1.
Flag of Hungary
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The flag of Hungary is a horizontal tricolour of red, white and green. In this exact form, it has been the flag of Hungary since May 23,1957. The flags form originates from national republican movements of the 18th and 19th centuries and it both shares close relations to the flag of Bulgaria. The nation of Hungary originated from the freedom movement from before 1848. The revolution was not only in opposition against the monarchy but also the Habsburg Empire, the stripes are horizontal rather than vertical to prevent confusion with the Italian flag, which had also been designed after the French flag. According to other data, the recent form of the Hungarian tricolour had been used from 1608 at the coronation of Mathias II of Hungary. Folklore of the period attributed the colours to virtues, red for strength, white for faithfulness. Alternatively, red for the blood spilled for the fatherland, white for freedom and green for the land, the new constitution, which took effect on 1 January 2012, makes the ex-post interpretation mentioned first official. As described above, the red-white-green tricolour emerged as a sign of sovereignty during the 1848–1849 revolution against the Habsburgs. The flag had the minor arms of Hungary with archangels as supporters were used as a badge on the flag. This configuration was used until the end of the Habsburg Empire in 1918, after the fall of the Habsburg Empire, the years 1918 to 1920 were highly turbulent, and several hard-to-trace minor changes took place. The red-green-white tricolour stayed the same, but small differences emerged in terms of the badge, a short interlude and exception was the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic, which lasted for four-and-a-half months, it used a solid red banner. It seems that from 1920–1944 or 1945 the tricolour displayed the arms of Hungary. Between 1946 and 1949 the crown was removed from the top of the serving as the badge. With the onset of Communist rule in 1949, a new coat of arms featuring a Communist red star was placed on the flag as the badge. During the anti-Soviet uprising in 1956, revolutionaries cut out the Stalinist emblem, for some months the new government changed the flag to bear the minor arms without the crown as the badge again. Therefore, the flag of Hungary has been a pure red-white-green tricolour since 1957. After the fall of communism in 1989 there was no need to change the flag, there was a recommendation of the Committee of Symbols some years ago, that the coat of arms should be part of the state flag, while the national flag should remain plain
2.
Himnusz
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Himnusz is the official national anthem of Hungary. It was adopted in the 19th century and the first stanza is sung at official ceremonies, the full meaning of the poems text is evident only to those well acquainted with Hungarian history. The lyrics of Himnusz are a prayer beginning with the words Isten, the title in the original manuscript is Hymnus - a Latin word meaning hymn, and one which had no widely used counterpart in the Hungarian language at the time. It is only in specialist usage that it is used in its meaning of hymn in Hungarian. Although Kölcsey completed the poem on 22 January 1823, it was published first in 1829 in Károly Kisfaludys Aurora, without the subtitle. It subsequently appeared in a collection of Kölcseys works in 1832, a competition for composers to make the poem suitable to be sung by the public was staged in 1844 and won by Erkels entry. His version was first performed in the National Theatre in July 1844, then in front of an audience on 10 August 1844. By the end of the 1850s it became customary to sing Himnusz at special occasions either alongside Vörösmartys Szózat or on its own. It wasnt until 1989 that Erkels musical adaptation of Himnusz finally gained recognition as Hungarys national anthem. The public radio station Kossuth Rádió plays Himnusz at ten minutes past midnight each day at the close of transmissions in the AM band, Himnusz is also traditionally played on Hungarian television at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. Traditionally, Himnusz is sung at the beginning of ceremonies, recognition is also given to the Rákóczi March, a short wordless piece which is often used on state military occasions, and the poem Nemzeti dal written by Sándor Petőfi. Another popular song is the Székely Himnusz, a national anthem of the Hungarian-speaking Szekler living in Eastern Transylvania. Two English versions are given below, both are free translations of the Hungarian words, since Hungarian is a genderless language, references to the Magyar as he in the English translations are in fact directed to all Hungarians regardless of gender. On May 7,2006, a sculpture was inaugurated for Himnusz at Szarvas Square, Budakeszi and it was created by Mária V. The musical form of the poem can be played on the bells, the cost of its construction,40 million forints, was collected through public subscription. Sheet Music is available at the Hungarian Electronic Library website, Hungarian Anthem on Music Keyboard 2.4
3.
Budapest
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Budapest is the capital and most populous city of Hungary, one of the largest cities in the European Union and sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. It has an area of 525 square kilometres and a population of about 1.8 million within the limits in 2016. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the Danube river with the unification of Buda and Óbuda on the west bank, the history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia. Hungarians arrived in the territory in the 9th century and their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241–1242. The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture by the 15th century, following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, the region entered a new age of prosperity, and Budapest became a global city after its unification in 1873. It also became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a power that dissolved in 1918. Budapest was the point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Republic of Councils in 1919, the Battle of Budapest in 1945. Budapest is an Alpha- global city, with strengths in arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts the Budapest Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks and it is the highest ranked Central and Eastern European city on Innovation Cities Top 100 index. Budapest attracts 4.4 million international tourists per year, making it the 25th most popular city in the world, further famous landmarks include Andrássy Avenue, St. It has around 80 geothermal springs, the worlds largest thermal water system, second largest synagogue. Budapest is home to the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the European Police College, over 40 colleges and universities are located in Budapest, including the Eötvös Loránd University, Central European University and Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Budapest is the combination of the city names Buda and Pest, One of the first documented occurrences of the combined name Buda-Pest was in 1831 in the book Világ, written by Count István Széchenyi. The origins of the names Buda and Pest are obscure, according to chronicles from the Middle Ages, the name Buda comes from the name of its founder, Bleda, brother of the Hunnic ruler Attila. The theory that Buda was named after a person is also supported by modern scholars, an alternative explanation suggests that Buda derives from the Slavic word вода, voda, a translation of the Latin name Aquincum, which was the main Roman settlement in the region. There are also theories about the origin of the name Pest. One of the states that the word Pest comes from the Roman times. According to another theory, Pest originates from the Slavic word for cave, or oven, the first settlement on the territory of Budapest was built by Celts before 1 AD
4.
