View source for Second Hungarian Republic

{{Short description|Hungarian state from 1946 to 1949}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2012}}
{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Hungarian Republic
| native_name            = {{native name|hu|Magyar Köztársaság}}
| p1                     = Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946){{!}}Kingdom of Hungary
| flag_p1                = Flag of Hungary (1915-1918, 1919-1946).svg
| s1                     = Hungarian People's Republic
| flag_s1                = Flag of Hungary (1949-1956; 1-2 aspect ratio).svg
| flag                   = Flag of Hungary
| symbol                 = Coat of arms of Hungary
| image_flag             = Flag of Hungary (1946-1949, 1956-1957; 1-2 aspect ratio).svg
| image_coat             = Coat of arms of Hungary (1946-1949).svg
| coa_size               = 65px
| image_map              = Hungary (1945-1947).png
| image_map_caption      = 
| national_motto         = 
| national_anthem        = {{native name|hu|"[[Himnusz]]"|italics=no}}<br />({{Langx|en|"Hymn"}})<br /><div style="display:inline-block;padding-top:0.4em;">[[File:Hungarian national anthem, performed by the United States Navy Band (1997 arrangement).mp3]]</div>
| capital                = [[Budapest]]
| largest_city           = capital
| government_type        = [[Unitary state|Unitary]] [[Parliamentary republic|parliamentary Republic]] 
* under a [[dominant-party]] [[Socialist State|socialist]] [[anocracy]] (1947–1949)
| official_languages     = [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
| religion               = [[Christianity]] (majority){{efn-lr|Predominantly [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]].}}<br>[[Judaism]] (minority)
| demonym                = [[Hungarians|Hungarian]]
| title_leader           = [[List of heads of state of Hungary|President]]
| leader1                = [[Zoltán Tildy]]
| year_leader1           = 1946&ndash;1948
| leader2                = [[Árpád Szakasits]]
| year_leader2           = 1948&ndash;1949
| title_deputy           = [[List of Prime Ministers of Hungary|Prime Minister]]
| deputy1                = [[Ferenc Nagy]]
| year_deputy1           = 1946&ndash;1947
| deputy2                = [[Lajos Dinnyés]]
| year_deputy2           = 1947&ndash;1948
| deputy3                = [[István Dobi]]
| year_deputy3           = 1948&ndash;1949
| legislature            = [[National Assembly of Hungary|National Assembly]]
| era                    = [[Cold War]]
| event_start            = {{nowrap|Monarchy abolished}}
| date_start             = 1 February
| year_start             = 1946
| event_end              = [[Hungarian Constitution of 1949|People's Republic]]
| date_end               = 20 August
| year_end               = 1949
| event1                 = [[Paris Peace Treaties, 1947|Paris Peace Treaty]]
| date_event1            = 10 February 1947
| event2                 = [[Ferenc Nagy#Coup d'état of 1947|Communist coup]]
| date_event2            = 31 May 1947<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rev.hu/history_of_45/ora2/ora2_e.htm|title=Part 2: Communist take-over, 1946-1949|publisher=The Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution}}</ref>
| event3                 = [[1947 Hungarian parliamentary election|Blue-ballot elections]]
| date_event3            = 31 August 1947
| stat_year1             = 1946
| stat_pop1              = 
| ref_area1              = <ref name=revai>{{cite encyclopedia |editor=Élesztős, László |encyclopedia=Révai új lexikona |title=Magyarország határai |trans-title=Borders of Hungary |language=hu |year=2004 |publisher=Babits Kiadó |volume=13 |location=Szekszárd |isbn=963-9556-13-0 |page=895}}</ref>
| stat_area1             = 93073
| stat_year2             = 1947
| stat_pop2              = 
| stat_area2             = 93011
| ref_area2              = <ref name=revai/>
| stat_year3             = 1949
| stat_pop3              = 9,204,799
| stat_area3             = 93011
| ref_area3              = <ref name=revai/>
| ref_pop3               = <ref>{{cite journal|title=Az 1990. évi népszámlálás előzetes adatai.|journal=Statisztikai Szemle|date=October 1990|volume=68|issue=10|url= http://www.ksh.hu/statszemle_archive/viewer.html?ev=1990&szam=10&old=8|page=750}}</ref>
| currency               = [[Hungarian pengő|Pengő]]{{\}}[[Hungarian adópengő|Adópengő]]{{efn-lr|Until 1 August 1946.}}<br>[[Hungarian forint|Forint]]
| today                  = [[Hungary]]<br>[[Slovakia]]{{efn-lr|[[Bratislava bridgehead]] until 10 February 1947.}}
}}

