Varga Remembers Bela Kun

Eugene Varga, 70th Anniversary of the Birth of Bela Kun. February 21, 1956

Original Source: Pravda, 21 February 1956, p. 10.

Seventy years have passed since the birth of Bela Kun, one of the most prominent leaders of the Hungarian Communist Party.

Even before the first world war Bela Kun was an active worker of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary. A born revolutionary well versed in Marxist teaching, he had no liking for the reformist policy of this party, which was set up on the basis of trade unions and was under the leadership of rightwing trade union leaders. Bela Kun together with others in the workers' movement tried to develop a struggle against this opportunistic leadership. But at that time he could not find a way out of the situation which had arisen in the Hungarian workers' movement.

During the first world war Bela Kun found himself a prisoner of war in Russia. There he became thoroughly acquainted with the Leninist teaching and with the Bolshevist principles of building a new type of party. Under the influence of the immortal Leninist teaching Bela Kun joined the ranks of the Bolshevist party, launching extensive propagandistic and organizational work among Hungarian prisoners of war.

During the great October socialist revolution, which opened the era of liberation for all peoples, Bela Kun was already doing active Party work in Siberia. In that period he was definitely molded into a revolutionary devoted to the great cause of the proletariat. Detachments of Hungarian war prisoners, organized by him and other Communists, joined the Bolshevist side and played an active role in the Civil War.

After the October victory Bela Kun had the good fortune of meeting V. I. Lenin personally.

In the autumn of 1918, after the end of the first world war and the victory of the bourgeois revolution in Hungary, Bela Kun, enriched by the ideas of Leninism and inspired with revolutionary hopes, returned to his homeland. With tremendous energy he set to organizing, together with Comrades Matyas Rakosi and other Hungarian Communists, the revolutionary forces that had grown in the country. Bela Kun assumed a leading role in setting up the Hungarian Communist Party-now the Hungarian Working People's Party. The newspaper Veres Ugsag (Red Newspaper), published by the Hungarian Communist Party, brought the great light of Marxist-Leninist ideas to the working people-ideas which quickly won the confidence of the country's working class.

New revolutionary events soon took place in Hungary. The objective historical conditions for the overthrow of the decadent bourgeois regime were present in the country. Defeat in war, the collapse of the army, inflation, the treachery of the right-wing Hungarian Social Democratic leaders-all this shattered and hastened the downfall of the old regime. Under these conditions the Hungarian Communist Party quickly won to its side the majority of the country's working class and confidently led the working people toward proletarian revolution.

The bourgeoisie, seeking to stop the course of revolutionary events in Hungary, began to persecute the revolutionaries. Bela Kun was arrested and thrown into prison. But revolutionary events in the country continued irrevocably. Bela Kun continued to lead the Communist Party and the revolutionary masses from prison.

And the revolution met with victory. The bourgeoisie, frightened by the growth of the powerful revolutionary movement in the country, sent its representatives, the right-wing Social Democrats, to Bela Kun in prison and offered to transfer all power to the Soviets. On the night of March 21, 1919, the Hungarian proletariat won state power. Dictatorship of the proletariat was established in the country and the Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed.

At 5:00 p.m. on March 22, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars of the Hungarian Soviet Republic informed the Russian Soviet Republic through the Csepel radio station of events in Hungary and sent the following appeal to Moscow: "The Hungarian Soviet Republic calls Comrade Lenin to the radio. "

Within ten minutes Moscow answered: "Lenin present. Call Comrade Bela Kun."

At that moment Bela Kun was at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and could not come to the apparatus. The Csepel radio station reported that another comrade, a member of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party, was there in his place and that the Hungarian proletariat warmly greeted Lenin as the leader of the international proletariat and expressed revolutionary solidarity with the Russian proletariat. The radiogram reported that the Social Democratic Party had accepted the Communists' platform. The radiogram also asked for information on the military situation.

In reply Lenin dictated the following greetings to the government of the Hungarian Soviet Republic:

This is Lenin. Sincere greetings to the proletarian government of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and especially to Comrade Bela Kun. I have conveyed your greetings to the Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Tremendous enthusiasm. We shall send you as soon as possible the decisions of the Moscow Congress of the Third Communist International as well as a report on the military situation. It is definitely necessary to maintain constant radio communications between Budapest and Moscow. With Communist regards, Lenin.

The next day, March 23, 1919, V. I. Lenin sent a telegram to Bela Kun asking- "Do the Communists have a majority in the government? When will the Congress of Soviets take place? What is the real meaning of the socialists' recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat?

It is perfectly clear that bare imitation of our Russian tactics in every detail would be a mistake under the unique conditions of the Hungarian revolution. I must warn against this error but I would like to know what you see as real guarantees.

The great Lenin highly valued Bela Kun's revolutionary activity. "Comrade Bela Kun," said Lenin in a recorded speech, "and I were well acquainted when he was a prisoner of war in Russia, and we frequently discussed Communism and Communist revolution. Thus, when reports arrived of the Hungarian Communist revolution, as well as a report signed by Comrade Bela Kun, we wanted to speak to him and to determine clearly how matters stood with this revolution The answer which Comrade Bela Kun gave was completely satisfactory"

Speaking of Bela Kun, V. I. Lenin stated in a speech to a conference of Moscow factory committees and trade unions: "This Hungarian Bolshevik, who was subjected to persecution, slander and ridicule, is now the real leader of the Hungarian Soviet government."

For a number of reasons the Hungarian Soviet Republic did not exist very long-four and one-half months in all. The forces of international reaction crushed it. But it was of great significance in the history of the Hungarian people, in the history of the international workers' movement. It showed the Hungarian proletariat that the victory of the revolution was possible and that revolution would triumph.

The Hungarian Communist Party formed by Bela Kun went underground and, despite fascist terrorism, continued its revolutionary work. For 25 years it stubbornly led the struggle for the freedom and happiness of the Hungarian people. Bela Kun led this struggle and was at the same time one of the most prominent figures in the international workers' movement.

As a result of the victory of the working class over the bourgeoisie and the landlords, which to a large extent was assisted by the Soviet Union's world-historic victory over fascism, the people's democratic system was consolidated in Hungary after Bela Kun's death. Learning a lesson from the past, the Hungarian Working People's Party in the difficult struggle against reactionary forces has been able to ensure the 'unity of the working class, the union of the working class and the toiling peasantry. This is a firm guarantee for all the successes of the Hungarian People's Republic on the path of building socialism.

Building a new life, people's Hungary in 1955 surpassed the prewar level of industrial production by three and one-half times. Hungary has become a developed industrial state. The Hungarian people are free masters of their beautiful homeland; by its leadership the working class assures the triumphant building of socialism.

The bright memory of Bela Kun will always be preserved in the hearts of the Hungarian people, in the minds of Communist fighters in all countries.

Source: Current Soviet Policies (New York: F. A. Praeger, 1957), Vol. II, pp. 122-123.