Hungarian language
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Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary it is spoken by communities of Hungarian people in neighbouring countries. Like Finnish and Estonian, it belongs to the Uralic language family, its closest relatives being Mansi and it is one of several European languages not part of the Indo-European languages, and the most widely-spoken European language that does not belong to the Indo-European family. The Hungarian name for the language is magyar or magyar nyelv, the word Magyar is used as an English and Hungarian word to refer to Hungarian people as an ethnic group. Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family, the name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove seemed to confirm that. Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onogur, there are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, for example, Hungarian ház house vs. Khanty xot house, and Hungarian száz hundred vs. Khanty sot hundred. The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular, during the later half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian. Following an academic debate known as Az ugor-török háború, the Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, foremost based on work by the German linguist Josef Budenz. The traditional view argues that the Hungarian language separated from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium b. c. e. in western Siberia, east of the southern Urals. The Hungarians gradually changed their lifestyle from settled hunters to nomadic pastoralists, in Hungarian, Iranian loans date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over a millennium. Among these include tehén ‘cow’, tíz ‘ten’, tej ‘milk’, increasing archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan found in the previous decades confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between the Volga River and Ural Mountains. The Onogurs later had a influence on the language, especially between the 5th-9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied, and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic, e. g. borjú ‘calf’, dél ‘noon, many words related to agriculture, to state administration or even to family relations have such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a dramatic way during these 300 years. After the arrival of the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin the language came into contact with different speech communities, Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians who settled in Hungary during the 12th-13th centuries, e. g. koboz ‘cobza’, komondor ‘mop dog’. Hungarian borrowed many words from especially the neighbouring Slavic languages, in exchange, these languages also borrowed words from Hungarian, e. g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hung ásó ‘spade’. Approximately 1. 6% of the Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin, on the basis of the growing genetic evidence, the accepted origin theory is contested by geneticists too
5.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
6.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
7.
Parliamentary republic
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A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the executive branch derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature. There are a number of variations of parliamentary republics, most have a clear differentiation between the head of government and the head of state, with the head of government holding real power, much like constitutional monarchies. Some have combined the roles of head of state and head of government, much like presidential systems and this usually means that they are the leader of the largest party or coalition of parties in parliament. Some parliamentary republics could therefore be seen as following the semi-presidential system, typically, parliamentary republics are states that were previously constitutional monarchies with a parliamentary system, with the position of head of state given to a monarch. Following the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War, France once again became a republic – the French Third Republic – in 1870, the President of the Third Republic had significantly less executive powers than those of the previous two republics had. The Third Republic lasted until the invasion of France by Nazi Germany in 1940, following the end of the war, the French Fourth Republic was constituted along similar lines in 1946. Additionally, the government proved unable to make decisions regarding decolonization. Chile became the first parliamentary republic in South America following a war in 1891. However, following a coup in 1925 this system was replaced by a Presidential one, since the London Declaration of 29 April 1949 republics have been admitted as members of the Commonwealth of Nations. In the case of republics in the Commonwealth of Nations, it was common for the Sovereign, formerly represented by a Governor-General. This was the case in with South Africa, Malta, Trinidad and Tobago, India, in many of these examples, the last Governor-General became the first president. Such was the case with Sri Lanka and Pakistan, others became parliamentary republics upon gaining independence. List of countries by system of government Parliamentary system Republic Republicanism Semi-presidential system
8.
Ferenc Nagy
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Ferenc Nagy was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party. He was a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 29 November 1945 to 5 February 1946, Nagy was reported to be of peasant origins. Later he served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 4 February 1946 to 31 May 1947 and he was elected in 1946, in Hungarys first democratic election. As prime minister, he resisted attempts by the Hungarian Communist Party to gain control of the government. He refused attempts by the Communists to become a puppet of a Soviet backed police state and he gave up the premiership in return for his son and 300,000 Swiss francs. Subsequently he was granted asylum in the United States, Nagy documented his life and political career in The Struggle behind the Iron Curtain, published by MacMillan in 1948. The struggle behind the Iron Curtain, the statesman in the free world and in communism. Audiobook on tape, Lectures, speeches, English, Ferenc Nagy, a Hungarian agrar-democrat in the first half of the 20th Century. Nagy Ferenc miniszterelnök, visszamelékezések, tanulmányok, cikkek, a film clip Longines Chronoscope with Ference Nagy is available at the Internet Archive Speech by Ferenc Nagy on 23 March 1968, discussing America and the future of East Central Europe. Audio recording from The University of Alabamas Emphasis Symposium on Contemporary Issues
9.
National Assembly (Hungary)
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The National Assembly is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 members elected to 4-year terms, election of members is based on a complex system involving both area and list election, parties must win at least 5% of the popular vote in order to enter the list of members of the assembly. The Assembly includes 25 standing committees to debate and report on introduced bills, the Constitutional Court of Hungary has the right to challenge legislation on the grounds of constitutionality. The assembly has met in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest since 1902, the name of the legislative body was originally Parlamentum during the Middle Ages, the Diet expression gained mostly in the Early Modern period. It convened at regular intervals with interruptions during the period of 1527 to 1918, as a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, it was reconstituted in 1867. Natio Hungarica was a geographic, institutional and juridico-political category, the democratic character of the Hungarian parliament was reestablished with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of communist dictatorship in 1989. Todays parliament is still called Országgyűlés just like in royal times, at the sixth parliamentary elections, four parties or party alliances passed the minimum threshold, the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union in alliance with the Christian Democratic Peoples Party. Fidesz-KDNP candidates won seats to achieve a two-thirds majority required to modify major laws. The Hungarian Socialist Party won 59 seats, while its former coalition party Alliance of Free Democrats failed to win any seats, there were two newcomers to the Országgyűlés, Jobbik and Politics Can Be Different. 1 independent got into the Parliament, winning a constituency in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, the other prestigious party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum also lost all its seats. The President of Fidesz and Prime Minister is Viktor Orbán, pál Schmitt served as Speaker of the National Assembly until August 2010 when he became President of Hungary. He was replaced by László Kövér, after the 2010 local elections, held on the 3rd of October, Katalin Szili founded the Social Union and became its first chairperson. As a result, she quit the Hungarian Socialist Party and their parliamentarian group, continuing the parliamentarian work as formally independent MP. The heads of the factions were, MSZP, Ildikó Lendvai, Attila Mesterházy Fidesz, Tibor Navracsics KDNP, Zsolt Semjén SZDSZ, Gábor Kuncze, Mátyás Eörsi, János Kóka. MDF, the faction of MDF broke up in 2009. The head of the allied faction Fidesz-KDNP was Viktor Orbán, the head of the minority government was Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány then Gordon Bajnai. The speaker of the Assembly was Katalin Szili then Béla Katona of the MSZP
10.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
11.
