Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Playlist with all the episodes:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnLysSug0vS6GirUcyM-53gm0T6f0Kc0
This episode discusses the Hungarian 1947 election. In the elections communists emerged as the largest party with 22% of the vote. The coalition government continued in power. The smallholders had previously split so their vote was reduced to 15%. The smallholder party was taken over by leftists and they supported the government coalition, while two right-wing groups split from smallholders and created new parties: the neo-fascist party of Pfeiffer, and the religious party of Barankovics.
The opposition parties won around 30% and the government coalition around 60% of the vote. The other government parties (national peasants, social-democrats and smallholders) had shifted to the left and accepted the most important parts of the communist program. The fact that the government coalition received more than 60% of the vote, meant that a majority of the population supported socialist policies, such as the Three Year Economic Plan and nationalization of banks and industries, which were advocated by all government parties, and especially by the communists.
Script:
mltheory.wordpress.com/2022/03/14/history-of-the-hungarian-peoples-republic-part-4-the-1947-elections
SOURCES:
Aptheker, The Truth About Hungary
Smith, The State of Europe
Stone, Hungary: A Short History
Nemes, History of the Revolutionary Workers Movement in Hungary: 1944-1962
Pryce-Jones, The Hungarian Revolution
Kovrig, The Hungarian People’s Republic
Paul E. Zinner, Revolution in Hungary
The Nation, August 24, 1946
Apor, The Invisible Shining
Molnar, A concise history of Hungary
Memoirs of Michael Karolyi: Faith without Illusion
Pünkösti, Rákosi a hatalomért
Borsányi & Kende, The History of the Working Class Movement in Hungary
Playlist with all the episodes:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnLysSug0vS6GirUcyM-53gm0T6f0Kc0
This episode discusses the Hungarian 1947 election. In the elections communists emerged as the largest party with 22% of the vote. The coalition government continued in power. The smallholders had previously split so their vote was reduced to 15%. The smallholder party was taken over by leftists and they supported the government coalition, while two right-wing groups split from smallholders and created new parties: the neo-fascist party of Pfeiffer, and the religious party of Barankovics.
The opposition parties won around 30% and the government coalition around 60% of the vote. The other government parties (national peasants, social-democrats and smallholders) had shifted to the left and accepted the most important parts of the communist program. The fact that the government coalition received more than 60% of the vote, meant that a majority of the population supported socialist policies, such as the Three Year Economic Plan and nationalization of banks and industries, which were advocated by all government parties, and especially by the communists.
Script:
mltheory.wordpress.com/2022/03/14/history-of-the-hungarian-peoples-republic-part-4-the-1947-elections
SOURCES:
Aptheker, The Truth About Hungary
Smith, The State of Europe
Stone, Hungary: A Short History
Nemes, History of the Revolutionary Workers Movement in Hungary: 1944-1962
Pryce-Jones, The Hungarian Revolution
Kovrig, The Hungarian People’s Republic
Paul E. Zinner, Revolution in Hungary
The Nation, August 24, 1946
Apor, The Invisible Shining
Molnar, A concise history of Hungary
Memoirs of Michael Karolyi: Faith without Illusion
Pünkösti, Rákosi a hatalomért
Borsányi & Kende, The History of the Working Class Movement in Hungary