The '''Second Hungarian Republic'''{{efn|{{langx|hu|Második Magyar Köztársaság}} {{IPA|hu|ˈmaːʃodik ˈmɒɟɒr ˈkøstaːrʃɒʃaːɡ|}}}} was the [[Hungary|Hungarian]] state that existed as a [[parliamentary republic]] briefly established after the disestablishment of the [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Kingdom of Hungary]] on 1 February 1946. It was itself dissolved on 20 August 1949 and succeeded by the Soviet-backed [[Hungarian People's Republic]].

The Republic was proclaimed in the aftermath of the Soviet occupation of Hungary at the [[end of World War II in Europe]] and with the formal abolition of the [[King of Hungary|Hungarian monarchy]], whose throne had been vacant since 1918,{{efn-lr|[[Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya]] had ruled as Regent since 1920 until he was captured by [[Edmund Veesenmayer]] and deposed on 15 October 1944.}} in February 1946. Initially the period was characterized by an uneasy [[coalition government]] between pro-democracy elements—primarily the [[Independent Smallholders' Party]]—and the [[Hungarian Communist Party]]. At Soviet insistence, the Communists had received key posts in the new cabinet, particularly the [[List of Interior Ministers of Hungary#Hungarian Republic (1946–1949)|Interior Ministry]], despite the Smallholders' Party's landslide victory in the [[1945 Hungarian parliamentary election|1945 elections]]. From that position the Communists were able to systematically eliminate their opponents segment by segment through political intrigue and fabricated conspiracy, a process that Communist leader [[Mátyás Rákosi]] called "[[Salami slicing tactics (politics)|salami tactics]]".<ref name="evolution"/>

By June 1947 the Communist Party had gutted the Smallholders' Party as a political force through the mass arrests and forced exile of its main leaders and had gained effective control of the government, installing a [[fellow traveller]] as Prime Minister. [[1947 Hungarian parliamentary election|New elections in August 1947]] increased the Communists' share of the vote, though non-Communist parties won essentially the same number of votes as in 1945 and the elections were marred with fraud and intimidation. Regardless, further Communist machinations and intrigues managed to liquidate most of the remaining opposition parties within the next year. This culminated in their merger with the [[Social Democratic Party of Hungary]] in June 1948 to form the [[Hungarian Working People's Party]]; essentially an expanded Communist Party under a new name. The government instituted programs of [[nationalization]] of key industries as part of the [[Sovietization]] of the Hungarian economy and society as the country entered the [[Soviet sphere of influence]]. In August 1949, the country was formally proclaimed to be a [[people's republic]] with the Communists as the [[single-party state|sole legal party]]. This arrangement would last, aside from [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|a brief break in 1956]], until the [[end of Communism in Hungary]] in 1989–90.

== History ==
===Beginnings===
From September 1944 until April 1945, as [[End of World War II in Europe|World War II in Europe]] drew to a close, the [[Red Army]] [[Soviet occupation of Hungary|occupied Hungary]]. The [[Siege of Budapest]] lasted almost two months and much of the city was destroyed. Neither the [[Allies of World War II|Western Allies]] nor the [[Soviet Union]] supported any changes to Hungary's pre-1938 borders, so the [[Paris Peace Treaties, 1947|peace treaty signed by Hungary in 1947]] declared that "The decisions of the [[First Vienna Award|Vienna Award]] of 2 November 1938 are declared null and void".<ref>[http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS076.pdf Treaty of Peace with Hungary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041204184436/http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS076.pdf |date=2004-12-04 }}</ref> This meant that Hungary's borders were moved back to those that existed on 1 January 1938 and it lost the territories it had regained between 1938 and 1941. The Soviet Union also annexed [[Carpathian Ruthenia|Sub-Carpathia]], some of which had been part of Hungary before 1938.