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
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The Paris Peace Treaties were signed on 10 February 1947, as the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference, held from 29 July to 15 October 1946. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of peace treaties with minor Axis powers, namely Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland, following the end of World War II in 1945. The treaties allowed Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland to resume their responsibilities as sovereign states in international affairs, no penalties were to be visited on nationals because of wartime partisanship for the Allies. Italy lost its colonies, Italian East Africa and Italian Libya in North Africa, in the peace treaty, Italy recognized the independence of Albania. Italy also lost its concession in Tianjin, which was turned over to China, Italy had to cede most of Istria, including the provinces of Fiume, Zara, and most of Gorizia and Pola to Yugoslavia. Italy also had to cede to Yugoslavia all islands in the eastern Adriatic, the Dodecanese Islands were ceded to Greece. The border with France was slightly modified in favor of France, mostly in uninhabited Alpine area, except for the Tende valley, the border with France did not change since 1860. Finland was restored to the borders of 1 January 1941, except for the province of Petsamo. However, this sympathy had been eroded by Finlands pragmatist collaboration with Nazi Germany during the war years from 1941 to 1944. During this time, Finland not only recaptured territory it had lost in 1940 and this prompted the United Kingdom to declare war on Finland in December 1941, further weakening political support in the West for the country. Hungary was restored to its borders before 1938 and this meant restoring the southern border with Yugoslavia, as well as declaring the First and Second Vienna Awards null and void, cancelling Hungarys gains from Czechoslovakia and Romania. Furthermore, three villages situated south of Bratislava were also transferred to Czechoslovakia, Romania was restored to the borders of 1 January 1941, with the exception of the border with Hungary giving Northern Transylvania back to Romania. This confirmed the 1940 loss of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union and the Treaty of Craiova, the war reparation problem proved to be one of the most difficult arising from post-war conditions. In the cases of Romania and Hungary, the terms as set forth in their armistices were relatively high and were not revised. $300,000,000 Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union $300,000,000 from Hungary, $200,000,000 to the Soviet Union, $100,000,000 to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. $300,000,000 from Romania to the Soviet Union, $70,000,000 from Bulgaria, $45,000,000 to Greece, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia did not lead to any renegotiation of the Paris Peace Treaties. However, in 1990 Finland unilaterally cancelled the restrictions the treaty had placed on its military, Paris Peace Conference Proceedings United States Department of State Foreign relations of the United States,1946. Paris Peace Conference Documents United Nations Treaty Series volume 49, paris-WWII Peace Conference-1946, Settling Romanias Western Frontiers, at the Honorary Consulate of Romania in Boston, has pictures of the Romanian delegation
12.
Hungarian forint
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The forint is the currency of Hungary. It is divided into 100 fillér, although fillér coins are no longer in circulation, the introduction of the forint on 1 August 1946 was a crucial step of the post-World War II stabilization of the Hungarian economy, and the currency remained relatively stable until the 1980s. Transition to market economy in the early 1990s deteriorated the value of the forint, since 2001, inflation is single digit and the forint was declared fully convertible. As a member of the European Union, the long term aim of the Hungarian government may be to replace the forint with the euro, the forints name comes from the city of Florence, where golden coins were minted from 1252 called fiorino doro. In Hungary, florentinus, also a currency, was used from 1325 under Charles Robert. Between 1868 and 1892 the forint was the used in Hungarian for the currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was subdivided into 100 krajczár, the forint was reintroduced on 1 August 1946, after the pengő was rendered almost worthless by massive hyperinflation in 1945–46—the highest ever recorded. The process was managed by the Hungarian Communist Party, which held the relevant cabinet seats, the forints success was exploited for political gains, contributing to the Communists takeover of complete power in 1948–49. The forint replaced the pengő at the rate of 1 forint = 4×1029 pengő—dropping 29 zeroes from the old currency, in fact, this was an imaginary exchange rate. With the highest value note being 100 million B. pengő, of more significance was the exchange rate to the adópengő of 1 forint =200 million adópengő. Historically the forint was subdivided into 100 fillér, although coins have been rendered useless by inflation and have not been in circulation since 1999. The Hungarian abbreviation for forint is Ft, which is written after the number with a space between, the name fillér, the subdivision of all Hungarian currencies since 1925, comes from the German word Heller. The abbreviation for the fillér is f, written also after the number with a space in between, after the democratic change of 1989–90, the forint saw yearly inflation figures of app. 35% for three years, but significant market economy reforms helped stabilize it. Since year 2000 the relatively high value of forint handicaps the strongly export-oriented Hungarian industry against foreign competitors with lower valued currencies, in 1946, coins were introduced in denominations of 2,10,20 fillérs and 1,2,5 forints. The silver 5 forint was reissued only in the next year,5 and 50 fillérs coins were issued in 1948. In 1967, a 5 forint coin was reintroduced, followed by a 10 forint in 1971 and 20 forint in 1982. In 1992, a new series of coins was introduced in denominations of 1,2,5,10,20,50,100 and 200 forint, production of the 2 and 5 fillér coins ceased in 1992, with all fillér coins withdrawn from circulation by 1999. From 1996, a bicolor 100 forint coin was minted to replace the 1992 version, since the latter was considered too big and ugly, silver 200 forint coins were withdrawn in 1998, the 1 and 2 forint coins remained in circulation until 29 February 2008
13.
Hungarian People's Republic
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The Hungarian Peoples Republic was a socialist state that administered Hungary from 20 August 1949 until 23 October 1989. It was governed by the Socialist Workers Party, which was under the influence of the Soviet Union, the state remained in existence until 1989 when opposition forces consolidated in forcing upon the government to abandon communism. The state considered itself the heir to the Hungarian Soviet Republic and it was designated a peoples democratic republic by the Soviet Union in the 1940s. Geographically, it bordered Romania and the Soviet Union to the east, Yugoslavia to the south-west, Czechoslovakia to the north, following the occupation of Hungary by the Red Army, Soviet military occupation ensued. After seizing most material assets from German hands, the Soviets tried, Communist Interior Minister László Rajk established the ÁVH secret police, in an effort to suppress political opposition through intimidation, false accusations, imprisonment and torture. In early 1947, the Soviet Union pressed the leader of the Hungarian Communists, Mátyás Rákosi, Rákosi complied by pressuring the other parties to push out those members not willing to do the Communists bidding, ostensibly because they were fascists. Later on, after the Communists won full power, he referred to this practice as salami tactics, Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy was forced to resign as prime minister in favour of a more pliant Smallholder, Lajos Dinnyés. In the elections held that year, the Communists became the largest party, the coalition was retained with Dinnyés as prime minister. However, by this time most of the parties more courageous members had been pushed out. Having emasculated most of the parties, the Communists spent the next year. This culminated in the half of 1948. In June, the Communists forced the Social Democrats to merge them to form the Hungarian Working Peoples Party. Rákosi then forced Tildy to turn over the presidency to Social Democrat-turned-Communist Árpád Szakasits, in December, Dinnyés was replaced by the leader of the Smallholders left wing, the openly pro-Communist István Dobi. The process was more or less completed with the elections of May 1949, voters were presented with a single list of all parties, running on a common programme. On August 18, the newly elected National Assembly passed a new constitution—a near-carbon copy of the Soviet Constitution, when it was officially promulgated on August 20, the country was renamed the Peoples Republic of Hungary. Rajk called it a dictatorship of the proletariat without the Soviet form called a peoples democracy, Hungary stayed that way until the late 1980s, when turmoil broke out across the Eastern Bloc, culminating with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Unions dissolution. Mátyás Rákosi, the new leader of Hungary, demanded complete obedience from fellow members of the Hungarian Working Peoples Party, Rákosis main rival for power was László Rajk, who was then Hungarys Foreign Secretary. Rajk was arrested and Stalins NKVD emissary coordinated with Hungarian General Secretary Rákosi, at the September 1949 trial, Rajk made a forced confession, claiming that he had been an agent of Miklós Horthy, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito and Western imperialism
14.
Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
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Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
16.
Bratislava bridgehead
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48°4′42″N 17°7′32″E Bratislava bridgehead is an area with 93,7 km² at the Western part of today Slovakia at the Little Hungarian Plain, on the left bank of river Danube. Administratively it belongs to Bratislava V in Bratislava and it consists of the modern Čunovo, Jarovce, Rusovce and Petržalka. As a result of the Treaty of Trianon the peace treaty of Hungary signed at the end of First World War there was made a bridgehead for Czechoslovakia at the bank of Danube at Bratislava. At this time Petržalka was transferred to the newly founded country, in October 1938 as part of the Munich Agreement, Petržalka and Devín were transferred to the Nazi Germany for strategical purposes. Camp for Hungarians and Germans impeached for war crimes was located at Petržalka and it was an idea of the delegation of Czechoslovakia at the Paris Peace Conference that they would need an extended defensive territory at the Bratislava bridgehead. They required to get Čunovo, Jarovce, Rusovce, Rajka, there was built a microdistrict during the 1970s at Petržalka with a population of 100,000 inhabitants. Today all of the four villages are part of Bratislava V, between 1977 and 1992 there was built here the Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros Dams. The bridgehead makes possible the abstraction of the water to Slovakia
17.
End of World War II in Europe
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The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender to the Soviet Union and the Western Allies took place in late April and early May 1945. Allied forces begin to take large numbers of Axis prisoners, The total number of prisoners taken on the Western Front in April 1945 by the Western Allies was 1,500,000. April also witnessed the capture of at least 120,000 German troops by the Western Allies in the last campaign of the war in Italy, in the three or four months up to the end of April, over 800,000 German soldiers surrendered on the Eastern Front. In early April, the first Allied-governed Rheinwiesenlagers were established in western Germany to hold hundreds of thousands of captured or surrendered Axis Forces personnel, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force reclassified all prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces, not POWs. The legal fiction circumvented provisions under the Geneva Convention of 1929 on the treatment of former combatants, by October, thousands had died in the camps from starvation, exposure and disease. Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps and refugees, Allied forces begin to discover the scale of The Holocaust, the advance into Germany uncovers numerous Nazi concentration camps and forced labor facilities. Up to 60,000 prisoners were at Bergen-Belsen when it was liberated on April 15,1945, Four days later troops from the American 42nd Infantry Division found Dachau. Allied troops force the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses, due to the prisoners poor physical condition, thousands continue to die after liberation. Captured SS guards are subsequently tried at Allied war crimes tribunals where many are sentenced to death, however, up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals will eventually flee Europe using ratlines such as ODESSA. Germans leave Finland, On 25 April 1945, the last Germans were expelled by the Finnish Army from Finland, Mussolinis death, On 25 April 1945, Italian partisans liberated Milan and Turin. On 27 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and it is disputed whether he was trying to flee from Italy to Switzerland, and was traveling with a German anti-aircraft battalion. On 28 April, Mussolini was executed in Giulino, the other Fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo, the bodies were then taken to Milan and hung up on the Piazzale Loreto of the city. On 29 April, Rodolfo Graziani surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta, Graziani was the Minister of Defence for Mussolinis Italian Social Republic. Upper Inn river to the American General Jacob L. Devers, hitler appointed his successors as follows, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz as the new Reichspräsident and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler. However, Goebbels committed suicide the day, leaving Dönitz as the sole leader of Germany. In the document, the Germans agreed to a ceasefire and surrender of all the forces under the command of Vietinghoff at 2pm on 2 May, German forces in Berlin surrender, The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May. On that date, General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defense Area, on the same day the officers commanding the two armies of Army Group Vistula north of Berlin, surrendered to the Western Allies. Lehrter Bahnhof is close to where the remains of Bormann, confirmed as his by a DNA test in 1998, were unearthed on 7 December 1972, the number of German land, sea and air forces involved in this surrender amounted to 1,000,000 men
18.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
19.
Siege of Budapest
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The Siege of Budapest or the Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement of the Hungarian capital of Budapest by Soviet forces near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 26 December 1944 by the Red Army, during the siege, about 38,000 civilians died from starvation and military action. The city unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945 and it was a strategic victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin. Suffering from nearly 200,000 deaths in three years fighting the Soviet Union, and with the front lines approaching its own cities, as political forces within Hungary pushed for an end to the fighting, Germany preemptively launched Operation Margarethe 19 March 1944, and entered Hungary. Upon hearing of Horthys efforts, Hitler launched Operation Panzerfaust to keep Hungary on the Axis side, Horthy and his government were replaced by Hungarist Ferenc Szálasi, led by the far-right National Socialist Arrow Cross Party. The besieging Soviet forces were part of Rodion Malinovskys 2nd Ukrainian Front, arrayed against the Soviets was a collection of German Army, Waffen-SS, and Hungarian Army forces. The Siege of Budapest was one of the bloodiest sieges of World War II, the Red Army started its offensive against the city on 29 October 1944. More than 1,000,000 men, split into two operating maneuver groups, advanced, the plan was to isolate Budapest from the rest of the German and Hungarian forces. On 7 November 1944, Soviet and Romanian troops entered the suburbs,20 kilometers from the old town. The Red Army, after a pause in hostilities, resumed its offensive 19 December. On 26 December, a road linking Budapest to Vienna was seized by Soviet troops, the nazi Leader of the Nation, Ferenc Szálasi, had already fled 9 December. As a result of the Soviet link-up, nearly 33,000 German and 37,000 Hungarian soldiers, as well as over 800,000 civilians, became trapped within the city. Refusing to authorize a withdrawal, Adolf Hitler had declared Budapest a fortress city, Waffen SS General Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, the commander of the IX Waffen SS Alpine Corps, was put in charge of the citys defenses. Budapest was a target for Joseph Stalin. The Yalta Conference was approaching and Stalin wanted to display his strength to Churchill. He therefore ordered General Rodion Malinovsky to seize the city without delay, during the night of 28 December 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Front contacted the besieged Germans by radios and loudspeakers and told them about a negotiation for the citys capitulation. The Soviets promised to provide humane conditions and not to mistreat the German and Hungarian prisoners. They also promised that the groups would not bring weapons
20.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
21.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
22.
