The Jewish Role in the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919
The Jewish Role in the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919
The Hungarian Soviet Republic, which lasted for 133 days between 21st March and 1st August 1919, is an often overlooked event in early twentieth century history. It has been largely overshadowed by the February and October revolutions of 1917 in the Russian Empire and the resultant civil war.
When compared to the extreme revolutionary violence happening in Russia before, during and after the First World War. In addition to the better known attempts at communist revolution in Munich and Berlin during 1918. The Hungarian Soviet Republic was a relatively minor affair, but this seeming sideshow is extremely important for understanding the course Europe took over the next decade.
You see the little known truth is that the rise and the resultant atrocities of the Hungarian Soviet Republic gave rise to Europe’s first anti-jewish racial laws and resulted in the government of Admiral Miklos Horthy taking power in Budapest. (1)
Indeed it was after the Hungarian Soviet Republic that the first popular pogroms against the jews after the First World War took place and unfortunately for those who would claim these were ‘irrational people blaming the jews’. There was a very good reason behind them.
You see the Hungarian Soviet Republic was an extraordinarily jewish affair as the Hungarian socialist Paul Lendvai noted in 1988: ‘Many leaders of the Bela Kuhn government had been of Jewish origin.’ (2)
Examining the Hungarian Soviet Republic’s leadership in the form of the Revolutionary Governing Council (‘Forradalmi Kormanyzotanacs’) confirms this. The titular president of the republic was a token non-jewish socialist named Sandor Garbai, (3) while the real power was held by a jewish left-wing journalist named Bela Kun [sometimes spelled ‘Kuhn’] (the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs). (4) This very quickly resulted in Kun’s word becoming law and his being the effective dictator of Hungary during this period. (5)
Kun had form however. Since he had been significantly involved in causing and then implementing the Bolshevik revolution (6) and openly traded on this fact to maintain his authority within the Hungarian Communist Party [‘Kommunistak Magyarorszagi Partja’] (set up on 24th November 1918). (7) Kun was sent to Hungary by Lenin to ferment revolution (8) as a central element of the latter’s foreign policy was to export the revolution to capitalist states in order to prevent the Bolshevik revolution in Russia being encircled by hostile states and crushed. (9)
After the Hungarian Soviet Republic was extirpated by the Romanian army; Kun was put in charge of the Crimea in 1920 and conducted such vile atrocities that Lenin withdrew him for excessive cruelty. (10) He was described by a contemporary, and echoed more recently by Molnar, (11) as being ‘the incarnation of intellectual inadequacy, uncertainty of will, and authoritarian corruption.’ (12)
Not only that, but we know that Kuhn became a left-wing revolutionary because of his jewishness and as a way to ‘fight anti-Semitism’. (13)
Besides Kun the Revolutionary Governing Council comprised the following individuals from 21st March to 3rd April: (14)
Revolutionary Governing Council Chairman: Sandor Garbai
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs: Jeno Landler
Deputy People's Commissar for Internal Affairs: Bela Vago
People's Commissars for Agriculture: Sandor Csizmadia, Karoly Vantus, Jeno Hamburger and Gyorgy Nyisztor
Deputy People's Commissar for Agriculture: Hevesi Akos (appointed before 30th March)
People's Commissar for Military Affairs: Jozsef Pogany (appointed on 2nd April)
Deputy People's Commissars for Military Affairs: Bela Szanto and Tibor Szamuely
People's Commissar for Justice: Zoltan Ronai
Deputy People's Commissar for Justice: Istvan Ladai
People's Commissar for Trade and Industrial Affairs: Jeno Landler
