Hungary

    avatar
    Created by
    Ruby Squires

    Cards (21)

    • It was the Comm Party itself in Hungary, the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party (HSWP) that initiated reforms
    • Kadar made limited changes but the fact remained that he had overseen the brutal suppression of the 1956 uprising, and refused to extend any reform programs 
    • Worsening economic conditions led to the general dissatisfaction
    • Even dedicated comms looked for alternative routes to improve the local economy 
    • Economic advisers were especially interested in engaging in trade with Western Europe 
    • 1988 – Kadar resigned as Secretary-General 
    • A young Politburo member, Miklos Nemeth, negotiated a one billion Deutsch Mark loan from West German banks 
    • On the strength of his economic acumen, he was named prime minister, and followed economic reforms with political ones 
    • The gov adopted basic freedoms, civil rights and electoral reforms 
    • The comm gov was ready to adopt a multi-party system 
    • The gov also initiated roundtable discussion to change the constitution that included a number of new and reconstituted pre-comm political parties
    • April 1989 – the Soviets agreed to withdraw all its military forces from Hungary by 1991
    • June 1989 – the HSWP’s leadership agreed that free elections should take place in 1990 
    • This decision was based on the belief that the HSWP held the strongest support among Hungarians so it would remain the leading party
    • This also seemed to confirm the Soviet view that reforms could enable a Comm Party to legitimately lead a gov with a majority 
    • The Hungarians made a crucial decision in September 1989 
    • They agreed to open their frontier with Austria and allow East Germans, who could freely enter Hungary, to travel freely to West Germany 
    • The exodus that followed clearly illustrated the rejection of the comm East German regime and the rejection of communism
    • This led directly to the crisis in East Germany in Nov 1989 
    • Hungary’s movement away from comm was peaceful and served as a model for other EE countries
    • The 1990 elections peacefully moved Hungary from communism to democracy 
    See similar decks