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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
The nine years between 1979 and 1987 have been banner years for Hungarian publications on the history of the Hungarian Communist Revolution and its leader, Béla Kun. Occasioning the increased output were two anniversary dates: the sixtieth anniversary of the short-lived soviet republic in 1979 and the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of its leader, Béla Kun, in 1986.
Historical evaluations of Béla Kun's life started with a frenzy in 1979 when his political biography, written by György Borsányi, was published; they ended in a whimper with the publication of several Kun biographies in 1987. The controversial B61a Kun has been negatively judged not only by western historians and by Hungarian historians writing during the interwar years, but also by such prominent Russian revolutionaries as the Marxist Lev Trotskii and the anarchist Victor Serge. Both considered him an incompetent fool.
1. For some western evaluations see, Tokds, Rudolf L., Bela Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic: The Origins and Role of the Communist Party of Hungary in the Revolutions of 1918–1919 (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; Rudolf L. Tokes, “B£la Kun; The Man and the Revolutionary” in Ivan Volgyes, ed., Hungary inRevolution, 1918–1919; Kovrig, Bennet, Communism in Hungary from Kun to Kdddr (Stanford, 1979)Google Scholar, Pastor, Peter, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Rise and Fall of the Hungarian Communist Party, 1918–1922” in Banac, Ivo, ed., The Effects of World War I: The Class War after the Great War: The Rise ofthe Communist Parties in East Central Europe, 1918–1921 (New York, 1983)Google Scholar. For interwar publications see Kaas, Albert and de Lazarovics, Fedor, Bolshevism in Hungary (London, 1931)Google Scholar; Malyusz, Elemer, TheFugitive Bolsheviks (London, 1931)Google Scholar; For Trotskii's and Serge's evaluation see, Breitman, George and SarahLowell, , eds., Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1932 (New York, 1973), 307–309Google Scholar; Serge, Victor, Memoirs of aRevolutionary 1901–1941 (New York, 1963), 139 Google Scholar.
2. Kun, Bemne, Kun Bela (Emlekezesek) [Bela Kun (recollections)] (Budapest, 1966)Google Scholar; Dersi, Tamss, A publicista Kun Bdla, Pdlyakezdo korszak [The publicist B61a Kun: the era of the start of his career] (Budapest, 1973).Google Scholar
3. SSndorne GSbor and Ferenc Mucsi, eds., A Magyarorszdgi Tandcskoztdrsasdg 50. evforduldja[The fiftieth anniversary of the Hungarian Soviet Republic] (Budapest, 1970), 15–16 and 496.
4. Timothy Garton Ash, “The Hungarian Lesson,” The New York Review of Books, 32 (5 December 1985): 5. During my visit to Hungary in June 1988, 1 was informed by a well-placed person that Kadar hadopposed the reappearance of Borsanyi's book in the stores. Its return was signaled in the October 1988 issueof Konyvildg 33, no. 10 (1988): 16.
5. Bglane’ Kun, Kun Bila, pp. 59–61; I. M. Gramchak and Lebovich, M. F., Bela Kun—Viadaiushchiisiadeiatel’ vengerskogo i revolutsionnogo dvizheniia (Moscow, 1975), 22.Google Scholar
6. Tibor Szamuely, A Kommunistdk Magyarorszdgi Pdrtjdnak megalakuldsa is harca a proletdrdiktaturde'ri[The formation of the party of communists in Hungary] (Budapest, 1964), pp. 196–197; ErvinLiptai, A Magyar Tandcskoztdrsasdg [The Hungarian Soviet Republic] (Budapest, 1965), 43–44; JanosKende, Forradalomrdlforradalomra [From revolution to revolution] (Budapest, 1979), 79–80.
7. Borsanyi, Gyorgy, Kun Bila, Politikai eletrajz [Bela Kun: political biography] (Budapest, 1979)Google Scholar.
8. Ibid., 145.
9. Ibid., 155.
10. Ibid., 192.
11. Serge, Memoirs, 140; Borkenau, Franz, World Communism, A History of the Communist International (Ann Arbor, 1962), 115 Google Scholar.
12. Borkenau, World Communism, p. 115; Lazich and Drachkovitch incorrectly claim that at first, theangry Lenin sent Kun away to Turkestan. See Lazitch, Branko and Drachkovitch, Milorad M., Lenin and theComintern (Stanford, 1974), 488 Google Scholar.
13. Borsanyi, Kun Bila, 256.
14. Breitman, George and Scott, Bev, eds., Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1934–1935 (New York, 1971), 155 and 341, n. 161Google Scholar.
