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Hungary Rakosi's Rule
In 1947 the postwar cooperation between the Soviet
Union and
the West collapsed, marking the beginning of the Cold War
and the
beginning of the end for Hungary's democratic coalition
government. Having seen communist parties seize power in
Poland,
Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia and a communist
insurgency
threaten Greece, the Western powers dedicated themselves
to
containing Soviet influence. In May communists were
expelled from
the governments of Italy and France, and a month later the
United
States promulgated the Marshall Plan for the economic
reconstruction of Europe, which was appealing to the to
East
European governments.
Stalin feared a weakening of the Soviet Union's grip on
Eastern Europe. Anticommunist forces in the region
remained
potent, and most of the communist governments were
unpopular. In
addition, East European parties began taking positions
independent of Moscow; for example, communists in the
Polish and
Czechoslovak governments favored participation in the
Marshall
Plan, and Yugoslavia and Bulgaria broached the idea of a
Balkan
confederation. By September Stalin had abandoned
gradualism and
reversed his earlier advocacy of independent, "national
roads to
socialism." He now pushed for tighter adherence to
Moscow's line
and rapid establishment of Soviet-dominated communist
states in
Hungary and elsewhere. The policy shift was indicated in
September 1947 at the founding meeting of the Cominform,
an
organization linking the Soviet communist party with the
communist parties of Eastern Europe, France, and Italy.
The HCP proceeded swiftly to assume full control of the
government. First Secretary Rakosi became the country's
most
powerful official and dictated major political and
economic
changes. In October 1947, noncommunist political figures
were
told to cooperate with a new coalition government or leave
the
country. In June 1948, the Social Democratic Party merged
with
the HCP, forming the Hungarian Workers' Party (HWP). In
1949 the
regime held a single-list election, and on August 20 of
that year
the government ratified a Soviet-style constitution
(see Constitution of 1949
, ch. 4). The official name of the
country
became the Hungarian People's Republic, and the HWP's
control of
the government was assured. In 1952 Rakosi also became
prime
minister.
In 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform, and
the
Soviet-Yugoslav rift broke into the open. Almost overnight
it
became treasonous for communists to display any approval
of
Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito or to advocate national
roads to
socialism. Beginning in 1949, the Soviet Union unleashed a
four-year reign of terror against "Titoists" in Eastern
Europe.
Rakosi purged members of the party's wartime underground,
potential rivals, and hundreds of others. Rajk, who
continued to
support a Hungarian road to socialism, "confessed" to
being a
Titoist and a fascist spy and was hanged in 1950. Another
victim
was future party chief Janos Kadar, who was jailed and
tortured
for three years.
Between 1948 and 1953, the Hungarian economy was
reorganized
according to the Soviet model
(see Economic Policy and Performance, 1945-85
, ch. 3). In a campaign reminiscent of
the
Soviet Union's forced collectivization of agriculture in
the
1930s, the regime compelled most peasants to join
collective
farms and required them to make deliveries to the
government at
prices lower than the cost of production. The regime
accelerated
nationalization of banking, trade, and industry, and by
December
1949 nearly 99 percent of the country's workers had become
state
employees. The trade unions lost their independence, and
the
government introduced Soviet-style central planning.
Planners
neglected the production of consumer goods to focus on
investment
in heavy industry, especially steel production, and
economic
self-sufficiency. In January 1949, Hungary joined the
Council for
Mutual Economic Assistance
(Comecon--see Glossary), an
organization designed to further economic cooperation
between the
Soviet Union's satellites. The authorities also agreed to
form
joint-stock companies with the Soviet Union. These
companies
allowed the Soviet Union to dominate Hungary's air and
river
transportation, as well as its bauxite, crude oil, and
refining
industries and other sectors.
With the opposition parties disbanded and the trade
unions
collared, the churches became the communists' main source
of
opposition. The government had expropriated the churches'
property with the land reform, and in July 1948 it
nationalized
church schools. Protestant church leaders reached a
compromise
with the government, but the head of the Roman Catholic
Church--
Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty--resisted. The government
arrested him
in December 1948 and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Shortly
thereafter, the regime disbanded most Catholic religious
orders,
and it secularized Catholic schools
(see Religion and Religious Organizations
, ch. 2).
