hungary

Question 1

Mátyás Rákosi

Answer 1

• prime minister from 52-53. had other leadership roles as a communist before this
• “Stalin’s best pupil” (cult of personality)
• Show-trials and other violations of the law
• many underwent imprisonment, internment or forced labour under him

Question 2

László Rajk

Answer 2

• accused of being a “Titoist Spy”, an agent for western imperialism and one who planned on restoring capitalism and jeopardizing Hungary’s independence
• His reburial in the Kerepesi Cemetery in 1956 became a demonstration against the Rákosi system.

Question 3

Imre Nagy

Answer 3

Hungarian Communist Party leader who attempted to end association with the USSR which lead to the 1956 Hungarian revolt

Question 4

The “New Course” in Hungary from 1953

Answer 4

• He ended the forced development of heavy industry
• He stopped the collectivization
• He closed the labour camps and gave amnesty to political prisoners
• More consumer goods

Question 5

Rákosi’s removal from his positions

Answer 5

Rakosi accused of endangering socialism by industrialization, staging of show trials, cult of personality, etc

Question 6

József Mindszenty

Answer 6

• former cardinal and leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary (underwent a show trial under Rakosi)
• After eight years in prison, he was freed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and granted political asylum by the United States embassy in Budapest, where Mindszenty lived for the next fifteen years

Question 7

Hungarian revolution of 1956

Answer 7

Hungarian dissidents had launched a popular uprising to demand democratic reforms, and shortly after, Soviet tanks and troops entered Budapest to crush the uprising and restore an orthodox, pro-Soviet regime.

Question 8

trial of Imre Nagy

Answer 8

the Soviets returned Nagy to Hungary, where he was secretly charged with organizing the overthrow of the Hungarian people’s democratic state and with treason. Nagy was secretly tried, found guilty, sentenced to death and executed by hanging

Question 9

Political amnesty- beginning of reform

Answer 9

the model state of “Khrushchevism”
“those who are not against us are with us”
1963- amnesty for political prisoners
Some taboos
– The leading role of the Party
– The Soviet Union and its military presence
• If the people don’t oppose or criticize these „taboos”, they will gradually get
– more personal freedom
– improving living standards and quality of life

Question 10

The New Economic Mechanism, 1968

Answer 10

• Better incentives
• To raise the living standards
• Agriculture and infrastructure received more attention than before. Modernization of
farming
• Co-operatives and industrial and agricultural firms attained greater independence.
They made greater efforts to adjust to market conditions and consumer demands
• Various forms of private enterprise were permitted (retails, repairs, catering)

Question 11

Retreat from the reform, 1973-79

Answer 11

-The re-centralization of the economy
• The National Planning Office became more important again
• Restriction of the income of the household farming
• The supporters of the reform were removed from the party leadership

Question 12

the reburial of Imre Nagy

Answer 12

In June 1989, Nagy and other prominent figures of the 1956 Revolution were rehabilitated and reburied with full honors, an event that played a key role in the collapse of the Hungarian Communist regime.

Question 13

1990 elections in Hungary

Answer 13

• Free and democratic elections

- The elections were won by the Hungarian Democratic Forum (József Antall, Hungarian PM 1990-1993.)

Question 14

The period of limited democracy in Hungary, 1945-1948

Answer 14

-Prime Minister from the Smallholders’ Party (into private ownership. their tagline was God, homeland, family).
– Secret security police
– Dirty methods to disintegrate the Smallholders’ Party; e.g. arrest of Béla Kovács by the Soviets (pretext: alleged conspiracy against the republic)

1947 elections
• Multi-party elections
But:
• The new electoral law excluded about 466,000 people from the vote on grounds of
membership in the pre-war fascist party
• “The blue slips elections” – fraud by the Communist Party

Question 15

The main features of the Rákosi-era, 1949-1956

Answer 15

The elimination of the multi-party system, 1947-1949
– Salami tactics (the opposition is eliminated “slice by slice”)
– Ruling party: the Hungarian Workers’ Party
– Show-trials and other violations of the law
–onwards compulsory collectivization started on the land
• Compulsory deliveries to the state
• The persecution of the “kulak” (= the relatively affluent peasants)
-New industrial cities, e.g. Sztálinváros (Stalintown)

Question 16

The 1956 Hungarian revolution – goals and outcome

Answer 16

-students see Kruschev’s acceptance of Gomulka as encouraging.
-Student come out with 16 points (these mainly focus on better transparency, more freedoms, less centralization)
-Imre Nagy proposed as Prime Minister
-demonstration in Kossuth square
-Imre Nagy said Hungary was going to cancel the Warsaw Pact, as a response to the invasion of the Soviet troops.
-János Kádár announced the formation of the “Revolutionary
Workers’ and Peasants’ Government”.
-western non-intervention (but public sympathy)

Question 17

Repression and consolidation in Hungary, November 1956-1962

Answer 17

-kadar is tolerated by soviets
-nagy is imprisoned, executed
-Wage increases up to 20%
- The abolition of compulsory agricultural deliveries was confirmed
- 1959: the Churches regained their state subsidies and permission to organize religious
instruction in schools
-condemnation of rakosci era
A partial amnesty in 1960
• The dismantling of internment camps
• 1961: reform of the criminal code
– It banned the use of torture
– It abolished the practice of internal deportation

Question 18

Reform in Hungary in the 1960s and the New Economic Mechanism

Answer 18

• Better incentives
• To raise the living standards
• Agriculture and infrastructure received more attention than before. Modernization of
farming
• Co-operatives and industrial and agricultural firms attained greater independence.
They made greater efforts to adjust to market conditions and consumer demands
• Various forms of private enterprise were permitted (retails, repairs, catering)

Question 19

The main features of the late Kádár-period (the 1980s)

Answer 19

Economic problems, very high debts
– The legitimacy by consuming became a destabilizing factor
• Changing international situation
– Until 1985 “the Hungarian model” seemed unique. Can the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party keep pace with Gorbachev’s reforms?

Question 20

Life in Hungary in the period of “Goulash Communism”

Answer 20

Mixed ideology
• Steadily rising living standards
o More than enough food
o The basic symbols of material well-being: refrigerator, washing-machine,
television
o More and more people bought cars, despite waiting lists up to 6 years
Price of the reform: lack of independent foreign policy
Hungary participated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of the Prague Spring
-The social welfare system was continuously improved in the Kádár-era
• Full employment
• Retirement system
• Free medical care
• 1981: 42-hour working week
• 1981: free Saturday

Question 21

The negotiated revolution of Hungary, 1989-1990

Answer 21

1989-1990
Law on Association allows political parties to be formed
Dozens of parties were organized in the following months
The reburial ceremony of Imre Nagy on the Heroes Square
-National Round Table Conference (agree on on the peaceful transition to democracy, new electoral
system, form of state (republic))
-Constitutional Court was established