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21. Disz (Union of Working Youth), The national, unified, mass youth organization led by the HWP was established in June 1950 to cover young people aged 14-25. The purpose was to gain full control over the youth movement, hitherto divided into several organizations, to raise young people as believers in the 'people's democratic system', and to implement the party's resolutions on youth. Furthermore, Disz provided the HWP with its supplies of new members. Its structure was hierarchical and centralized in exactly the same way as the parent party. Disz published a central daily paper, Szabad Ifjúság (Free Youth), and a weekly. The organization broke up during the 1956 revolution. Its place and role began to be taken over in the spring of 1957 by Kisz-the Communist Youth League. |
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22. Doctrinaire, dogmatic, These pejorative expressions were applied to rigid, unrealistic adherents of Soviet-style communist political thinking. The implication was that theoretical doctrine or dogma had been allowed to count for more than reality. The opposite heresy, of arbitrarily subordinating theory to practicalities, was known as opportunism. |
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23. East and West Germany, At the end of the Second World War, conquered Germany was divided into US, British, French and Soviet zones of occupation. The Cold War that began in 1947 produced a deep rift between the Soviet Union and the three Western allies. In 1949, the three Western zones were combined into the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviet Union responded by turning its zone into the communist German Democratic Republic. Berlin, the former capital of Germany, remained under four-power control, but East Berlin also became the capital of East Germany. (The capital of West Germany was Bonn.) In 1961, the East German regime raised a wall between East and West Berlin. This remained as a symbol of Europe's divisions until 1989. |
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24. Factionalism, The formation of factions within the party by those not in total agreement with its policies and actions was strictly forbidden in communist parties. Lenin taught that an image of absolute unity and strength had to be presented to the outside world. Factions, he argued, destroyed the party's unity of principle and organization, undermined discipline, hindered the attainment of its objectives, made it harder to control, and radically reduced its striking power and effectiveness. Factionalism was therefore a serious charge to level at a party member, which could lead to a death sentence, regardless of whether the charge was justified or not. |
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25. Fellow travellers, This term was applied by the communists to members of the intelligentsia (and later to politicians in other political parties) who sympathized with communist ideas and were prepared to support the communists in certain cases. |
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26. Greater Budapest Central Workers' Council (Nagy-budapesti Központi Munkástanács), This was formed at a meeting on November 14, 1956, held at the United Incandescent Lamp Factory in Újpest, by delegates from district and factory workers' councils. (The Kádárite authorities had prevented the inaugural meeting from taking place on the 12th and 13th.) The Greater Budapest Central Workers' Council struggled to defend the gains made in the revolution, until it was dissolved on 9 December. It stood at the head of the spontaneous national strike, which had resumed after 4 November. It called for the election of district workers' councils in Budapest and tried to establish a national workers' council. It established contact with the existing revolutionary organizations and with bodies that supported the revolution, such as the Writers' Union and the Revolutionary Council of the Hungarian Intelligentsia. There were burgeoning relations with factory and district workers' councils in the provinces. The Greater Budapest Central Workers' Council had discussed the revolutionary demands on several occasions with the Kádár government. Its programme was founded on the draft made by István Bibó on 6 November. It was headed by Sándor Rácz and Sándor Bali. The existence and activity of the Greater Budapest Central Workers' Council represented a threat to the government that a dual system of power might develop. On 8 December (the day of the Salgótarján shooting), it called a 48-hour strike for 11 and 12 December , in protest against the fruitless negotiations and the mounting terror. Responding on the following day, the Kádár regime outlawed district workers' councils, and on the 11th had Rácz and Bali arrested at the gate of the Parliament building, as they arrived for negotiations. |
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27. Greater Budapest (Nagy-Budapest), The name was used for the enlarged Budapest of 22 districts, formed in 1950 by incorporating into the capital several surrounding towns and villages (Békásmegyer, Budafok, Csepel, Kispest, Mátyásföld, Rákoshegy, Újpest etc.) |