Stalin died in March 1953. The new Soviet leadership
soon
permitted a more flexible policy in Eastern Europe known
as the
New Course. In June, Rakosi and other party leaders--among
them
Imre Nagy--were summoned to Moscow, where Soviet leaders
harshly
criticized them for Hungary's dismal economic performance.
Soviet
communist party Presidium member Lavrenti Beria reportedly
upbraided Rakosi for naming Jews to Hungary's top party
positions
and accused him of seeking to make himself the "Jewish
King of
Hungary." (Communists of Jewish origin had dominated the
party
leadership and the secret police for a decade after the
war, and
every party leader from Bela Kun to Erno Gero had Jewish
roots.)
Rakosi retained his position as party chief, but the
Soviet
leaders forced the appointment of Nagy as prime minister.
He
quickly won the support of the government ministries and
the
intelligentsia. Nagy also ended the purges and began
freeing
political prisoners. In his first address to the National
Assembly as prime minister, Nagy attacked Rakosi for his
use of
terror, and the speech was printed in the party newspaper.
Nagy charted his New Course for Hungary's drifting
economy in
a speech before the Central Committee, which gave the plan
unanimous approval
(see Party Structure
, ch. 4). Hungary
ceased
collectivization of agriculture, allowed peasants to leave
the
collective farms, canceled the collective farms'
compulsory
production quotas, and raised government prices for
deliveries.
Government financial support and guarantees were extended
to
private producers, investment in the farm sector jumped 20
percent in the 1953-54 period, and peasants were able to
increase
the size of their private plots. The number of peasants on
collective farms thus shrank by half between October and
December
1953. Nagy also slashed investment in heavy industry by
41.1
percent in 1953-54 and shifted resources to light industry
and
the production of consumer goods. However, Nagy failed to
fundamentally alter the planning system and neglected to
introduce incentives to replace compulsory plan targets,
resulting in a poorer record of plan fulfillment after
1953 than
before. Rakosi used his influence to disrupt Nagy's
reforms and
erode his political position. In 1954 Soviet leaders who
favored
economic policies akin to Nagy's lost a Kremlin power
struggle.
Rakosi seized the opportunity to attack Nagy as a
right-wing
deviationist and to criticize shortcomings in the economy.
Nagy
was forced to resign from the government in April 1955 and
was
later expelled from the Politburo, Central Committee, and
finally
the party itself. Thus, the Central Committee that had
lauded the
New Course in June 1953 unanimously condemned its
architect less
than two years later.
After Nagy's fall, collectivization and development of
heavy
industry again became the prime focus of Hungary's
economy. The
purges did not resume, however, as Rakosi did not enjoy
the same
amount of power or Soviet support that he did while Stalin
was
alive. Moreover, he now had to contend with many outspoken
opponents within the party, including numerous victims of
the
purges who had been readmitted to the HWP on Moscow's
orders. A
schism soon split the party leadership from the rank and
file,
and the party organization within the Writers' Association
became
a forum for intraparty opposition. In 1955 a rapprochement
between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia produced the
Belgrade
Declaration, in which Moscow confirmed that each nation
had the
right to follow its own road to socialism. One year later,
Soviet
leader Nikita S. Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his
"secret
speech" before the Twentieth Party Congress of the Soviet
communist party. These external events shook Rakosi, who
was a
strong opponent of Titoism and the instigator of Hungary's
purges.
HWP members opposed to Rakosi compelled him to admit
that the
purges involved abuse of power and that Rajk and others
had been
its innocent victims. Rakosi ordered an investigation, but
it
cleared him and blamed the state security police instead.
This
result not only inflamed the party opposition but also
alienated
Rakosi from the police. In June 1956, Rakosi's position
became
untenable. The party press printed open attacks. The
Writers'
Association, the newly created
Petofi Circle (see Glossary), and
student organizations clamored for Rakosi's ouster and
arrest. On
June 30, the Central Committee dissolved the Petofi Circle
and
expelled intellectuals from the party. By mid-July,
however,
Soviet leaders began to fear outright revolution and
called for
Rakosi to step down. He resigned after a meeting of the
Central
Committee on July 17. Gero, Rakosi's deputy, was appointed
first
secretary. Moscow hoped to introduce a slow
liberalization, but
Gero was too closely identified with Rakosi, and party
discipline
subsequently broke down completely.
Data as of September 1989
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