The Armed Forces in Hungarian Society: Finding a Role?

Abstract

The armed forces of Hungary have always faced difficulties in their relationship with society. Historically, the country has no glorious war-fighting tradition. It lost every war between 1487 and 1991, and failed to defend itself against Soviet invasion in 1956. These negative legacies were further aggravated by successive Hungarian regimes, all of which publicly criticised both their predecessors and the performance of the armed forces. Thus, for example, Hungary fought alongside the German fascists right up until the end of the Second World War. For the newly incumbent post-war communists it was easy to depict their forerunners as ‘the last satellite’ of fascism. In 1956 the armed forces were dissolved. They did not provide any organised support for the Hungarian uprising, which was subsequently suppressed with the support of Soviet arms. For those who sympathised with the revolution the armed forces’ inaction demonstrated their irrelevance.