Chapter 1456 Internal strife and forcing the emperor to abdicate
May 7, 1927.
Hungary.
At the beginning of the year, the actions of Komarno, the Budapest Labor Party government, successfully slowed down the offensive of the German-Austrian coalition forces, and relying on the Komarom fortress on the south bank of the Danube, it put up a tenacious resistance to the imperialist army.
But unfortunately, faced with the enemy's powerful firepower and the support of Austro-Hungarian ships on the Danube River, the initiative of the war was always in the hands of the German-Austrian coalition.
At the same time, the Austrian army set out from the south and advanced all the way to the city of Gyor in Hungary, which further aggravated Hungary's decline.
Gyor is located in the northwest of Hungary, where the Danube and its two tributaries, the Mosson Danube and the Rabau, meet. Water transportation is very developed. It also controls the railway and road lines between Vienna and Budapest. In the past, Gyor was the sixth largest city in Hungary and one of the seven major regional centers in the country. This shows the importance of this city.
The occupation of Gyor means that Austria controls a stable channel into Hungary, especially the troops in southern Austria can be continuously gathered to the Danube line via railways.
At the same time, the city of Gyor is only more than 30 kilometers away from the Komarom Fortress, and there is no natural barrier between the two, which allows the coalition forces to attack the Komarom Fortress from the north and south banks of the Danube.
Despite being attacked from all sides, the Komarom Fortress was finally captured by the German-Austrian coalition forces at the end of April, which also meant that the Battle of Budapest was about to begin.
Budapest.
Faced with the aggressive enemy, the people of Budapest, led by the Hungarian Labor Party, not only did not show fear, but instead united to defend this capital of the workers' regime.
On the streets of Budapest, Prem, a fighter who had just joined the Hungarian Labor Party, was mobilizing his compatriots.
"Hungarian comrades, fellow workers, citizens, Hungary has reached a time of life and death. Although we are just ordinary people, we must not stand idly by and watch this great country that is the master of its own destiny."
Someone asked: "Comrade Prem, has the war situation on the front line really deteriorated to this extent?"
Prem said seriously: "Although I don't want to admit it, the reality is that the Komarom Fortress has been captured by the enemy. The enemy is coming from the northwest like a tide and heading straight for Budapest."
"If the imperialist coalition forces were allowed to invade Budapest, it would be a huge disaster. They would take back everything we have and bring Hungary to ruin."
"Budapest's geographical location is awkward, too close to Austria, which does not allow us to have enough buffer space to deal with the enemy."
"In addition, Austria was in a dominant position over Hungary, which meant that we were not at an advantage from the beginning of the war, not to mention the huge gap in weapons between us and the imperialist allies."
"So it was not easy for the soldiers on the front line to hold on for so long, because we were fighting against the imperialist group under various unfavorable factors, not only the powerful Austria, but also the even more powerful Germans behind them."
"However, don't worry. Although the Komarom Fortress has fallen, we will definitely win in Budapest. Budapest is strategically located, and if we all unite together, there will be no enemy that we cannot defeat."
Budapest originally consisted of two cities, Buda and Pest. Pest is located on the plain on the left bank of the Danube and has a flat terrain. Buda is different. It is located in a narrow plain area sandwiched between mountains and the Danube, so it has a good defensive foundation.
The military advantage was the reason why Buda became the capital of Hungary. Later, with the growth of economy and population, Buda and Pest were merged into one.
This time the enemy is coming from the northwest, which means that Buda will be the main direction facing the enemy. Therefore, even if the situation on the northwest front fails, the Hungarian Labor Party still has the confidence to fight to the death. As for Pest, although there is no strategic location to defend, the rear is the heartland of Hungary. The Hungarian Labor Party can mobilize troops from other regions to support Budapest.
The Hungarian Labor Party regime led by Kuhn was very different from the Hungarian Labor Party regime that existed briefly after World War I in the previous life.
That is, the Kuhn in this time and space paid more attention to the struggle for the farmers, because Kuhn was a person who was very good at summarizing. Some practices of the Belarusian Labor Party and the Soviet Union's failure in Poland made his governing policies undergo major changes compared with his previous life.