First Vienna Award
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The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on November 2,1938, as a result of the First Vienna Arbitration. The Arbitration took place at Viennas Belvedere Palace, the Arbitration and Award were direct consequences of the Munich Agreement the previous month and decided the partitioning of Czechoslovakia. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sought a non-violent way to enforce the claims of the Kingdom of Hungary. Nazi Germany was by this point well into its own revision of the Versailles Treaty, with the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the First Vienna Award separated largely Magyar-populated territories in southern Slovakia and southern Carpathian Rus from Czechoslovakia and awarded them to Hungary. Hungary thus regained some of the territories in present-day Slovakia and Ukraine lost in the Treaty of Trianon in the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I, after World War II, the 1947 Treaty of Paris declared the Vienna Award null and void. From 1933, Hungarian foreign policy closely collaborated with Nazi Germany in the hope of revising the borders established by the Treaty of Trianon. In March 1933, Hungarian prime minister declared that Hungary requests justice in the historical principle, during a meeting with Hitler in August 1936, Miklós Horthy explained the purpose of a common attack against Czechoslovakia as removing a cancer tumor from the heart of Europe. At the end of 1937, Hitler decided to start action against Czechoslovakia and this outraged Adolf Hitler and led to a change in the German view of the territorial demands of Hungary in the eastern part of Czechoslovakia. Before the Munich Agreement, a Hungarian government emissary officially asked the German and Italian delegations to resolve Hungarian demands together with the questions of Sudeten Germans. However, Hitler did not agree, because he was not satisfied with the passivity of Hungary and had his own plans for Central Europe. The French and British delegates saw potential danger in such a complex solution, after the annexation of Zaolzie and Český Těšín by Poland, the Hungarian question remained open. Poland later annexed territories in northern Slovakia comprising 226 km². In this situation, Hungary decided to fight with Czechoslovakia in the diplomatic field, the Munich Agreement defined a three-month period to resolve Hungarian demands, and the Hungarian government pushed to start negotiations immediately. The pressure was increased on the Hungarian side by border conflicts, Hungarian troops withdrew after the arrival of Czechoslovak reinforcements, who killed nine Hungarians and captured prisoners. Two days later, Hungarian troops tried to cross the Danube near Štúrovo and their situation was worse in Carpathian Ruthenia with its lower density of fortifications, where paramilitary units of Rongyos Gárda infiltrated Czechoslovak territory. The first two units of the Rongyos Gárda crossed the border on October 6,1938, and two later they blew up the bridge over the Borozhava River. Such actions continued during the negotiations and after the First Vienna Award, during the second day of bilateral negotiations Hungarian troops murdered a railway officer in Borozhava and damaged railway facilities. Czechoslovakia had an interest in stabilizing the situation, because the ministry had to resolve problems with Poland and Germany
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Carpathian Ruthenia
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Before World War I most of this region was part of the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. In the interwar period, it was part of the First, during World War II, the region was annexed by the Kingdom of Hungary once again. After the war, it part of Soviet Ukraine. It is a diverse region, inhabited by Ukrainian, Rusyn, Lemko, Hungarian, Slovak. It also has small Hutsul, Jewish, Romani, Szekler, the nomenclature of the region depends on nationality, language/dialect, geographical perspective and political point of view. The name Carpathian Ruthenia is sometimes used for a contiguous area of Ukraine, Slovakia. Most Rusyns, however, use the term Zakarpattia, under suppression of Ukraine some Ruthenians and Hungarians identified themselves as Ukrainians. Carpathian Ruthenia is usually known as Transcarpathia, during the period in which the region was administered by the Hungarian states it was officially referred to in Hungarian as Subcarpathia or North-Eastern Upper Hungary. The Romanian name of the region is Maramureş, Romania includes the southern Maramureş region, on the south bank of the Tisa river. The name of the mountains themselves is Carpații Păduroși which means Wooden Carpathians, the main city of the Romanian Maramureş region is Sighetu Marmației. In 1945, most of the region was annexed by Soviet Union, the region has subsequently been referred to as Zakarpattia or Transcarpathia, and on occasions as Carpathian Rus’, Transcarpathian Rus’, Subcarpathian Rus’. Uzhhorod Mukachevo Khust Berehovo Vynohradiv Chop Svaliava Rakhiv Tiachiv Irshava Slavic tribes began to migrate from their Transcarpathia homeland in the 4th century, in 896 the Hungarians crossed the Carpathian Range and migrated into the Pannonian Basin. Anonymus chronicle and Nestor chronicle wrote that Hungarian tribes had to fight against local Slavs, prince Laborec fell from power under the efforts of the Hungarians and the Kievan forces, many of these forces remained behind and were assimilated by the White Croats. As the Hungarians established the borders of Kingdom of Hungary along the Carpathian Mountains, local Slavic nobility often intermarried with the Hungarian nobles to the south. Prince Rostislav, a Ruthenian noble unable to continue his familys rule of Kiev, governed a great deal of Transcarpathia from 1243 to 1261 for his father-in-law, Béla IV of Hungary. Later, the county system was expanded to whole Transcarpathia. From 1280 to 1320, north-western part of Carpathian Ruthenia was part of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, from 1526, the region was divided between Habsburg Monarchy and Eastern Hungarian Kingdom. Beginning in 1570, the region was divided between the Habsburg Monarchy and vassal Ottoman Principality of Transylvania, part of Transcarpathia under Habsburg administration was included into the Captaincy of Upper Hungary, which was one of the administrative units of the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary
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Hungarians in Slovakia
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Hungarians in Slovakia are the largest ethnic minority in the country. According to the 2011 Slovak census,458,467 people declared themselves Hungarians, Hungarians in Slovakia are concentrated mostly in the southern part of the country, near the border with Hungary. They form the majority in two districts, Komárno and Dunajská Streda, after the defeat of the Central Powers in the Western Front in 1918, the Treaty of Trianon was signed between the winning Entente powers and Hungary in 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference. The treaty greatly reduced the Kingdom of Hungarys borders, including ceding all of Upper Hungary, consequently, the newly created state contained areas that were overwhelmingly ethnic Hungarian. According to the 1910 census conducted in Austria–Hungary, there were 884,309 ethnic Hungarians, constituting 30. 2% of the population, in what is now Slovakia, the Czechoslovak census of 1930 recorded 571,952 Hungarians. Czechoslovak and Hungarian censuses become target of discussion with political impact, according to official Hungarian definition from 1900, a mother tongue was defined as a language considered by a person as his own, the best spoken and mostly preferred. This definition did not match the definition of mother tongue, introduced subjective factors dependent on environment. More, in the atmosphere of raising magyarization a person could risk if he did not declare Hungarian language to be his favorite for a census commissar. Between 1880–1910, Hungarian population increased by 55. 9%, level of differences does not allow to explain this process by emigration or by population moves and natural assimilation during industrialization. In 16 northern counties, Hungarian population raised by 427,238 while majority Slovak population only by 95,603, after the creation of Czechoslovakia, people could declare their nationality more freely. Furthermore, censuses from Kingdom of Hungary and Czechoslovakia differed in a view on nationality of Jewish population, Czechoslovakia allowed Jews to declare separate Jewish nationality, while Jews were counted mostly as Hungarians in the past. In 1921,70,529 people declared Jewish nationality, population of larger towns like Košice or Bratislava was historically bilingual or trilingual and part of them used to declare the most popular or the most beneficial nationality in particular time. According to the Czechoslovak censuses, 15–20% of the population in Košice was Hungarian, but during the parliamentary elections, however, such comparisons are not fully reliable, because ethnic Hungarian parties did not necessarily present themselves to Slovak population as ethnic and had also Slovak subsidiaries. Finally, Hungarian state employees who refused to take an oath of allegiance had to decide between retirement and moving to Hungary, the same applies also for Hungarians who did not receive Czechoslovak citizenship, were forced to leave or simply did not self-identify with new state. Two famous examples of forced to leave were the families of Béla Hamvas. The numerous refugees necessitated the construction of new housing projects in Budapest, at the beginning of the school year 1918/1919, Slovakia had 3,642 elementary schools. Only 141 schools taught in Slovak language,186 in Slovak and this large deformation was a direct result of previous magyarization activities of Hungarian government. Also after system reform, Czechoslovakia provided several times larger educational network for Hungarian minority than Kingdom of Hungary did for the whole Slovak nation before 1918, due to the lack of qualified personnel among Slovaks, Hungarian teachers were replaced in large numbers by Czechs
25.
