H ungary, Anti‐Communist Protests, 1945–1989

Abstract

In early 1945, the Soviet‐backed secret police and people's courts began to arrest and imprison Hungarian supporters of democracy in a campaign of repression that continued for several decades. Many Hungarians were nonetheless determined to establish democratic governance. Under the control of the Independence Front, national councils were elected to administer municipal governments nationwide. Meanwhile, communists began to take control of trade unions and destroy opposition political parties. They undermined party leaders by declaring them anti‐democratic reactionaries and forcing their resignation. The leaders of the governing Smallholders' Party met this fate at the end of 1946. Bela Kovacs, secretary general of the party, was arrested on Soviet orders for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. Ferenc Nagy was compelled to resign from his post as prime minister in 1947 after the communists kidnapped his son. The party subsequently dissolved. Later that year political leaders were told to conform to the communist agenda or leave the country. Organized democratic opposition was largely eliminated by 1948. Over the next five years under Rákosi as the general secretary of the Hungarian Workers' Party, an estimated one million people – one tenth of the population – suffered arrest, prosecution, imprisonment or deportation (Judt 2005: 192).