Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/451

Rh

The first victim of the new regime was Count Tisza, who was murdered on the morning of Oct. 31. His all too stubborn resistance to the extension of the franchise had earned him the hatred of the people. It was also universally believed at that time that it was to his advice that the beginning of the war was principally due, though it has since been proved, from official sources, that, on the contrary, Tisza was the only one of the ministers present at the fateful council who spoke against the declaration of war on Serbia, a fact which he was too proud to announce publicly during his lifetime.

Karolyi had triumphed over even his strongest opponents, but he was not destined to enjoy his triumph long. Now that he had seized the reins of government it was soon abundantly clear that he had none of the qualities enabling him to fill the part to which his morbid ambition had led him to aspire, and that, where he thought to push, he was himself pushed. When the reins of government slipped from his feeble hands, he played them into those of the Bolshevists, who, emancipated from all ties of country, indulged in an orgy of plunder and murder, plunging Hungary into a misery deeper than any she had suffered from the war. (E. v. W.)

The People's Republic. The forces by which the monarchy and the constitution were overthrown, and which after their overthrow controlled the situation, were represented by three groups, of which only one had previously been represented in Parliament that led by Karolyi. These groups were (i) the Social Democratic party, which in 1919 had 215,022 associate members; (2) the Bourgeois-Radical party of Oskar Jaszi (b. 1885), the members of which were mainly Jewish intellectuals; (3) the party of Independence, under Count Karolyi, which had great support among the undiluted Magyars of the Alfold (the great central Hungarian plain) because it upheld the Kossuth tradition of separation from Austria. It was the representatives of these three groups who, under Karolyi's leadership, had con- stituted the National Council on Oct. 26. On the 2pth the Diet at Agram declared the independence of Croatia, and on the 3oth the National Assembly of German-Austria proclaimed the Republic at Vienna. On the night of Oct. 30 occurred the revolution in Budapest. Workmen's and soldiers' councils on the Russian model had already been formed; but, though the revolution was the work of the mob, it undoubtedly had wide support among the middle classes and the peasants, while the murder of Count Tisza removed the only man strong enough to have arrested its course.

After Wekerle's retirement the Archduke Joseph, as the King's representative, had nominated a new Ministry consisting of members of the three revolutionary groups, with Karolyi at their head. These men at first took the oath of allegiance; but as early as Nov. i they asked permission to rescind it; the King's permission was given, and the Karolyi Cabinet consti- tuted itself as a People's Government, and took a fresh oath of allegiance to the National Council. To the further wish ex- pressed by the Government, that King Charles should abdicate, he made no reply; but on Nov. 13 he issued from Eckartsau a proclamation announcing his withdrawal from all affairs of State, and his recognition in advance of any form of govern- ment which the Hungarians might decide upon.

On Nov. 16 the National. Council proclaimed Hungary a People's Republic, dissolved the two Houses of Parliament, and handed over power to Karolyi and a committee of the National Council, pending the convocation of a National Con- stituent Assembly, which, however, never met. On Jan. n Karolyi was elected by the National Council provisional Presi- dent of the Republic and he himself appointed Dionys Berinkey (b. 1871) Minister-President. The new Government did not recognize the armistice concluded by the Italian Gen. Diaz with the Higher Command of the dissolving Austro-Hungarian army; and, in the hope that as a pacifist and a consistent oppo- nent of war he would obtain better terms for Hungary, Karolyi proceeded to Belgrade, where he concluded with Gen. Franchet d'Esperey, the commander-in-chief of the Entente troops in the Balkans, a fresh armistice. He had already deliberately de-

stroyed the Hungarian army; the new armistice established a line of demarcation which gave over large portions of Hungary and Transylvania to Rumanian and Serbian occupation.

In order to avoid the threatened partition Karolyi and Oskar Jaszi, the Minister of Nationalities, began negotiations for the transformation of Hungary into a pacifist confederation. They had not proceeded far, however, before the country was invaded by Rumanian and Czech troops, who occupied two-thirds of it, even beyond the lines of demarcation. A few of the Hun- garian troops which had arrived in good order from the front wished to offer resistance; but this Karolyi would not allow. The military mission of the Entente in Budapest took cognizance of this further occupation, but paid no attention to the protests of the Hungarians.

The failure of the Government in its dealings with the En- tente roused bitter feeling among the people, who had hoped that the new men would be able to save the thousand-year-old Magyar State, and this discontent was rendered more acute by the anti-national attitude of the two Government parties, the Social Democrats and the Bourgeois-Radicals. In consequence of the disbandment of the army, there was only one organized force in the country, that of the Socialist trade unions, the leaders of which now desired to assert their new-won power. They thwarted all attempts to form a new National army, and the fall of two War Ministers was caused by parades of Social- ist soldiers' councils. As the Social Democrats and the Jaszi Radicals were also agitating against the influence of the Church, so dominant in Hungary, and in favour of non-religious ethics, the reaction developed on nationalist and religious principles. The Szekler soldiers, who had been driven from Transylvania by the Rumanians, the league of " awakening Hungarians," and the officers' associations greatly stimulated the resentment felt against the pacifist and Radical-Socialist Administration. This resentment assumed an anti-Semitic character hitherto unknown in Hungary, the reason being that the leaders of the Social Democrats and Bourgeois-Radicals were, almost without exception, of Jewish origin. This was also the case with the most prominent members of the Government of the Republic Oskar Jaszi; Siegmund Kunfi, the Minister of Education (b. 1889) ; William Bochm, the Minister of War; and Joseph Pogany (b. 1886), the president of the Soldiers' Council. These were the men who had made it impossible to resist the invasion of Hungary by force of arms.

The Government attempted to win over the peasants by a radical scheme of land reform, a People's Law (18 of the year 1919) decreeing the breaking-up and distribution of all estates of 500 Joch (about 900 acres) and over; but this law was never carried out. The anti-national programme of the Social Demo- crats, who were alone effectively organized, caused divisions in both the other Government groups.

The Communists under Bela Kun. The Social Democratic party, which alone was organized, by its anti-nationalist de- mands caused divisions in both the other Government parties. A portion of the Karolyi Independence party went over to the Opposition, and the Jaszi Radicals abandoned, as useless, all attempt at participation in the approaching elections to the National Assembly, which was to be summoned in order to j decide all questions definitely. In the vehement election cam- paign the Social Democrats fought, on one side against the against the new Communist party. This latter was founded on Nov. 24 1918 by some returned prisoners-of-war from Russia, among whom the most conspicuous was Bela Kun, who had been trained at Moscow in the schools for Bolshevist propaganda and had returned to Hungary to prepare the Communist revolu- tion. Between Jan. and March 1919 the Communists suc- ceeded in stirring up several riots and insurrections among dis- abled and discharged soldiers and among the unemployed. Their efforts were directed against the Social Democrats, and especially against the minister Kunfi and the trade-union leader Jacob Weltner; and when on Feb. 20 Bela Kun with his Commu- nists stormed the Social Democratic publication office, he was
 * Nationalist bourgeois or peasants, and, on the other side,