​​​​​​​​​Trianon, a Treaty dismembering Hungary and Hungarians

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The peace Treaty of Trianon was signed in 1920,  between the Allies of World War I and Hungary, successor state to Austria-Hungary, marking the end of World War I. The treaty deeply reduced Hungary’s borders. Hungary lost  72% of its territory from what the Nation was before World War I, which was reduced from 325,111 square kilometers (125,526 sq mi) to 93,073 square kilometres (35,936 sq mi). It also lost 64% of its total population, which was reduced from 20.9 million to 7.6 million, and 31% (3.3 out of 10.7 million) of its ethnic Hungarians who suddenly found themselves living outside the newly defined borders of Hungary. After the Treaty of Trianon, the principal estates of the Lipthay de Kisfalud et Lubelle family,  remained in Romania, other of its estates in the today Slovakia.
 

After the treaty, Hungary lost five of its ten most populous cities and was deprived of direct access to the sea and of some of its mostvaluable natural resources. The military establishment of the country was reduced to an army of about 35,000, while its ceased to exist. The principal beneficiaries of territorial adjustment were Romania, Czechoslovakia,  Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. In addition, the newly established state of  Hungary had to pay war reparations to its neighbors. The Hungarian delegation signed the treaty under protest on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles, France.

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Hungary’s dismemberment map, after the Treaty of Trianon 1921

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​​The Hungarian National Council of 1918 and the Soviet Republic of 1919

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The Aster Revolution or Chrysanthemum Revolution was the revolution led by leftist liberal count Mihály Károlyi, who founded the Hungarian Democratic Republic. In the second half of the 40th, when the Red Army and communists were consolidating one-party-rule in Hungary, count Károlyi, was appointed as Ambassador of the People’s Democratic Republic of Hungary in France.

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Mihály Károlyi helped to establish the Social Democratic Hungarian National Council (HNC), which demanded the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the early morning hours of 31 October 1918, with support of the soldiers from the Hungarian Army, HNC protesters wearing the Aster flower helped seize public buildings throughout Budapest. Prime Minister Sándor Weckerle resigned and former Prime Minister István Tisza was killed.

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​By the end of the day, King Charles IV had accepted the coup and appointed Károlyi as Hungary’s new Prime Minister. The Hungarian Democratic Republic was proclaimed on 16 November 1918 with Károlyi named as president, ending the rule of King Charles IV.

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​In March 1919, the republic was overturned by another revolution, and the Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Béla Kun was created. It had a short life (133 days) of terror and wrongdoings. Key leader moving the terrorist actions was Matthias Rákosi, who, after the communist party took over in 1949 became the dictator terrorizing Hungarians with massive brutality. The 133 days of Kun’s Red  Terror was followed by the restoration of the Kingdom of Hungary, but as an independent nation, led by admiral Miklós Horthy as regent of the crown.

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The Kingdom of Hungary, the last stage of an independent nation

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After the pullout of occupation forces in 1920, the Hungarian anti-communists and monarchists purging the nation of communists, leftists, threat for the security of the nation. Later in 1920, a coalition of right-wing political forces united, and reinstated Hungary’s status as a constitutional monarchy. Selection of the new king was delayed due to civil infighting, and a regent was appointed to represent the monarchy, former commander of the Austro-Hungarian navy admiral Miklós Horthy.

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The Kingdom of Hungary, which existed from 1920 to 1944, was a de facto regency under Regent Miklós Horthy, who officially represented the abdicated Hungarian monarchy. Attempts by Charles IV king of Hungary (Charles VI of Austria) the last Habsburg, to return to the throne, were prevented by threats of war from neighboring countries, and by lack of support from Horthy.

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The post-World War I Hungarian state was conceived of as a “kingdom without a king,” since there was no consensus on either who should take the throne of Hungary, or what form of government should replace the monarchy. Prime Minister István Bethlen (killed by the Soviets) pushed for the revision of the Treaty of Trianon, but after the collapse of the Hungarian economy between 1929 to 1931, the national uproar pushed Bethlen to resign, being replaced in 1932 by Gyula Gömbös, who allied Hungary with Germany. He was the first head of government to visit Hitler. Gömbös introduced anti-Jewish legislation and took Hungary into World War II on the side of the Axis Powers.