15. Nemes, Dezse, “£szrev6telek Borsanyi Gyorgy: Kun Be1a politikai £letrajza cimfl munkajahoz “[Observations on the work of Gyorgy Borsdnyi entitled: The political life of Be1a Kun], PdrttortinetiKozlemenyek, 25, no. 3 (1979): 88.Google Scholar
16. Ibid., 80.
17. Ibid., 102.
18. Nemes, Dezsfl et al., A magyarforradalmi munksmozgalom tortenete (Budapest, 1979)Google Scholar; Nemes, “£szrevelek,” 109.
19. Antal J6zsa and Gyorgy Milei, “Megjegyzfisek BorsSnyi Gyorgy Kun Belardl sz616 biografij£hoz” [Notes about the Gyorgy BorsSnyi biography on Bgla Kun], Pdrtortineti Kozlemenyek 25, no. 4 (1979): 221.
20. Andres Sikles, “Adalekok a Kun Be1a-ke>d6s historiogrSfiajShoz” [Contributions to the historiographyof the Bela Kun question] in Ferenc Mucsi and GSbor Szdkely, eds., Kun Bela, Nemzetkozitudomdnyos uesszak szulelisinek 100. ivforduldjdra. 1986. februdr 11–12 [Be1a Kun, international scientificconference on the 100th anniversary of his birth. February 11–12, 1986] (Budapest, 1987), 134.
21. Gyorgy Milei, “A leninizmushoz vezet6 ut kezdetgn. Kun B61a az oroszorszagi forradalmakban1917–1918” [At the beginning of the road to Leninism. B61a Kun in the Russian revolutions 1917–1918], Pdrttbrte'neli Kozlemenyek 33, no. 3 (1987): 58–100.
22. Ibid., 58.
23. Ibid., 67, 71, and 75.
24. “Kun B61a szuletesfinek centenariuma eleV’ in Pdrtlortineti Kozlemenyek 31, no. 3 (1985): 3–14.
25. Dezs6 Nemes, Kun B£la politikai Hetutjdrdl [About the political life of Bela Kun] (Budapest, 1985).
26. Siklos, “Adatekok,” 134.
27. Nemes, Kun BMa, 186 (italics are Nemes's).
28. Ibid., 136.
29. Ibid., 186.
30. Lajos Arokay, Kun B6la (Budapest, 1986), 122–123.
31. Nikolaj Derzsaluk, “Kun B61a a Krimben” [B61a Kun in the Crimea], Historia 8, no. 1 (1986): 24–26.
32. Borsanyi, Kun Bila, 367.
33. Gyorgy Borsanyi, “A Kommunistak Magyarorszagi Partja 6s a VII. kongresszus” [The party ofthe Communists in Hungary and the seventh congress] in Ivan Harsanyi, Janos Jemnitz, and Gabor Sz6kely, eds., A Kommunista InternacionU VII. kongresszusa [The seventh congress of the Communist international] (Budapest, 1985), 95–107; for a similarly benign view, see, Attila Sipos, eds., Nipfront Magyarorszdgon, A Kommunista Internaciondle VII. kongresszusa es a magyarorszdgi munkdstpdrtok [Popularfront in Hungary. The seventh congress of the communist international and the Hungarian workers’ parties] (Budapest, 1985).
34. Belane’ Kun, Kun Beta (EmUkezesek) (Budapest, 1986); Katalin Petrak, ed., Kun Bila a kortdrsakszemivel [B61a Kun through the eyes of contemporaries] (Budapest, 1986); Additional primary and referencematerial published during the same year was Leszl6 Sv6d, ed., Kun Bela is az ifjusdg. Vdlogatott irdsok[B61a Kun and the young: selected writings] (Budapest, 1986); Zoltin Ripp and lstvanne’ Varga, eds., KunBe “la muveinek bibliogrdfidja [The bibliography of the works of B61a Kun] (Budapest, 1986).
35. Gyorgy Milei, ed., Kun Beldrdl. Tanulmdnyok [About Be1a Kun: Essays] (Budapest, 1966), 71.The italics are Milei's.
36. Tibor Hajdu, “1918–19. Ket forradalom ut661ete” [The afterlife of two revolutions], Medvetdnc, no. 4 (1984): 27–43. Milei sees this article as denigrating “Hungarian-Soviet internationalist traditions “ (Milei, “A leninizmushoz,” 77, n. 35). For the English language translation of Hajdu's article, see PeterPastor, ed., Revolutions and Interventions in Hungary and Its Neighbor States, 1918–1919 (Boulder, 1988), 510–528.