For this purpose, Kuhn conducted special research and published a book, "The Lessons of Poland's Failure", in which he emphasized that an important reason for the Soviet Union's failure in Poland was that the Soviet Union's approach to the land issue went against the wishes of Polish farmers.
He believed that the Soviet Union's land nationalization and state farm or collective farm model did not conform to the actual situation in backward agricultural areas such as Poland. The Soviet Union did not distribute land to landless and land-poor farmers. This was an important reason why Polish farmers did not support or even opposed the Soviet Labor Party.
Therefore, he mercilessly criticized the Soviet Union and said: "Without keeping a small number of peasants neutral and without attracting the broad masses of peasants to the Labor Party, the Polish Labor Party will not be able to seize and maintain power."
This also caused Kuhn to be criticized and dissatisfied by the Soviet side. Some Soviet leaders, including Joseph, stubbornly believed that Kuhn was not a pure Labor Party fighter.
Although Kuhn was not welcomed by the Soviet Union, some of his agricultural policies in Hungary did win the support of Hungarian farmers.
Hungary is still essentially an agricultural country, with landless farmers making up the majority of the country's population. So when the Kuhn government distributed land to the majority of the country's people, it also made Hungarian farmers enthusiastic about supporting the Labor Party.
Subsequently, the Hungarian Labor Party regime swept across most of Hungary in a relatively short period of time.
Budapest is located in the northwest of Hungary, so the southeastern part of Pest is adjacent to the rear base of the Hungarian Labor Party regime. Although the Hungarian Labor Party currently lacks everything except supporters, they are fully capable of mobilizing farmers in the rear to join the army and support Budapest.
So Prem shouted loudly: "There are tens of thousands of Hungarian people behind us, so Budapest cannot and will not lose."
"But the premise is that we all unite and contribute our strength to this new country and defeat the imperialist enemies. Otherwise, the Hungarian people will be enslaved by the Habsburgs again, and the future of Hungary will be ruined. The capitalists and nobles will take back all the property such as factories, land and houses, and drive us into the factories like pigs and dogs, working for them day and night."
"We must not lose Budapest. The Hungarian people cannot afford such a price. I call on and request everyone to make all preparations for the next war."
Prem's call was supported by many citizens. The reason is that the Hungarian Labor Party government is now the "savior" for the lower-class people in Budapest.
Although this regime was established for a short time, it brought hope and dignity to the people of Budapest.
Under the dictatorship of the Hungarian Labor Party, the Hungarian government was governed by a committee composed of workers, soldiers and farmers. The eight-hour workday was strictly enforced in Budapest, workers' wages doubled, and social security such as free medical care and work-related injury insurance was provided to the people.
In addition, the Labor Party redistributed housing in Budapest, implemented eight years of compulsory education, and other basic measures that benefited the people.
Such a government can obviously gain the support of the vast majority of Budapest people.
Budapest is different from other regions in Hungary because of its relatively developed industry, which makes the Hungarian Labor Party's base here more solid.
Although the Kuhn government paid more attention to farmers, workers are still the group that the Hungarian Labor Party, or most labor parties in the world, rely on the most, and Budapest happens to be the area where the Hungarian workers are most concentrated.
…
The Hungarian People's Committee in Budapest, Kuhn and other Hungarian Labor Party leaders were also making final preparations for the impending war.
The atmosphere of the meeting was a bit depressing. The top leaders of the Hungarian Labor Party were not as confident as the people of Budapest, because the people of Budapest could only receive very limited information, some of which was false information deliberately spread by the current Labor Party regime to encourage people.
But in fact, in recent months, the army led by the Hungarian Labor Party has suffered successive defeats on many fronts.
Moreover, in this situation, the enemy had not yet used its full strength. Whether it was Austria or Germany, the initial mobilization alone put Hungary at a huge disadvantage.
In addition to the enemy's strength, the attitude of the Soviet Union also caused many speculators to waver, and capitulationism quietly emerged within the Hungarian government.
This also involves the conflict between the Soviet Union and the leader of the Hungarian Labor Party, Kuhn. After all, it is well known that the Soviets like to interfere in the work of labor parties in other countries. Some of the articles published by Kuhn bluntly criticized some Soviet policies, which made some people in the Soviet Union very angry.