Deputy People's Commissars for Trade and Industrial Affairs: Matyas Rakosi and Jozsef Haubrich
People's Commissar for Food Production: Mor Erdelyi
Deputy People's Commissar for Food Production: Artur Illes
People's Commissar for Education: Zsigmond Kunfi
Deputy People's Commissars for Education: Gyorgy Lukacs and Sandor Szabados (the latter was appointed on 28th March)
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs: Bela Kun
Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs: Peter Agoston
People's Commissar for Labour and Welfare: Dezso Bokanyi
Deputy People's Commissars for Labour and Welfare: Rezso Fiedler and Antal Guth (the latter was appointed on 28th March)
People's Commissar for German Affairs: Hendrik Kalmar
People's Commissar for Ruthenian Affairs: Oreszt Szabo (who actually took office) and then Stefan Agoston (the latter was appointed on 24th March)
People's Commissar for Financial Affairs: Eugen 'Jeno' Varga
Deputy People's Commissar for Financial Affairs: Bela Szekely
People's Commissar for Production: Vilmos Bohm
Deputy People's Commissars for Production: Gyula Hevesi and Antal Dovcsak
Of these individuals the following members were of jewish origin: Jeno Landler, (15) Jeno Hamburger, (16) Jozsef Pogany, (17) Bela Szanto, (18) Tibor Szamuely, (19) Zoltan Ronai, (20) Matyas Rakosi, (21) Artur Illes, (22) Zsigmond Kunfi, (23) Gyorgy Lukacs, (24) Bela Kun, Antal Guth, (25) Hendrik Kalmar, (26) Eugen 'Jeno' Varga, (27) Vilmos Bohm (28) and Gyula Hevesi. (29)
It is also worth noting that, while I cannot find direct evidence of such Mor Erdelyi was quite probably jewish as well. Since the first name Mor and the surname Erdelyi are frequently used jewish names and have had significant use in the state of Israel. (30)
Therefore some 17 appointments out of 34 available appointments to the Revolutionary Governing Council between 21st March and 3rd April went to jewish individuals. That is 50 percent of the council, which is approximately ten times the jewish demographic representation (4.9%) in the Hungarian population at the time. (31)
The Revolutionary Governing Council of 3rd April to 24th June was composed of the following individuals:
Revolutionary Governing Council Chairman: Sandor Garbai
People's Commissars for Trade and Industrial Affairs: Eugen 'Jeno' Varga, Antal Dovcsak, Gyula Hevesi, Jozsef Kelen, Matyas Rakosi and Ferenc Bajaki (the latter from 7th April)
People's Commissars for Internal Affairs and Transportation: Jeno Landler and Bela Vago
People's Commissars for Agriculture: Jeno Hamburger, Gyorgy Nyisztor and Karoly Vantus
People's Commissars for Military Affairs: Bela Kun, Vilmos Bohm, Rezso Fiedler, Jozsef Haubrich and Bela Szanto
People's Commissars for Justice: Zoltan Ronai and Istvan Lada
People's Commissars for Food Production: Mor Erdelyi, Artur Illes and Bernat Kondor
People's Commissars for Education: Zsigmond Kunfi, Gyorgy Lukacs, Sandor Szabaos and Tibor Szamuely
People's Commissars for Foreign Affairs: Bela Kun, Peter Agoston and Jozsef Pogany
People's Commissars for Labour and Welfare: Dezso Bokanyi and Antal Guth
People's Commissars for Financial Affairs: Bela Szekely and Gyula Lengyel
People's Commissar for German Affairs: Henrik Kalmar
People's Commissar for Ruthenian Affairs: Stefan Agoston
Of these individuals the following members were of jewish origin: Jeno Landler, Jeno Hamburger, Jozsef Pogany, Bela Szanto, Tibor Szamuely, Zoltan Ronai, Matyas Rakosi, Artur Illes, Zsigmond Kunfi, Gyorgy Lukacs, Bela Kun, Antal Guth, Hendrik Kalmar, Eugen 'Jeno' Varga, Vilmos Bohm, Gyula Hevesi, Bernat Kondor (nee Kohn) (32) and Jozsef Kelen. (33)
Therefore some 19 out of 35 available appointments to the Revolutionary Governing Council between 3rd April and 24th June went to jewish individuals. That is 54 percent of the council, which is approximately eleven times the jewish demographic representation (4.9%) in the Hungarian population at the time.