The Soviets set up an alternative government in [[Debrecen]] on 21 December 1944<ref>{{cite book |last=Kenez |first=Peter |title=Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 1944-1948 |date=22 May 2006 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9780521857666 |page=30}}</ref> before capturing Budapest between 18 January and 13 February, 1945. [[Zoltán Tildy]] became the provisional prime minister. The Soviet government would demand not merely the return of all materials taken from the USSR, but also the payment of 300 million USD in commodities to Moscow, 200 million to Czechoslovakia and 100 million to Romania.<ref>{{cite book |last=Siklos |first=Pierre L. |title=War Finance, Reconstruction, Hyperinflation and Stabilization in Hungary, 1938-48 |year=1991 |publisher=[[Saint Martin's Press]] |location=[[New York City]]|isbn=978-0-312-05708-4|pages=77-78}}</ref>
===Hyperinflation===
The combination of high demand for finance to pay war reparations with a very weak system of tax collection meant that during 1945 and 1946, the national currency, [[Hungarian pengő|the pengő]], would be destroyed by the most ruinous [[hyperinflation]] in recorded history.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McIndoe-Calder |first1=Tara |last2=Bedi |first2=Tara |last3=Mercado |first3=Rogelio |title=Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe: Background, Impact and Policy |year=2019 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=9783030310158 |pages=34-35 |chapter=Historic Hyperinflation Episodes}}</ref> The hyperinflation was largely due to the inability of tax revenues to pay the country’s war debts, but some historians argue it was a deliberate policy of the Soviet Union to destroy Hungary’s middle class.<ref>{{cite book|last=Clark|first=Jeff R.|title=Macroeconomics for Managers|year=1990|publisher=Allyn and Bacon|isbn=9780205122103 |page=271}}</ref> The only way to restore sanity to the economy was a new currency, so [[Hungarian forint|the forint]] was introduced in 1946.
===German deportation===
Between 1946 and 1948, half of [[Germans of Hungary|Hungary's ethnic German minority]] (around 250,000 people)<ref>{{cite book|first=Chad Carl|last=Bryant|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOCOVmwJFMMC&q=Prague+in+Black%3A+Nazi+Rule+and+Czech+Nationalism|title=Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|year=2007|page=209}}</ref> were deported to Germany and there was [[Hungarians in Slovakia#Population exchanges|a forced "exchange of population"]] between Hungary and [[Czechoslovakia]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rieber|first1=Alfred J.|title=Forced Migration in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939-1950|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135274894|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7kSMAQAAQBAJ&q=a+forced+%22exchange+of+population%22+between+Hungary+and+Czechoslovakia&pg=PA87|language=en}}</ref>
===Soviet control===
[[File:Nagy Ferenc-MTI 1946.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Ferenc Nagy]]
In [[Hungarian parliamentary election, 1945|elections held in November 1945]], the [[Independent Smallholders' Party]] won 57% of the vote. The [[Hungarian Communist Party]], now under the leadership of [[Mátyás Rákosi]] and [[Ernő Gerő]], two veterans from the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]] of 1919, received support from only 17% of the population. The Soviet commander in Hungary, [[Marshal of the Soviet Union|Marshal]] [[Kliment Voroshilov]], refused to allow the Smallholders Party to form a government. Instead Voroshilov established a coalition government with the communists holding some of the key posts. Under Parliament, the leader of the Smallholders, Zoltán Tildy, was named president and [[Ferenc Nagy]] prime minister in February 1946. Mátyás Rákosi became deputy prime minister.