Czechoslovakia
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From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc with a command economy and its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949, and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Form of state 1918–1938, A democratic republic, 1938–1939, After annexation of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany in 1938, the region gradually turned into a state with loosened connections among the Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine was annexed by Hungary, 1939–1945, The region was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic. A government-in-exile continued to exist in London, supported by the United Kingdom, United States and its Allies, after the German invasion of Russia, Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nations and was a founding member of the United Nations. 1946–1948, The country was governed by a government with communist ministers, including the prime minister. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union, 1948–1989, The country became a socialist state under Soviet domination with a centrally planned economy. In 1960, the country became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was a state of the Soviet Union. 1989–1990, The federal republic consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic, 1990–1992, Following the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Neighbours Austria 1918–1938, 1945–1992 Germany Hungary Poland Romania 1918–1938 Soviet Union 1945–1991 Ukraine 1991–1992 Topography The country was of irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands, the eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. Climate The weather is mild winters and mild summers, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. The area was long a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, the new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He was succeeded by his ally, Edvard Beneš. The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, nationalism became a mass movement in the last half of the 19th century
26.
Debrecen
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Debrecen is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the centre of the Northern Great Plain region. It was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and it is one of the most important cultural centres of the Hungarians, Debrecen was also the capital city of Hungary during the revolution in 1848-1849. During the revolution, the dethronement of the Habsburg dynasty was declared in the Reformed Great Church, the city also served as the capital of Hungary by the end of the World War II in 1944-1945. The city was first mentioned by the name Debrezun in 1235, the name derived from the Turkic word debresin, which means live or move and it is also a male given name. Other theory says the name is of Slavic origin meaning well-esteemed, in other languages, the name of the city varies more in spelling than in pronunciation, Romanian Debreţin, German Debrezin, Serbian Debrecin, Czech and Slovak Debrecín. Debrecen, typical of Central Europe, has a climate on the boundaries of oceanic, the development of Debrecen is mainly financed by agricultural, health care and educational business. The city is the center of shopping in the east of Hungary. Forum Debrecen is the largest shopping mall in the region, Debrecen is one of the most developed cities in Hungary, regional center of international companies, like National Instruments, IT Services Hungary, British Telecom and health product manufactures. Debrecen is located on the Great Hungarian Plain,220 km east of Budapest, situated nearby is the Hortobágy National Park. The city used to be isolated from Budapest, Hungarys main transport hub. However, the completion of the motorway M35 means Budapest can now be reached in two hours. Debrecen Airport has recently undergone modernisation in order to be able to more international flights, although almost all flights to. Cities that can be reached from the Debrecen Airport include Brussels, Eindhoven, London, Malmö, Milan, the closest airport with scheduled flights in terms of distance is Oradea Airport in Romania 1 hour and 20 minutes away from Debrecen. There have also been improvements to some parts of the railway between the capital and Debrecen as part of Hungarys mainly EU-funded National Development Plan for 2004 to 2006. Debrecens proximity to Ukraine and Romania enables it to develop as an important trade centre, local transport in the city consists of buses, trolleybuses, and trams. It is provided by the DKV, nearby towns and villages are linked to the city by Hajdú Volán bus services. The settlement was established after the Hungarian conquest, Debrecen became more important after some of the small villages of the area deserted due to the Mongol invasion of Europe
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Independent Smallholders' Party
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The Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party, known mostly by its acronym FKgP or its shortened form Independent Smallholders Party, is a political party in Hungary. Since the 2002 parliamentary elections, the party has won no seats, founded on 12 October 1930, the original party won an overwhelming majority in the first elections after the Second World War, resulting in its leader, Zoltán Tildy, becoming prime minister. In the relatively free elections in November 1945, the Smallholders polled 57% of votes against the Communists 17%, the Communist response was to intensify terror and to sponsor the coalition of democratic parties against the reactionary smallholders. The Smallholders-dominated parliament established a republic in 1946 with Tildy as president and he was succeeded as prime minister by Ferenc Nagy. However, the Soviet occupation of the country, the Hungarian Communist Partys salami tactic to break up opponent parties, in 1947 the Communist Party carried out a coup d’état against the rule of the Smallholders’ Party. Though not all institutions were abolished, the Communists firmly held power. Most of the more courageous Smallholder were either arrested or forced to leave the country, lajos Dinnyés of the Smallholders remained prime minister after the 1947 elections, but his government was controlled by the communists. Another Smallholder, the openly pro-Communist István Dobi, became premier in December 1948, in 1949, the party was absorbed into a People’s Independent Front, led by the communist Hungarian Working Peoples Party. The latter prevailed in elections held that year, marking the onset of undisguised Communist rule in Hungary, the Smallholders party was dissolved later in 1949, and Dobi and several other left-wing Smallholders joined the Communist Party. 1FKGP was a member of the Communist-led Hungarian Independence Peoples Front, Hungary became a one-party state after the 1949 election
28.