This continues with the slimmed down Revolutionary Governing Council that ruled Hungary from 24th June to 1st August. This was comprised of the following individuals:
Revolutionary Governing Council Chairman: Sandor Garbai
Deputy Revolutionary Governing Council Chairman: Antal Dovcsak
People's Commissars for Economic Affairs: Eugen 'Jeno' Varga, Gyorgy Nyisztor, Gyula Lengyel and Ferenc Bajaki
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs: Jeno Landler
People's Commissar for Military Affairs: Bela Szanto
People's Commissar for Justice: Peter Agoston
Deputy People's Commissar for Justice: Zoltan Ronai
People's Commissar for Education: Jozsef Pogany
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs: Bela Kun
People's Commissars for Labour and Welfare: Antal Guth
People's Commissar for German Affairs: Henrik Kalmar (temporarily until 25th July)
People's Commissar for Ruthenian Affairs: Stefan Agoston (temporarily)
Of these individuals the following members were of jewish origin: Jeno Landler, Jozsef Pogany, Bela Szanto, Zoltan Ronai, Bela Kun, Antal Guth, Hendrik Kalmar and Eugen 'Jeno' Varga.
Therefore some 8 out of 15 available appointments to the Revolutionary Governing Council from 24th June to 1st August went to jewish individuals. That is 53 percent of the council, which is approximately eleven times the jewish demographic representation (4.9%) in the Hungarian population at the time.
Looking at this data we can see that over half of the members of all three iterations of the Revolutionary Governing Council were jewish. That it occurred with all three instances informs us that it cannot be ascribed to coincidence, because it didn't vary significantly during the existence of the Hungarian Soviet Republic (and would reasonably be expected to if it was just coincidental).
I should also note that some of the individuals who I have given the benefit of the doubt as to their jewish identity almost certainly were. Since Mendelsohn concludes that 20 out of 26 individuals who were members of the three iterations of the Revolutionary Governing Council were of jewish origin. (34)
That even so philo-Semitic a historian as Paul Johnson is forced to admit - even while he downplays it - the fact that the leading roles in the Hungarian Soviet Republic were played by jewish individuals is highly significant. (35) As is the fact that the Hungarian Soviet Republic is studiously avoided - even though it is rather important to the subject he was discussing - by Leon Poliakov in his four volume classic 'The History of Anti-Semitism'. (36)
After all had anything other than a hugely disproportionate jewish revolutionary government in Hungary been the case.Then it is reasonable to state that they would have both Johnson and Poliakov would have presented it as evidence that the link between jewishness and participation in left wing revolutionary movement was coincidental.
However jewish involvement in the Hungarian Soviet Republic is even more significant than it first appears. Precisely because I have only pointed out the jewish participation in the Revolutionary Governing Council. I haven't pointed out, to quote Sachar, that: 'Jews in disproportionate numbers served as judges and prosecutors of the revolutionary courts, as propagandists and leaders of Communist youth and women's auxiliaries.' (37)
Chief among these individuals were Otto Korvin-Klein (the Chief Political Prosecutor at the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal) and Tibor Szamuely (the Commander of all Communist Paramilitaries). (38) Both of these individuals headed up what Lendvai has called 'the merciless persecution' of the opponents and ideologies enemies of the revolutionary government. (39)
Szamuely was particularly notable in that he set up and command the special communist terror unit known as the 'Lenin Boys'. The name referencing Lenin's order to Kun in regards to what to do with opponents of the new Soviet regime: 'shoot them all'. (40) Indeed Szamuely and his 'Lenin Boys' were so brutal – they appear to have delighted in torture for one thing – (41) that they appalled even the notoriously vicious Kun. (42)
Despite Sachar's protestations that the 'Lenin Boys' targeted jews as well as Hungarians. (43) They were primarily deployed against Hungarian peasants and not the highly urbanized jewish population. (44) Sachar claims, for example, that the 'Lenin Boys' killed 160 people in five months, which is rather disingenuous as this statistic seems to be drawn from the number of people executed by the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal that he also mentions on the same page. (45)
Scholars however put the figure of those murdered not at 160 people, but rather between a few hundred and a few thousand people. (46) Sachar's sheer disingenuousness on this point is presumably because he is aware that the body count of the 'Lenin Boys' is directly attributable to jews. Since they were lead by Szamuely and answerable only to Kun with Korvin-Klein providing the legal justification.
