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21.03.

1919: Hungarian Soviet Republic Founded

1919: Hungarian Soviet Republic Founded
Photo Credit To https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Hungarian_Soviet_Republic_1919_RO_-_no_legend.svg

The Hungarian Soviet Republic was founded on this day in 1919 as the second state in world history based on communist ideology (after Soviet Russia). The Hungarian Soviet Republic appeared only around four months after the end of World War I, while chaos reigned in Hungary. To remind, Hungary was part of Austria-Hungary, which was on the losing side in World War I, and its victorious neighbors (such as Romania) tried to annex parts of its territory.



The most important person in the Hungarian Soviet Republic was Béla Kun, a man of Jewish descent (his surname was originally Kohn). Interestingly, Béla Kun was only the foreign minister in the Hungarian Soviet Republic (in communist terminology the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs), while Sándor Garbai was the head of government. However, in practice, the real power lay with Béla Kun. Reforms were introduced in the new Republic, such as nationalization, the abolition of aristocratic titles, and limiting land ownership to 40 hectares. The situation escalated to a form of Red Terror (Hungarian: vörösterror), which included acts of political murder.

The Hungarian Soviet Republic fell already in summer the same year, meaning it lasted for only around four months. Béla Kun and other high-ranking communists fled to Austria on 1 August that same year, while Romanian troops occupied Budapest.

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