Hungary was left an ethnic rumpstate after World War I, one that had lost 77% of it’s land. The ruling class had failed the people and deserved blame. So a new communist government was understandable, if only they could remember they work for Hungarians. A great time to invoke a previous rebellion lead by Gyorgy Dozsa against another discredited gentry. If Soviet Hungarian Republic President Sandor Garbai knew his history he would have worried. Hey wasn’t Dozsa fried and then eaten? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult, lock your door if you are part of the landed gentry. and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist,
Hungary was only the second country to go Communist after Russia. It was a worldwide movement so they probably didn’t think too hard about the label Soviet. It wasn’t implying a Russian colony, except of course that was exactly what they were selling. The local Communists did think to appoint a gentile figurehead, President Garbai, to somewhat shield who they were. A later communist leader joked that Garbai was picked so that they would have someone to sign death warrants on the Sabbath.
Todays stamp is issue A18 a 75 Filler stamp issued by the Hungarian Soviet Republic on June 12th, 1919. It was the only issue of the Soviet Republic and consisted of five stamps in various denominations. My stamp has the later vertical watermark that did not make it into postal use before the short lived Soviet Republic ended. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $7.50 unused.
The Soviet Hungarian government came in peacefully but with a little trickery. The Hapsburg Regency ordered the center left social democrats to form a government not knowing they had merged with the still officially banned communists. The communists than ordered the Hapsburg regent and any social democrats in the government arrested. This was directly on orders from Soviet leader Lenin. The people who had such a time dealing with defeat were willing to give the communists a chance. They were desperate for anyone that could restore Hungary to its prewar status. The Reds had no trouble recruiting an army that duly marched into the old upper Hungary, then the Czech and Slovak Republic. The army made some progress but then declared a Slovak Soviet Republic in the conquered territory. This was about an ideology not restoring to Hungary it’s lost territory. The army and people rebelled and the Soviet republic fell. The Hapsburg Regency was restored and there was a “White Terror” against the Communists and the Jews who the government felt had betrayed the country. Many of the top Communists escaped the terror into exile including the top leadership and actor Bela Lugosi, who was head of the communist actors union. Lugosi went of course on to America to play a Hungarian Count from Transylvania not too unlike Gyorgy Dozsa. The rest of the leadership went on to the Soviet Union where many then fell victim to Stalin’s 1930s purges of those he suspected of being untrustworthy.
Gyorgi Dozsa was a Hungarian Count from Transylvania who lived around 1500 AD when Transylvania was part of a greater Hungary. After a meeting with the Pope the Hungarian Chancellor passed on his issuance of a Crusade against the Ottomans. Count Dozsa duly raised an army staffed by peasants to fight the Ottomans. The peasants felt the Army was not getting enough support from the Hungarian gentry that had initiated the war. The army turned against the Hungarian government while still under Count Dozsa and burned several hundred manor homes and castles and killing many of the gentry, often by Crucifixion. The King withdrew the crusade against the Ottomans and ordered the peasants back to the farms under “pain of death”. He also raised a new mercenary army to personally go after Count Dozsa. He was duly captured in battle in Tannesvar, in what is now Romania. After capture, he was mocked by being made to sit on an iron throne and wear an iron crown the had both been warmed in a fire until nearly molten. Still alive he was then cut with pliers also heated in the fire. Then fellow rebel prisoners were offered a way to avoid death by taking a bite of Count Dozsa’s flesh.
The Communists of 1919 were just trying to weave a little history into their story of a glorious future. In retrospect the message is more clear, Don’t Screw with the Hungarian Gentry.
Well my drink is empty and faced with a choice of a controlled by outsider mob of peasants and a gentry that takes names and gets their revenge I will chose the gentry. At least they live better in the meantime, Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.