Hungarian Communist Party
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The communist government was overthrown by the Romanian Army and driven underground. The party regained power following World War II and held power from 1945 under the leadership of Mátyás Rákosi, in 1948 the party merged with the Social Democrats to become the Hungarian Working Peoples Party. The Communist Party of Hungary was a member of the Communist International, the Communist Party of Hungary was first established as The Party of Communists from Hungary in late 1918 by Béla Kun, a former journalist who fought for Austria-Hungary in World War I. After spending time in a POW camp, Kun, along with several associates and these first members returned to Hungary in November, and on the 24th officially created the KMP. Initially, the group was small in number, boasting only its founders, nonetheless, the political instability of the government under Mihály Károlyi and the growing popularity of the Bolshevik movement prompted the Social Democrats to seek a coalition with the KMP. Following the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in March 1919 and he also took steps towards normalizing foreign relations with the Triple Entente powers in an effort to gain back some of the land that Hungary was set to lose in the post-war negotiations. For the 133 days that the Hungarian Soviet Republic existed, the KMP concentrated mostly on trying to fix the economic chaos that had resulted from Hungary’s defeat in World War I. Unfortunately, Kun’s economic policy only created higher inflation while leading to food shortages across the land. Opposition began to grow, led by Miklós Horthy, and in June, following an attempted coup, despite all this, the Soviet Republic fell on August 1,1919, following the Hungarian Army’s crushing defeat by Romania. The invading Romanians seized Budapest from the Communists, exiled Kun to Vienna, much of the old KMP leadership was either executed or exiled, primarily to Vienna. There, remnants of the KMP Central Committee, once led by Kun, reformed into a Provisional Central Committee. Throughout the 1920s, many Hungarian Communists moved to Moscow, with Kun among them, Kun’s actions in Russia, most notably the organization of a massacre of White Russian POWs in 1921, drew censure from Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and other prominent Bolsheviks. Nonetheless, Kun maintained a prominent position with Comintern until 1937, furthermore, Kun was the unquestioned leader of the KMP during the inter-war period, with his main rival, Jenő Landler, dying in 1927. The Party also organized a legal party, the Socialist Workers Party of Hungary. But the Hungarian government soon took steps to abolish the MSzMP, and by 1927, for the remainder of the inter-war period, the internal leadership of the KMP beyond Kun fluctuated tremendously, and membership was minuscule. Following the deadly derailment of a train at Biatorbágy by Szilveszter Matuska in 1931, the government declared martial law. Two of those arrested, leading party members Imré Sallai and Sándor Fürst, were executed the following year, the KMP was damaged to the point that the Comintern dissolved it in 1936. On top of all of that, Stalin’s purges in the late 1930s took a toll on the Hungarian émigrés in Moscow
29.
Hungarian Soviet Republic
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The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Hungarian Republic of Councils was a short-lived independent communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I. It was the successor of the Hungarian Democratic Republic and lasted only from 21 March to 1 August 1919, the state was led by Béla Kun and was not recognized by France, the UK or the US. It was the second socialist state in the world to be formed after the October Revolution in Russia brought the Bolsheviks to power. De facto, the Hungarian Soviet Republic didnt have an independent foreign policy, it had to follow and fulfill the commands, instructions, the Hungarian Republic of Councils had military conflicts with the Kingdom of Romania, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the evolving Czechoslovakia. It collapsed on 1 August 1919 when Hungarians sent representatives to negotiate their surrender to the Romanian forces, as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed in 1918, an independent Hungarian Democratic Republic was formed after the Aster Revolution. Official proclamation of the republic was on 16 November 1918 and its president became Mihály Károlyi, Károlyi struggled to establish the governments authority and to control the country. Led by Béla Kun, the first members returned to Hungary and it recruited members while propagating partys ideas, radicalising many Social Democrats in the process. By February 1919, the party numbered 30,000 to 40,000 members, including many unemployed ex-soldiers, young intellectuals, the Communists came to power as the only group with an organised fighting force, promising Hungary would be able to defend its territory without conscription. Kun founded a newspaper, called Vörös Újság and concentrated on attacking Károlyis liberal government, during the following months, the Communist Partys power-base rapidly expanded. Their supporters began to stage aggressive demonstrations against the media, in one crucial incident, a demonstration turned violent on 20 February and the protesters attacked the editorial office of the Social Democrats official paper, called Népszava. In the ensuing chaos, seven people—including policemen—were killed, the government arrested the leaders of the Communist party, banned Vörös Újság and closed down the partys buildings. The arrests were particularly violent, with police officers openly beating the communists and this resulted in a wave of public sympathy for the Communist Party. On 1 March, Vörös Újság was given permission to again. The leaders were permitted to receive guests in their prison, which allowed them to keep up with political affairs, on 20 March, Károlyi announced that Dénes Berinkey government would resign. Mihály Károlyi resigned on 21 March, president Károlyi, who was an outspoken anti-Communist, was not informed about the fusion of the communist and social democrat parties. Thus, while believing to have appointed a social democratic government, on 21 March, he informed the Council of Ministers that only Social Democrats could form a new government, as they were the party with the highest public support. Béla Kun and his communist friends were released from the Margit Ring prison on the night of 20 March,1919. Liberal president Károlyi was arrested by the new communist regime on the first day, later he could manage to escape
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Marshal of the Soviet Union
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Marshal of the Soviet Union was the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935, forty-one people held the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. The equivalent naval rank was until 1955 Admiral of the Fleet, both ranks were comparable to NATO rank codes OF10, and to the five-star rank in anglophone armed forces. The military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was established by a decree of the Soviet Cabinet, of these, Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov were executed during Stalins Great Purge of 1937–38. On 7 May 1940, three new Marshals were appointed, the new Peoples Commissar of Defence, Semyon Timoshenko, Boris Shaposhnikov, and Grigory Kulik. During World War II, Kulik was demoted for incompetence, and these included Georgy Zhukov, Ivan Konev and Konstantin Rokossovsky to name a few. In 1943, Stalin himself was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union and these non-military Marshals were joined in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin. Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges, Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, the last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 on the fall of the Soviet Union, the Marshals fell into three generational groups. Those who had gained their reputations during the Russian Civil War and these included both those who were purged in 1937–38, and those who held high commands in the early years of World War II. All of the latter except Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko proved out-of-step with modern warfare and were removed from commanding positions and those who made their reputations in World War II and assumed high commands in the latter part of the war. These included Zhukov, Vasilievsky, Konev, Rokossovsky, Malinovsky, Tolbukhin and those who assumed high command in the Cold War era. All of these were officers in World War II, but their higher commands were held in the Warsaw Pact or as Soviet Defence Ministers and these included Grechko, Yakubovsky, Kulikov, Ogarkov, Akhromeev, and Yazov. All Marshals in the category had been officers in World War II, except Brezhnev, who had been a military commissar, and Ustinov. Even Yazov, who was 20 when the war ended, had been a platoon commander, the rank was abolished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was succeeded in the new Russia by the rank of Marshal of the Russian Federation, which has held by only one person, Marshal Igor Sergeyev. Note, All Marshals of the Soviet Union, with the exception of Non-Military Marshals had at least started their careers in the Army. The Service Arms listed are the services they served in during their tenures as Marshals of the Soviet Union
31.
