White Terror (Hungary)
The White Terror in Hungary (
Background
At the end of
In this volatile atmosphere, the nation's fledgling efforts to form a single stable government failed. In March 1919, a government of communists, taking over from a Social Democrat-Communist coalition, established the
First phase (1919)
In the south of the country, an alternative government was formed to replace the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Leading the armed wing of this new government, the "National Army", was Admiral Miklós Horthy, the last commander of the erstwhile Austro-Hungarian Navy.[5]
Among the officers who answered Horthy's call were ultra-nationalist soldiers who mounted a campaign of atrocities in a retaliation to the Red Terror; to eliminate communist supporters and frighten the population into obedience to the new order.[6]
The pogroms and mass murders were carried out by units of the "National Army" commanded by Mihály Horthy; paramilitary organisations also committed killings, especially during the "Hungarian Awakening".[7]
These units, commonly known as the "White Guard," carried out a campaign of murder, torture, and humiliation.
The most notorious of unit commanders was
Hardest hit were the regions of Transdanubia, the wider area of Horthy's headquarters in Siófok, and in the lowlands between the Danube and the Theiss rivers, where mass murders which aroused international attention were committed in Kecskémet and Orgovány.[7]
Second phase (post-1919)
The National Army invaded
End of the White Terror
By 1920, the terror had receded noticeably.[7] In 1921, Pál Prónay was prosecuted for crimes related to the White Terror. After Prónay joined a failed attempt to restore the Habsburg king, Charles I of Austria to Hungary's throne, his battalion was disbanded.[12]
Despite the disbandment of the Prónay battalion, in subsequent years, sporadic attacks occurred.[7]
See also
- Red Terror (Hungary)
- Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–20)
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8143-3095-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-0399-2.
- ISSN 0037-6779.
- ^ Balogh, Eva, Istvan Friedrich and the Hungarian Coup d'Etat of 1919: A Reevaluation, Slavic Review, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Jun., 1976), pp. 269-286
- ^ Bodo, Bela, Paramilitary Violence in Hungary After the First World War, East European Quarterly, June 22, 2004
- ^ a b c d Bodo, Paramilitary Violence
- ^ ISBN 9783110883299.
- JSTOR 3786436. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
- .
- ^ Bodo, "The White Terror in Hungary," 156.
- ^ Sakmyster, Thomas L. (2000). Miklos Horthy: Hungary's Admiral on Horseback. Columbia University Press.
- ^ Bodo, Political Violence
Further reading
- Gerwarth, Robert (2008). "The central European counter-revolution: Paramilitary violence in Germany, Austria and Hungary after the great war | Past & Present (200.1)" (PDF). ceulearning.ceu.edu. p. 175–209.
External links
Media related to White Terror (Hungary) at Wikimedia Commons