[[László Rajk]] became [[Ministry of Interior (Hungary)|minister of the interior]] and in this post established the [[State Protection Authority|security police (ÁVO)]]. In February 1947 the police began arresting leaders of the Smallholders Party and the [[National Peasant Party (Hungary)|National Peasant Party]]. It also pressured both parties to expel those members who weren't willing to do the Communists' bidding as "fascists."{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}} Several prominent figures in both parties escaped abroad. Later, Rákosi boasted that he had dealt with his partners in the government, one by one, "[[Salami slicing tactics (politics)|cutting them off like slices of salami]]."<ref name="evolution">{{cite book|year=2019|first1=Lawrence|last1=Freedman|first2=Jeffrey|last2=Michaels|title=The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy: New, Updated and Completely Revised|isbn=9781137573506|page=123}}</ref>

By 1947, the power of the other parties in the coalition had been reduced in favour of the Communists, and they became the largest single party in [[Hungarian parliamentary election, 1947|elections held that year]]. The Communists were the dominant partners in the coalition People's Independence Front government. Nagy was replaced as prime minister by the more pliable [[Lajos Dinnyés]].

In October 1947, Rákosi gave the leaders of the non-Communist parties an ultimatum: cooperate with a new, Communist-dominated coalition government or go into exile.<ref>{{cite tech report|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/hutoc.html|title=Hungary: a country study|publisher=[[Library of Congress]] Federal Research Division|date=December 1989}}</ref> The [[Hungarian Social Democratic Party|Social Democratic Party]] effectively ceased to exist as an independent organization, and Independent Smallholders' Party secretary [[Béla Kovács (politician, 1908)|Béla Kovács]] was arrested and sent to Siberia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Willis |first=Jim |title=Daily Life Behind the Iron Curtain |year=2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9780313397639 |page=97}}</ref> Other opposition leaders such as [[Anna Kéthly]], Ferenc Nagy and István Szabó were imprisoned or sent into exile.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Hungary|last=Argentieri|first=Federigo|editor-last1=Curry|editor-first1=Jane Leftwich |editor-last2=Wolchik|editor-first2=Sharon L.|title=Central and East European Politics From Communism to Democracy|year=2018|publisher=[[Rowman and Littlefield Publishers]]|isbn=9781538100899|page=290}}</ref>
{{History of Hungary}}
The Republic of Hungary effectively ended in June 1948, when the Social Democrats were forced to merge with the Communists to form the [[Hungarian Working People's Party]] (MDP). However, the few independent-minded Social Democrats still left in the party were pushed out in short order. For all intents and purposes, this left the MDP as the MKP under a new name. In August, Tildy was forced out as president in favour of Social Democrat-turned-Communist [[Árpád Szakasits]]. That December, Dinnyés was replaced as leader of the Smallholders and prime minister by the openly pro-Communist [[István Dobi]]. At the [[Hungarian parliamentary election, 1949|1949 elections]], voters were presented with a single list from the Communist-controlled Independent People's Front, which carried 95 percent of the vote. By this time, [[fellow traveler]]s had taken over the other parties and turned them into loyal partners of the Communists.

On 18 August 1949, the Parliament passed [[Hungarian Constitution of 1949|Hungary's first written constitution]] (1949/XX.) – a near-carbon copy of the [[1936 Soviet Constitution|1936 constitution of the Soviet Union]]. The name of the country became the [[People's Republic of Hungary]], a "country of workers and peasants" where "every authority is held by the working people".{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}} Socialism was declared as the main goal of the nation. A new coat of arms was adopted with Communist symbols, such as the [[red star]], a [[Hammer and sickle|hammer]], and an ear of wheat.

== See also ==
*[[History of Hungary]]

==Notes==
<references group="lower-alpha" />{{notelist-lr}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Years in Hungary}}
{{Hungary topics}}
{{portalbar|Hungary}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Republic of Hungary (1946-1949)}}
[[Category:Former republics|Hungary, Second]]
[[Category:Territorial evolution of Hungary|Second Hungarian Republic]]
[[Category:1940s in Hungary|Second Hungarian Republic]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1946]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1949]]
[[Category:1946 establishments in Hungary]]
[[Category:1949 disestablishments in Hungary]]
[[Category:1946 in Hungary|Second Hungarian Republic]]
[[Category:1947 in Hungary|Second Hungarian Republic]]
[[Category:1948 in Hungary|Second Hungarian Republic]]
[[Category:1949 in Hungary|Second Hungarian Republic]]