendum of a new constitution. HSWP reformists, led by Imre Pozsgay, succeeded at a Central Committee emergency plenum on February 10-11, 1989, in gaining agreement on the need to move toward a multiparty system over an orderly period lasting several years. Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, May 1989. </body> </article> </text>