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28. Greek settlers in Hungary, About 120,000 Greeks, mainly women, children and wounded, and later partisans of the Greek Democratic Army, were resettled in European socialist countries after the Greek Civil War of 1944-9, under secret agreements between the Greek communist leaders and their governments. The first group arrived in Hungary in 1948. The refugees, most of whom were peasants and unskilled workers, were settled in closed communities. There were sizeable colonies at the tobacco factory in Kőbányai út (8th District) and at a specially built village, which took the name Beloiannisz in 1952. Later, Greek blocks were designated on housing estates. This isolation of the community was designed to disguise their numbers and allow local leaders of the Greek Communist Party (GCP) to keep them under close surveillance. Many of them hardly learnt Hungarian at all and took no part in Hungarian life. In 1953, the GCP members (20 per cent of the refugees) were made members of the HWP. The body representing them, the Organization of Political Emigrés Living in Hungary, was under both Hungarian and Greek party control, according to its statutes. There were waves of repatriation in the 1960s and again in the 1970s. The Greek community in Hungary today numbers about 3000. |
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29. Győr National Council, On October 26, 1957, the chairman of Győr-Sopron County Council accepted the demands of the demonstrators in Győr and travelled with them up to Budapest to place them before the government. At the same time, the senior party leadership fled to Czechoslovakia. That was the situation when the Győr National Council was established in the City Hall. Attila Szigethy, a member of Parliament, was chosen as chairman. From the outset, the council assumed authority over the county. In its first proclamation, it declared the ÁVH to be dissolved in the county's territory, and called on all communities to establish revolutionary councils under their own control. On 28 October, it issued an ultimatum to the government calling for an immediate end to the armed struggle. The Győr National Council convened the meeting on 30 October that gave rise to the Transdanubian National Council. It ceased activity on 4 November after the Soviet intervention. |
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30. Hard-liners, The hard-liners in the HWP leadership showed no inclination to make political changes or concessions. They were prepared even to use military force to protect Hungary's Stalinist (Rákosi-ite) system. Among the main advocates of a hard line in October 1956 were HWP First Secretary Ernő Gerő, Prime Minister András Hegedüs and István Kovács, first secretary of the Budapest HWP Committee. |
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31. Household plots, Smallholdings assigned to members of ? agricultural cooperatives as an extra source of income and food. They consisted of land and livestock for personal use. The size of each plot was laid down in the cooperative statutes, bearing legal stipulations in mind. They were generally 0.5?0.75 cadastral hold (0.24?0.35 hectares) in area, and initially, the quantity of livestock that could be kept was stipulated as well. Socialist policy-makers applied tight restrictions on the use of and entitlement to ~. They were only to play the auxiliary role of supplying the household and it was thought that they would remain only temporarily. In the event, the ~ became central to peasant families, providing them with more than half their income in the 1960s and playing an important part in production. After 1989, the ~ came under the legal control of local government and Act I/1992 lifted the size restrictions on them. |
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32. HSWP (Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt), See HSWP (Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt). |
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33. HSWP (Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt), A party of this name existed as a legal cover for the banned Hungarian Party of Communists, with István Vági as its chairman. The leaders were arrested in 1927. By 1928, it became impossible for the party to function and it was disbanded. (ii) The Presidium (Political Committee) of the HWP declared the party dissolved on October 31, 1956 and founded a new party with this name. It appointed a preparatory committee for the founding congress, consisting of Ferenc Donáth, János Kádár, Sándor Kopácsi, Géza Losonczy, György Lukács, Imre Nagy and Zoltán Szántó. Sándor Haraszti became the editor of the new party's daily paper, the Népszabadság. The leadership continued to hold meetings after 4 November, in the Yugoslav Embassy, in the absence of Sándor Kopácsi, who had been arrested, and of course, of János Kádár. (iii) The name was expropriated by the Kádár government for its new pro-Soviet party on November 4, 1956. The members of the Kádár government met on November 7, 1956, after arriving in Budapest, and appointed an HSWP Provisional Executive Committee: Antal Apró, Béla Biszku, Lajos Fehér, János Kádár, Gyula Kállai, Károly Kiss and György Marosán. (Ferenc Münnich joined on 11 November.) A Provisional Central Committee and provisional Budapest and provincial bodies were formed during November. Permanent members of the leading committees were appointed in June 1957 at a national HSWP meeting. The Provisional Executive Committee was effectively the Political Committee, which was the name it took in June 1957. |
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34. Hungarian Democratic Independence Movement (Magyar Demokratikus Függetlenségi Mozgalom), This illegal organization was initiated on November 13, 1956 by members of the Revolutionary Committee of the Hungarian Intelligentsia. It was led by György Ádám and Miklós Gimes. On 15 November, it issued its 'Ten Commandments of Hungarian Rebirth' and founded a paper, Október Huszonharmadika (October 23), which appeared surreptitiously in duplicated form until mid-December. |
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35. Hungarian Democratic Youth League (Madisz), This mass organization of 15-24-year-olds outside the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) was founded at the latter's initiative in Szeged on December 31, 1944. As various political parties established youth organizations after February 1945, the ~ came under communist control. In March 1948, after the various communist-led organizations covering different social strata had been formed, it combined with the membership of the Trade-Union Young-Worker and Apprentice Movement (SZIT). |