The 27.5 percent representation of jews among the victims of the 'Lenin Boys', which Sachar touts as evidence that jewishness had nothing to do with it (i.e. 44 of the 160 killed were jewish), (47) is not actually an argument that jewishness wasn't a factor in who was killed and who was spared, but rather is the opposite.
This is because the jews, to quote Sachar himself, had 'emerged as Hungary's predominant mercantile and professional community.' (48)
Now lets put some census statistics from 1910 – the last one we have before the Hungarian Soviet Republic came into being - behind that statement shall we?
In Hungary in 1910 the following statements were true:
Jews owned 54 percent of businesses (49)
Jews owned 85 percent of banks and financial institutions [i.e. 282 out of 333 individuals] (50)
Jews owned 19.9 percent of Hungarian land (51)
While they also compromised the following in Hungary in 1910: (52)
Jews comprised 46 percent of journalists
Jews comprised 50 percent of lawyers
Jews comprised 62 percent of medical doctors
They also accounted between 1900 and 1918 for 26 deputies in the Hungarian parliament and 12 Cabinet Ministers. (53)
So while jews were only 4.9 percent of the population. They accounted for roughly half (and usually more) of the white collar professionals in Hungary at the time. They also happened to comprise nearly all the financiers in the country and half the business owners.
This neatly demonstrates that while a 27.5 percent representation among the victims of the 'Lenin Boys' superficially seems evidence for the jews being specifically target by the revolutionaries.
When you factor in that jews comprised over half the very bourgeois professions that Marxist revolutionaries viewed as their greatest ideological enemies. Then evidence indicates the opposite: that jews were targeted in approximately half the proportion that they should have been as the ostensible ideological enemies of the revolutionary government.
That there is a causal link between the revolutionary government being disproportionately made up of jewish individuals and the disproportionate lack of violence against jewish capitalists/opponents of the regime is difficult to demonstrate conclusively. However the fact that Kun himself adopted revolutionary Marxism as a response to anti-Semitism is suggestive of just such a conclusion even if it doesn't by itself prove it.
Be that what it may: as we have seen the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919 was disproportionately made up of jews. In addition to the fact that its many crimes against humanity were carried out at the explicit behest of an almost exclusively jewish organizational hierarchy.
Therefore we can see that the revolution that brought the Hungarian Soviet Republic to power was a disproportionately jewish one. A fact that is common to many left wing revolutions at the time such as those of Lithuania and Moldova. (54)
References
(1) Bernard Wasserstein, 2012, ‘On The Eve: The Jews of Europe before the Second World War’, 1st Edition, Profile: London, p. 29
(2) Paul Lendvai, Nick Clark (Trans.), 1988, ‘Hungary: The Art of Survival’, 1st Edition, I. B. Tauris: London, p. 18
(3) Jonas Alexis, 2013, ‘Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A History of Conflict between Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism from the Early Church to Modern Times’, Vol. II, 1st Edition, Westbow: Bloomington, p. 499
(4) Jorg Hoensch, 1996, ‘A History of Modern Hungary 1867-1994’, 2nd Edition, Longman: New York, p. 92; Miklos Molnar, 2001, ‘A Concise History of Hungary’, 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, p. 259
(5) Ibid.
(6) Hoensch, Op. Cit., p. 88
(7) Ibid.
