The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

The reasons for the minuscule military strength of Western Hungary go back
six months. Of them, the most important: Károlyi and his government’s
restrained – and blind trust in the Entente Powers’ promises – behavior, the
unwise disarming of Hungarian military units returning from the eastern and
Italian fronts, the blameworthy neglect to organize national self-defense, the
deliberate obstruction of armed resistance. In other words, the imprudent and
evil policy of voluntary surrender. On top of it, Károlyi fell for the siren song of
Wilsonism, – which had no more effective meaning for Hungary – the fevered
dreams of pacifism and the fruitless quagmire of the exchange of diplomatic
notes of the Paris Peace Conference and the Entente Powers.
What was the number of Hungarian soldiers returning from the fronts in the
Fall of 1918? With the authorization of the Károlyi government, Béla Linder
(1876–1962), Minister for War, issued an order on November 1 – while the
truce terms were being negotiated in Padua between the Monarchy and the
Entente – to all the Hungarian forces on all the fronts to lay down their arms.
He did this two days before the truce agreement was signed (Nov. 3), making
the armed defense of Hungary impossible! With this order, Prime Minister
(later president of the republic) Károlyi, his Minister for War, Linder, and after
November 4, the Undersecretary responsible for disarmament, Vilmos Böhm
(1880–1949) and their circle, are guilty of treason against the country and the
nation for ignoring Hungarian national interests. They failed to organize
defenses against the Czech-Slovak, Romanian and Serb forces that broke into
the country. Serving foreign interests, they deliberately disarmed and
demoralized the returning units from the fronts, from the beginning of
November to the end of December 1918. The returning army was mostly in
orderly units, under the command of officers, carrying their weapons and
artillery. Böhm, in his biography, disclosed the following numbers: “By the end
of November (1918), almost 700,000 soldiers were demobilized, by the middle
of December, their number reached 1,200,000. Total demobilization was
completed by the end of December.” 38 In the second half of December, another
source estimates another 300,000 soldiers returning from the battlefield and
disarmed. Thus, in total, the Károlyi government disarmed a total of 1.5 million
soldiers. 39 It is important to examine the ethnic composition of this huge force
(never having been done by any Hungarian historian in the past 90 years) to
sector of the Red Army of the Hungarian Soviet Republic]. In: Soproni Szemle, 1960,
issue 3, p. 251.
38 Böhm, Vilmos: Két forradalom tüzében. (Októberi forradalom. Proletárdiktatúra.
Ellenforradalom.) [In the inferno of two revolutions. (October Revolution. Dictatorship
of the Proletariat. Counter-revolution.)]. Published: Verlag für Kulturpolitik, München,
1923, p. 78.
39 This fact of the period, forgotten for decades, was republished in the Kadar-era, after
dressing it in appropriate ideological attire and twisting of facts. In: Az első világháború
és a forradalmak képei [WWI and scenes of revolutions]. Szerk./ed.: Farkas,Márton –
Józsa, Antal - Vajdáné Csizmarik, Irén – Varga, Éva. Budapest, 1977, Európa
Könyvkiadó, p. 424.
21