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36. Hungarian National Revolutionary Committee (Magyar Nemzeti Forradalmi Bizottmány), Initiated by József Dudás, an engineer, this was established on October 29, 1956, at a meeting in the premises of the 2nd District Council. Its members had a wide range of affiliations. The committee endorsed the 25 points drawn up by Dudás. These included withdrawal of the Soviets, formation of a provisional government, dissolution of the ÁVH and revolutionary participation in law enforcement, establishment of a students' parliament and councils of workers, peasants and soldiers, the right to strike, freedom of religion, the press and assembly, a multi-party system, withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, and neutrality. Dudás became chairman of the organization, which he moved into the offices of the Szabad Nép. There he started a paper for the organization and recruited an armed group. In spite of all these efforts, the committee was unable to broaden its base and became almost completely isolated in the final days of the revolution. |
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37. Hungarian Revolutionary Council (Magyar Forradalmi Tanács), Strasbourg, Established at a meeting in Strasbourg on January 5-8, 1957, the Hungarian Revolutionary Council sought to express the desire of Hungarians for independence and freedom. It drew the Western powers' attention to their commitments under the UN resolutions, by pressing for an immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary and refusing to cooperate with the Kádár government. Anna Kéthly was elected president and Béla Király and József Kővágó vice-presidents. The delegates at Strasbourg decided on the principles for the council's policies, its organizational structure, and its economic, refugee, cultural and information policies. However, it soon lost significance, due to adverse developments in world politics. |
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38. Hungarian Revolutionary Council (Magyar Forradalmi Tanács), Vienna, This small organization was formed in December 1956, mainly by revolutionaries from Pesterzsébet and Csepel (20th and 21st districts). It sought to continue the struggle for the revolution's aims with Western financial support, conspiratorial means, and later weapons. After a time, most of its members moved to Genoa (due to Austria's neutrality). Three couriers sent to Hungary were arrested (and two of them executed), after which the organization more or less ceased to function. |
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39. Hungarian-Soviet Society (Magyar-Szovjet Társaság), Ostensibly intended to deepen Hungarians-Soviet friendship, the society's actual purpose was to propagate the Soviet type of communist system. It was founded as the Hungarian-Soviet Cultural Society in 1945 and already had half a million members a year later. After changing its name and becoming a standard communist mass organization in 1948, it claimed 1.3 million members and 8000 local branches in 1953, although most of these operated only formally. The Hungarian-Soviet Society fell apart during the 1956 revolution. It was reconstituted as the Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Society in the summer of 1957, but without a membership. |
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40. HWP (Hungarian Workers' Party, Magyar Dolgozók Pártja), The party came about by what was officially a merger between the Hungarian Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, when the latter, weakened and decimated, was in fact absorbed into the former. Although the social democrat Árpád Szakasits became president of the HWP, the real leader was Mátyás Rákosi. The membership exceeded a million. Rákosi was dismissed as leader in July 1956, but his successor, Ernő Gerő, differed little from him in policy. János Kádár took over from Gerő on October 25, 1956, but the party disintegrated when the revolution succeeded. The Hungarian party had the same structure as the CPSU, with a Central Committee (known as the Central Leadership) of 100-110 members. This was the main decision-making body between party congresses, in some ways resembling the legislature in a multi-party democracy. Its members were elected by the delegates at the party congress. Resolutions of the Central Committee were binding on all lower party organs and the party membership. The Central Committee elected from among its own members a smaller, executive body, the Political Committee. This, after the pattern in all communist parties in the Soviet bloc, was the supreme body, equivalent in some respects to the government of a multi-party democracy. In the HWP's case, it consisted of 8-12 members, of which one was the party first secretary. Political Committee resolutions were also binding on lower organs and the membership. The Secretariat consisted of the secretaries of the Central Committee, who were also members of the Political Committee. It organized, orchestrated and controlled the congress, oversaw the implementation of Central Committee and Political Committee resolutions, and was in charge of personnel matters. It oversaw the administrative work of the Central Committee apparatus. This was organized into departments corresponding to the various ministries of government: the Foreign Affairs Department of the Central Committee oversaw the Foreign Ministry, the Planning and Financial Department the Finance Ministry etc. They also drew up the background materials for the party leadership. |
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