Kliment Voroshilov
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Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, popularly known as Klim Voroshilov, was a prominent Soviet military officer and politician during the Stalin era. Voroshilov was born in the settlement of Verkhnye, Bakhmut district, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, in the Russian Empire, however, according to the Soviet Major General Pyotr Grigorenko, Voroshilov himself alluded to his Ukrainian heritage and to the previous family name of Voroshilo. Voroshilov joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Voroshilov became a member of the Ukrainian Council of Peoples Commissars and Commissar for Internal Affairs along with Vasiliy Averin. He was well known for aiding Joseph Stalin in the Military Council, Voroshilov was active as a commander of the Southern Front during the Russian Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War while with the 1st Cavalry Army. As Political Commissar serving co-equally with Stalin, Voroshilov was responsible for the morale of the 1st Cavalry Army, Voroshilovs efforts as Commissar did not prevent a resounding Polish victory at the Battle of Komarów or regular outbreaks of murderous anti-Semitic violence within the Cavalry armys ranks. Voroshilov headed the Petrograd Police during 1917 and 1918, Voroshilov served as a member of the Central Committee from his election in 1921 until 1961. Frunzes political position adhered to that of the Troika, but Stalin preferred to have a close, Frunze was urged by a group of Stalins hand-picked doctors to have surgery to treat an old stomach ulcer, despite previous doctors recommendations to avoid surgery and Frunzes own unwillingness. He died on the table of a massive overdose of chloroform. Voroshilov became a member of the newly formed Politburo in 1926. Voroshilov was appointed Peoples Commissar for Defence in 1934 and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935 and he played a central role in Stalins Great Purge of the 1930s, denouncing many of his own military colleagues and subordinates when asked to do so by Stalin. Voroshilov personally signed 185 documented execution lists, fourth among the Soviet leadership after Molotov, Stalin, during World War II, Voroshilov was a member of the State Defense Committee. Voroshilov followed this retort by smashing a platter of roast suckling pig on the table, nikita Khrushchev said it was the only time he ever witnessed such an outburst. Voroshilov was nonetheless made the scapegoat for the failures in Finland. He was later replaced as Defense Commissar by Semyon Timoshenko, Voroshilov was then made Deputy Premier responsible for cultural matters. Voroshilov initially argued that thousands of Polish army officers captured in September 1939 should be released, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Voroshilov became commander of the short-lived Northwestern Direction, controlling several fronts. In September 1941 he commanded the Leningrad Front, Stalin had a political need for popular wartime leaders, however, and Voroshilov remained as an important figurehead. In 1945–1947 Voroshilov supervised the establishment of the communist regime in postwar Hungary, in 1952, Voroshilov was appointed a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Stalins death on 5 March 1953 prompted major changes in the Soviet leadership, Voroshilov, Malenkov, and Khrushchev brought about the 26 June 1953 arrest of Lavrenty Beria after Stalins death
32.
Hyperinflation
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Certain figures in this article use scientific notation for readability. The population normally switches to holding relatively stable foreign currencies, under such conditions, the general price level within an economy increases rapidly as the official currency quickly loses real value. The value of economic items remains relatively stable in terms of foreign currencies, typically, however, the general price level rises even more rapidly than the money supply as people try ridding themselves of the devaluing currency as quickly as possible. As this scenario happens, the stock of money decreases. The mainstream narrative is that hyperinflations are usually caused by large persistent government deficits financed primarily by money creation, as such, hyperinflation is often associated with wars, their aftermath, sociopolitical upheavals, or other crises that make it difficult for the government to tax the population. A sharp decrease in tax revenue coupled with a strong need to maintain the status quo, together with an inability or unwillingness to borrow. The mainstream assumptions of how hyperinflation is caused has been challenged by advocates of Modern Monetary Theory who sustain that government spending alone cannot cause hyperinflation. They claim that hyperinflation is usually the result of a collapse in the supply chain which is then unable to meet the demand generated by government spending. In 1956, Phillip Cagan wrote The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation, economists usually follow Cagan’s description that hyperinflation occurs when the monthly inflation rate exceeds 50%. The International Accounting Standards Board has issued guidance on accounting rules in a hyperinflationary environment and it does not establish an absolute rule on when hyperinflation arises. Instead, it lists factors that indicate the existence of hyperinflation, there are a number of theories on the causes of high and/or hyper inflation. But nearly all hyperinflations have been caused by government budget deficits financed by money creation, after an analysis of 29 hyperinflations Bernholz concludes that at least 25 of them have been caused in this way. Moreover, a condition for hyperinflation has been the existence of fiat money not convertible at a fixed parity into gold or silver. The French hyperinflation also took place after the introduction of a non convertible paper money, the price increases that result from the rapid money creation creates a vicious circle, requiring ever growing amounts of new money creation to fund government deficits. Hence both monetary inflation and price inflation proceed at a rapid pace, such rapidly increasing prices cause widespread unwillingness of the local population to hold the local currency as it rapidly loses its buying power. Instead they quickly spend any money they receive, which increases the velocity of money flow and this means that the increase in the price level is greater than that of the money supply. The real stock of money, M/P, decreases, here M refers to the money stock and P to the price level. This results in an imbalance between the supply and demand for the money, causing rapid inflation, very high inflation rates can result in a loss of confidence in the currency, similar to a bank run
33.
Ministry of Interior (Hungary)
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The Ministry of Interior of Hungary is a part of the Hungarian state organisation. Its head, the Minister of Interior, is a member of the Hungarian cabinet, the ministry was established in 1848. Between 2006 and 2010 the ministry was split into the Ministry of Local Government, in 2010 the prior organization was restored. Official website List of Interior Ministers of Hungary
34.
National Peasant Party (Hungary)
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The National Peasant Party was a political party in Hungary between 1939 and 1949. It was led by the writer Péter Veres, the party was revived for a short time during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and after the end of communism in 1989–90. The party was established in 1939, but was only formalised as an organisation on 19 September 1944 and it won 42 seats in the National Interim Assembly elections in 1944. By the following year it had 170,000 members, although it was reduced to 23 seats in the elections that year. However, the year the party won 36 of the 411 seats in the parliamentary elections. For the 1949 elections it ran as part of the Communist-led Hungarian Independent Peoples Front, the adoption of a new constitution in August 1949 saw the country became a one-party state, with the NPP being merged into the Communist-led Hungarian Working Peoples Party. Following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the party was revived under the name Petőfi Party, the MNP had high hopes regarding the first democratic elections in 1990, however they received only 0. 8% of the vote. After that the presidium took the name of Hungarian Peoples Party–National Peasant Party, shortly before the 1994 parliamentary elections, two-thirds of the membership joined the National Democratic Alliance led by Zoltán Bíró and Imre Pozsgay. The MNP–NPP was wiped out by the end of the decade, the partys main policy was land reform. It attracted the support from the middle and lower classes in the countryside, as well as intellectuals in the provinces and it was sponsored by the Communist Party, as the Communists could not attract support amongst rural voters. 1NPP was a member of the Communist-led Hungarian Independence Peoples Front, Hungary became a one-party state after the 1949 election