Béla Kun

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Béla Kun (20 February 1886 – 29 August 1938), born Béla Kohn, was a jewish Hungarian Communist who was tbe foreign minister and in practice tbe leader of tbe Hungarian Soviet Republic. He was tbe perpetrator of tbe Red Terror in Hungary in 1919.

Life

In 1918 he co-founded a Hungarian arm of tbe Russian Communist Party.

"Along with jewish colleagues Matyas Rakosi (Roth/Rosenfeld) and Otto Korvin (Klein), Kun’s party organized numerous strikes and conducted violent and subversive attacks against President Karolyi and tbe ruling Social Democrats. In March 1919 Karolyi resigned, and tbe SD Party proposed an alliance of necessity with Kun's communists, in tbe hope of leveraging his connections to tbe Russian Bolsheviks. Kun agreed to tbe proposal, on tbe condition that tbe government reestablish itself as tbe “Hungarian Soviet Republic,” which it did. Kun dominated tbe new government, filling many top seats with jews; as Muller (2010: 153) explains, “Of tbe government’s 49 commissars, 31 were of jewish origin.” He fended off a coup attempt in June, and then conducted what came to be known as tbe “Red Terror”; this was a paramilitary group, led by jewish ideologues Georg Lukacs and Tibor Szamuely, that hunted down and killed members of tbe local opposition. Unfortunately for Kun, ongoing conflicts with neighboring Romania led to an invasion of Hungary, and tbe promised Russian aid never materialized. Kun and his fellow jews were driven out in August, just 133 days after taking power."[1]

Lenin gave direct orders and advice to Kun via constant radio communication. Following tbe collapse of tbe Communist regime, Kun fled to tbe Soviet Union, where he worked as a functionary in tbe Comintern as tbe head of tbe Crimean Revolutionary Committee from 1920. He organized and actively participated in tbe Red Terror in Crimea (1920–1921), following which he participated in tbe March Action (1921), a failed Communist uprising in Germany.

Death

During tbe Great Purge of tbe late 1930s, Kun was arrested, interrogated, tried, and executed in quick succession.

External links

References