Hungarian Communist Party: An Overview

Pál Pátzay was an outspoken supporter of the Hungarian Communist Party. As such, it is important to discuss why many Hungarian-Canadians would not want to see the celebration of artwork created for this regime, beginning with a brief history of communism in Hungary.

Hungarian citizens and politicians began taking an interest in having a socialist government in power as early as 1918, with the earliest iteration of the Hungarian Communist Party being banned by the fascist regime in 1919 (Molnàr 1978, 19). During the Second World War, the totalitarian Hungarian government worked with Nazi Germany to maintain control of the country (Manchin 2015, 237). However, following the defeat of Nazism in World War II, Hungary became aligned with the Soviet sphere of influence, and the Hungarian Communist Party officially took control of the country after slowly purging the government of officials that opposed their political goals (Fai-Podipnik 2007, 7). While the Hungarian Communist Party was in power, their actions had to follow what was deemed acceptable by the Soviet Union. This means that Hungarian political life was only independent as long as it did not push the limits of the Soviet system (Rainer 2010, 13).

The Hungarian Communist Party was known to maintain their control of the country by force, despite Hungarian citizens demonstrating on multiple occasions that they wished to live in a more democratic society (Rainer 2010, 13). For example, the 1945 Hungarian election results showed that Hungarians favoured democracy over their current Communist leaders. However, instead of honouring the wishes of the Hungarian people, the Hungarian Communist Party used extra-parliamentary measures, including threats to opposing parties and propaganda, to maintain control of the country following the election (Molnar 1978, 44; Rainer 2010, 13). Many Hungarian citizens fled the oppressive Soviet political system at this time, choosing North America and Western Europe as their new homes (Fai-Podipnik 2007, 6).The event that caused the largest number of Hungarians the flee their country, however, was the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.

The Hungarian Revolution occurred as a result of Hungarian citizens’ wish to overthrow their Soviet connections and establish a democratic political system following Stalin’s death (Rainer 2010, 17). Although the Hungarian Communist Party initially opposed the revolution, they eventually supported the citizens’ wishes to end their Soviet connections and allowed protests (Rainer 2010, 18 ). The Soviet response to the Hungarian Revolution revealed that they were brutal as ever, despite the leader of Soviet Russia at the time denouncing Stalin’s oppressive measures and brutality. The Soviets ended the Revolution cruelly, killing many protesting Hungarian citizens and later executing the leader of the Hungarian Communist Party for his support of the rebellion (Rainer 2010, 19-20 ). Many Hungarians fled the country to North America during this time, as it had become blatantly obvious that opposing or disagreeing with Soviet politics was life-threatening and that the Soviets were not afraid to kill civilians to maintain their influence. It is also important to acknowledge that despite the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, many of the people in Hungary who are in positions of political power are the same people who were in power under the Communist Party (NAC correspondences 1997, 2).