(8) C. A. Macartney, 1962, ‘Hungary: A Short History’, 1st Edition, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, p. 204; Howard Sachar, 2002, ‘Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the Aftermath of the Great War’, 1st Edition, Vintage: New York, p. 106
(9) Robert Service, 2000, ‘Lenin: A Biography’, 1st Edition, MacMillan: Basingstoke, p. 396
(10) Robert Conquest, 2008, [1990], ‘The Great Terror: A Reassessment’, 2nd Edition, Pimlico: London, p. 403
(11) Molnar, Op. Cit., p. 259
(12) Quoted by Conquest, Op. Cit., p. 403
(13) Sachar, Op. Cit., p. 105
(14) Derived from: https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forradalmi_Korm%C3%A1nyz%C3%B3tan%C3%A1cs
(15) Sachar, Op. Cit., p. 104
(16) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jen%C5%91_Hamburger
(17) Cf. Thomas Sakmyster, 2012, 'A Communist Odyssey: The Life of Jozsef Pogany', 1st Edition, Central European University Press: Budapest
(18) Milorad Drachkovitch, Branko Lazitch, 1986, ‘Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern: New, Revised and Expanded Edition’, 1st Edition, The Hoover Institution Press: Stanford, p. 456; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_Sz%C3%A1nt%C3%B3
(19) Drachkovitch, Lazitch, Op. Cit., p. 455; Macartney, Op. Cit., p. 205
(20) https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolt%C3%A1n_R%C3%B3nai
(21) http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rakosi_Matyas
(22) https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ill%C3%A9s_Art%C3%BAr
(23) http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Kunfi_Zsigmond
(24) Drachkovitch, Lazitch, Op. Cit., p. 282
(25) https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guth_Antal
(26) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Kalm%C3%A1r
(27) Allan Kagedan, 1995, 'Revival, Reconstruction or Rejection: Soviet Jewry in the Post War Years, 1944-48', p. 191 in Yaacov Ro'i (Ed.), 1995, 'Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union', 1st Edition, Frank Cass: Portland
(28) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilmos_B%C3%B6hm
(29) https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hevesi_Gyula
(30) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B3r_(given_name) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C3%A9lyi
(31) Macartney, Op. Cit., p. 161
(32) https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondor_Bern%C3%A1t
(33) https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelen_J%C3%B3zsef_(m%C3%A9rn%C3%B6k)
(34) Ezra Mendelsohn, 1983, 'The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars', 1st Edition, Indiana University Press: Bloomington, pp. 94-102
(35) Paul Johnson, 1987, 'A History of the Jews', 1st Edition, Weidenfeld & Nicholson: London, p. 450
(36) Bela Kun and his government are only mentioned in the context of French anti-Semitic commentary, but never does Poliakov explain why this might have been. Cf. Leon Poliakov, 2003, [1985], 'The History of Anti-Semitism', Vol. IV, 1st Edition, University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, p. 295
(37) Sachar, Op. Cit., p. 109
(38) Ibid.
(39) Lendvai, Op. Cit., p. 18
(40) Macartney, Op. Cit., p. 205; Molnar, Op. Cit., pp. 258-259
(41) Cf. Cecile Tormay's personal account in her 1923, 'An Outlaw's Diary', 2 Vols, 1st Edition, Philip Alan & Co: London
(42) Hoensch, Op. Cit., p. 96; Robert Service, 2007, 'Comrades. Communism: A World History', 1st Edition, MacMillan: Basingstoke, p. 89
(43) Sachar, Op. Cit., pp. 109-110
(44) Hoensch, Op. Cit., p. 96
(45) Sachar, Op. Cit., p. 109
(46) Molnar, Op. Cit., p. 259
(47) Sachar, Op. Cit., p. 109
(48) Ibid, p. 102
(49) Ibid, p. 102; Macartney, Op. Cit., p. 191
(50) Ibid.
(51) Macartney, Op. Cit., p. 191
(52) Sachar, Op. Cit., p. 103
(53) Ibid.
(54) https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jews-and-communism-in-lithuania-1918 ; https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jews-and-communism-in-moldovamoldavia