A Short History of the Hungarian Communist Party by Joseph J Molnar Miklos Molnar

Author:Joseph J Molnar, Miklos Molnar [Joseph J Molnar, Miklos Molnar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781000311440
Google: zxGjDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-07-16T01:36:58+00:00

The Mass Organizations

According to a tradition that goes back to its origins, the HCP has always made great efforts to create "mass organizations of transmission": organizations for the young, for women, for peasants, cultural, sporting, patriotic associations, and others. In addition, communist activity in the unions has always had capital importance. The nature of these organizations and their function, however, vary considerably from period to period.

During the underground phase between the two wars, the numerous organizations had above all to disguise HCP activities. Since the HCP was prohibited under the Horthy regime, the communists organized themselves and spread their propaganda among the unions, peasant associations, unemployed intellectuals, choral societies, athletic and nature clubs, and the like. The Young Communists have always had a particular, twofold "status": mass organization and semiautonomous organization of the party.

The politics of the popular fronts led to the creation of another kind of organization, for example, the Committee for Historical Commemoration and the Hungarian Front (embryo of the 1945 National Front for Independence). The March Front, which was created by left populist intellectuals in 1937, remained essentially populist, and finally was to terminate in the formation of the National Peasant party, which was rather close to the communists, but nevertheless independent. The Hungarian Front, founded later, deserves more attention from the point of view of HCP tactics. Through the Hungarian Front, the HCP in fact aimed at two more ambitious and more distant objectives than the mere utilization of the front as cover organization. From 1941 on, especially between 1942-1943, the HCP concentrated all its efforts on the formation of an antifascist democratic bloc. We have already mentioned some of the demonstrations that resulted from this. In 1943, after the dissolution of the HCP, the Békepárt [Peace party] pursued this policy with perhaps more élan and success, if only because of the reversal of the military situation on the Russian front. At any rate, the Peace party succeeded in establishing contact with anti-German patriotic groups as well as in joining the common action of the SDP and the Party of the Smallholders. The latter wanted primarily to influence the regent Horthy and his entourage; the communists preferred to appeal to the masses. By means of the radicalization of the anti-German opposition, after the German army occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944, the conditions for a common front were ripe at last. The Hungarian Front was then born—with the participation of the social democrats, the left wing of the smallholders, the communists of the Peace party, and an antifascist religious organization, the League of the Lorrainese Cross. The National Peasant party was admitted later.

As the Red Army advanced, the political goal of this formation took shape. The question was no longer merely to organize resistance—which had a certain importance but which remained nevertheless a militarily negligible factor-but to prepare the postwar period. This period, certainly, was seen differently by different people. But they had points in common, especially the desire actively to participate in the postwar reconstruction.

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