However, some opportunists within the Hungarian Labor Party, under the instructions of the Soviet Union, often voted against Kuhn.
After all, many members of the Hungarian Labor Party, including Kuhn himself, had received great help from the Soviet Union in the past. Kuhn even participated in the Russian Civil War, so the pro-Soviet faction within the Hungarian Labor Party was very strong.
As the war approached, the pro-Soviet faction once again launched a campaign to force Kuhn to abdicate.
"Comrade Kuhn, you are largely responsible for the deterioration of the current situation in Hungary. The Soviet Union has long proved that only by mobilizing the working class can we achieve final victory. However, due to your reckless actions, we have invested a lot of energy in the countryside."
"These farmers not only play no role in our regime, but also hinder the development of the regime."
Following the opening salvo of one committee member, other pro-Soviet factions joined in the verbal attack on Kuhn.
“The farmers’ organizational ability was very poor, which was an important reason for our defeat on the front line. In addition, the domestic land policy went against the original intention of the Labour Party. The farmers themselves were not progressive, which greatly hindered the subsequent development of the country’s industry.”
"That's right, Comrade Joseph has long said that we should continue to expand the number of workers instead of creating groups of backward small farmers and rich peasants..."
The committee members were talking at once and actively holding Kuhn accountable. Why did they keep holding on to this point? Because this was what they, and the Soviet Union, disliked most about Kuhn.
Of course, Kuhn also had his own supporters, who argued in his defense: "Haha, wasn't the Soviet Union's failure in Poland a lesson for us?"
"Even if Comrade Kuhn has problems, his merits outweigh his faults, especially in a region like Hungary where the basic conditions are not mature. Without Comrade Kuhn's leadership, we can't even imagine how Hungary's current regime was established and how it has achieved such a huge advantage in such a short period of time."
"Hungary has always been an agricultural country. Our national conditions are very different from those of Russia, so we cannot impose the Soviet system on Hungary."
"The enemy we face is so powerful that it is not wrong to actively seek support from farmers and other forces. At least at this stage, we need more support to defend the survival of the regime."
"Yes, the Soviets only care about Hungary's affairs, but they are unwilling to give us greater support. Now they are making sarcastic remarks. If you don't know, you might think you are Soviets!"
The latter sentence really pissed off the pro-Soviet faction. They responded by saying, "Labor Party members know no national boundaries. In the future, the whole world will become a unified political entity. You are an extreme nationalist. You are not a member of our Labour Party at all. You should be mixed up with the likes of Benito in Italy."
This sentence completely ignited the emotions of both sides. Who is Benito? He is an Italian tyrant in the eyes of the Labor Party, a notorious existence. Therefore, such vicious words made the Hungarian Labor Party, which was originally dissatisfied with the Soviet Union, completely break off with the pro-Soviet faction.
The entire committee was like a Western parliament, with both sides imitating the shrews in the vegetable market, cursing, arguing, slandering, and accusing each other...
Looking at the committee arguing, Kuhn had to speak up himself to end the farce.
"Everyone be quiet!" Kuhn roared with an extremely sad and angry voice, and his voice spread throughout the entire venue.
Everyone was finally shocked and sat back in their chairs with disdain. After all, Kuhn was still the supreme leader of Hungary, so his words could still work.
Kuhn said solemnly: "I should bear the main responsibility for the deterioration of the situation in Hungary today."
He took the blame on himself right from the start. Of course, as the current top leader of Hungary, Kuhn does believe that he did not do better, which led to the current situation in Hungary.
"However, whether it is the investigation of my personal mistakes or the study of the policies that have been implemented, it cannot change the problem we are facing now. Imperialism is coming with great force. We should not focus our energy on quarreling."
"Arguing won't solve any problems. Now we should all work together to overcome Hungary's difficulties and completely defeat the external enemies."
"As for my problem, I will resign from my relevant positions after this crisis is over and give everyone a satisfactory explanation. Facts have proven that my personal ability is indeed not enough to continue to lead the country. However, under the special circumstances of the critical national situation, I will persist for a while and make preparations for war."
Kuhn's words completely shocked everyone in the Hungarian Labor Party. Of course, the pro-Soviet faction was more surprised. This was a huge victory for them.
(End of this chapter)
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