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​Legal continuity ceased in Hungary and its national sovereignty was lost on March 19th, 1944, when being occupied and dissolved by Nazi Germany. This resulted in Hungary and replaced by a briefly existing puppet state.

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In January 1945, the Soviet Red Army occupied Hungary, remaining until the end of June 1991. In 1949 a Soviet-satellite state, the People’s Republic of Hungary, was established, with a constitution imposed by the Soviet Union.

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​Legacy of communist and post-communist era

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Source to this chapter is Memorandum I. of Pro Veritate et Iustitia

 

​http://proveritateetiustitia.wordpress.com/memorandum-i-en/

 

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Nearly five decades of communist oppression and terror left behind spiritual poverty unprecedented in the history of Hungary. The poison of these destructive decades regrettably penetrated the hearts and minds of Hungarians. Hungary’s citizens lost their freedom and fundamental human rights under the complete power of the state and Communist party. The dictatorial legacy characterized the two-decade-long post-communist period, a time when many hoped that the country would regain its deserved place in the international community. Contrary to expectations the twenty-year-long post-communist period was another defeat for Hungary, with the exception of the 1990-1994 and 1998-2002 parliamentary cycles, time periods when basic steps were taken towards stablishing democracy and restoring the middle class. It was during these periods that Hungary left COMECON and the Warsaw Pact and then joined NATO and the EU.

 

The unethical actions of the Communist élite and their political heirs are not to oversee. Those who collaborated with the foreign occupation forces, have over the past twenty years privatized for themselves all the wealth appropriated by the Soviet constitution forced on Hungary in 1949, the document that lead to the confiscation of all private property. They took for themselves Hungary`s strategic resources, ensuring the majority of business opportunities. The facts show that the old élite, without having been held responsible for their previous actions, still acts with impunity. A complete moral collapse can be observed in Hungary resulting in a deep apathy among citizens. The events of the past 65 years show neither the will nor the efforts of the citizens to live in freedom and are in no relation to the Christian principles and values upon which the national identity was built. With the nation’s spirit broken, national and personal dignity in Hungary has fallen to a never experienced low. Corruption, lack of transparency, lack of morals and ethics placed Hungary among the untrustworthy and ill-reputed nations. The dictatorship’s legacy has prevented societal peace.

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Communism’s materialist and inhuman doctrines were based on artificially manipulated conflicts, its tools were hatred, class struggle, lies, betrayal, slander, dishonor, false witness. It succeeded in isolating the persons, making them completely subject to the state and party, to keep absolute power. The family as a value was systematically undermined. The artificially generated distrust tore apart the ties forged on warmth, fidelity, trust, and love.

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Cardinal József Mindszenty Prince Primate of Hungary facing communist show trial in 1948.

 

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The defeat of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 was one of the darkest moments of the Cold War. 

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An individual who rejected his heritage, felt no responsibility for his homeland or for the common good and thus was easily manipulated – the “new man” was resulting of Communist dictate. Though living today in a democracy many citizens feel their position in society insecure, lack confidence and hope, and do not truly believe that the future will be better.

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The western world did not know, or did not want to take notice that the legal continuity lost due to Nazi invasion and then Soviet occupation and communist dictatorship, had not been restored. The communist élite kept economic power in its own hands and continues to control it with the cooperation of western political and economic interests. A centrally planned economy changed to free-market economics. However it happened to bypass the resources and capital from state hands into those of the chosen élite, their political successors and members of the state security agencies, thus creating a new political and social élite.

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Late in 1989 the Soviet occupation forces were still on Hungarian soil; this poses doubts as to the legitimacy of the round table talks. The negotiations took place behind closed doors and a nation’s future was decided without any open consultation, a necessary step at such a decisive moment. Fundamental questions such as the constitution were entrusted to committees without open and thorough debate. The legal framework, which was supposed to ensure the end of the communist regime and guarantee democracy was the constitution forced upon us by the Soviet Union in 1949 – a document that saw itself as the legal continuation of the short-lived charter of Bela Kun in 1919. The new democratic era has to date not questioned nor used the force of Law to firmly condemn what happened under the communist dictatorship and the criminal acts between 1944 March 19th and 1949.

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The rule of law ceased completely in 1949. External forces broke the ancient unwritten legal tradition and constitutional continuity that defined the Hungarian consciousness reaching back to Golden Bull in the 13th Century.

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The 1949 charter saw the severe abuses of human rights, with thousands of citizens deported, innocent people condemned to death, imprisoned and tortured. Religious practice was restricted and religion banned. The right to private property ended, citizen’s assets were appropriated by the state. The communist dictatorship’s legal violations have to this day still not been addressed.

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Count János Esterházy

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The aristocracy, Hungary’s historic families were branded “enemies of the people” and as a social group sentenced to extermination. They were persecuted, imprisoned, and many killed. For decades they lived subject to the proletariat, humiliated, stripped of all rights, they lived on the periphery of Hungarian society. Hungary’s historic social leaders became the victims of communist genocide. Communist propaganda’s negative image of the aristocracy is still strong in the mind of the public. The elimination of Hungary’s foremost social class undermined the country’s stability and endangered the nation’s existence. For the crimes against humanity, the dictatorship is to blame, for the delay in legal redress the post-communist period. Addressing the injustice committed against the aristocracy and moral reparation would increase the nation’s stability and international credibility.

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Hungary still did not return to its historical constitution, as many other former communist countries did. It kept the charter type constitution imposed by the hostile Soviet occupation force. The 1989 constitution was a modification of the 1949 one and was born at a time of dictatorship, while armed Soviet occupation forces were still stationed in Hungary. The one of 2011 voted by two-thirds of the Parliament is a mix having a marvelous Preamble containing what should be also part of the Corpus Juris, which in fact allows – with exceptions – the status quo to be kept untouched. If the will of politics would be to really hear the  latent wish of wide segments of the population, then these should respond with their legitimate political authority by restoring the legal continuity and legal order interrupted in 1944 and distancing themselves, condemning through legal means all criminal acts of the communist regime and of the post-communist era.

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Proper legal tools, nor the will seems to be available to have the laws issued under communist dictate and left in force during the post-communist declared illegitimate. Until now, those who held positions of power during the communist regime are not banned from public life nor facing justice, not communist party members nor those collaborating with the secret police responsible for human rights violations.

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An institutional system founded on tradition but fitted to today’s society should be the basis of the modern state, advancing its prosperity. These institutions restore human dignity. Hungary, before its loss of sovereignty always existed within the framework of the legal order. The respect for the law was always present in the process of institutional development as was the respect for human life, that should be totally restored.

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Serving the public good is a basic right and duty; public servants must especially act responsibly and without corruption.

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National sovereignty can be strengthened by the proper handling of national assets. First among these is the land and the question of its ownership. The right of land ownership should be reserved for Hungarian people and Hungarian legal entities. Hungarian land remaining in Hungarian hands is a direct effect of ancient Hungarian unwritten law and respect for the past. The present is a good opportunity to clarify issues of land ownership because of the land purchase hiatus given by the EU, which has been lengthened to three more years. The earlier attempt at compensation saw the transfer of wealth to the communist élite and humiliated the previously disenfranchised, serving no national interests. Hungarian agriculture has all but collapsed following these events. Our nation, which fed all of Central Europe up until the middle of the 20th Century, now depends on expensive food imports. All the neighboring EU countries and future EU countries forwarded compensation packages protecting their own agricultural interests. Who would be better suited to use centuries of knowledge in helping our countries vast but neglected agricultural lands to flourish?

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The deepest level reached of Hungary’s misfortune was the long-lasting communist dictatorship. Now, at the beginning of the 20th century, after three decades of post-communism, Hungary is regaining its position of dignity as it was along more than 1000 years, getting slowly closer to its own and ancient identity, defending permanent values already present before Mohács, recognizing itself as indivisible part of the Christian Civilization, as set up by Hungarian kings as Saint Stephen, Saint Ladislaus, and King Matthias Corvinus.

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In the present time, a wide majority of Hungarians understand and share the opinion that total restoration of historical, legal and cultural continuity would definitely serve the nation to regain its ancestral identity and its lost dignity. It would strengthen Hungary’s sovereignty, reputation, and legitimacy at wide segments of the international community.