Editing Hungary (section)

=== Communism (1945–1989) ===
{{Main|Hungarian Republic (1946–1949)|Hungarian People's Republic|Hungarian Revolution of 1956}}
{{See also|Goulash Communism}}
[[File:Szétlőtt harckocsi a Móricz Zsigmond körtéren.jpg|thumb|left|A destroyed Soviet tank in Budapest during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Revolution of 1956]]. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''{{'}}s [[Time Magazine Person of the Year|Man of the Year]] for 1956 was the Hungarian freedom fighter<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Man of the Year, The Land and the People|magazine=Time|date=7 January 1957|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808898-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017045908/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808898-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 October 2007|access-date=9 October 2006}}</ref>]]

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Hungary became a [[satellite state]] of the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership selected [[Mátyás Rákosi]] to front the [[Stalinism|Stalinisation]] of the country, and Rákosi ''[[de facto]]'' ruled Hungary from 1949 to 1956. His government's policies of militarisation, industrialisation, collectivisation, and war compensation led to a severe decline in living standards. In imitation of Stalin's [[KGB]], the Rákosi government established a secret political police, the [[State Protection Authority|ÁVH]], to enforce the regime; approximately 350,000 officials and intellectuals were imprisoned or executed from 1948 to 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tamupress.com/product/First-Domino,4091.aspx|title=Granville/ frm|format=PDF|access-date=20 September 2009}}</ref> Many freethinkers, democrats, and Horthy-era dignitaries were secretly arrested and extrajudicially interned in domestic and foreign [[gulag]]s. Some 600,000 Hungarians were deported to Soviet labour camps, where at least 200,000 died.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8347146.stm|title=Hungary's 'forgotten' war victims|work=[[BBC News]]|date=7 November 2009|access-date=4 February 2010}}</ref>

After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union pursued a programme of [[De-Stalinization|de-Stalinisation]] that was inimical to Rákosi, leading to his deposition. The following political cooling saw the ascent of [[Imre Nagy]] to the premiership. Nagy promised market liberalisation and political openness. Rákosi eventually managed to discredit Nagy and replace him with the more hard-line [[Ernő Gerő]]. Hungary joined the [[Warsaw Pact]] in May 1955, as societal dissatisfaction with the regime swelled. Following the firing on peaceful demonstrations by Soviet soldiers and secret police, and rallies throughout the country on 23 October 1956, protesters took to the streets in Budapest, initiating the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|1956 Revolution]].

In an effort to quell the chaos, Nagy returned as premier, promised free elections, and took Hungary out of the Warsaw Pact. The violence nonetheless continued as revolutionary militias sprung up against the Soviet Army and the ÁVH; the roughly 3,000-strong resistance fought Soviet tanks using [[Molotov cocktail]]s and machine-pistols. Though the preponderance of the Soviets was immense, they suffered heavy losses, and by 30 October 1956, most Soviet troops had withdrawn from Budapest to garrison the countryside. For a time, the Soviet leadership was unsure how to respond but eventually decided to intervene to prevent a destabilisation of the Soviet bloc. On 4 November, reinforcements of more than 150,000 troops and 2,500 tanks entered the country from the Soviet Union.<ref>Findley, Carter V., and John Rothney. ''Twentieth Century World''. sixth ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 278.</ref> Nearly 20,000 Hungarians were killed resisting the intervention, while an additional 21,600 were imprisoned afterward for political reasons. Some 13,000 were interned and 230 brought to trial and executed. Nagy was secretly tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by hanging in June 1958. Because borders were briefly opened, nearly a quarter of a million people fled the country by the time the revolution was suppressed.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6065398.stm "Hungary's 1956 brain drain"], BBC News, 23 October 2006</ref>

[[File:János Kádár 1962.jpg|thumb|upright|[[János Kádár]], General Secretary of the [[Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party]] (1956–1988)]]

After a second, briefer period of Soviet military occupation, [[János Kádár]], Nagy's former minister of state, was chosen by the Soviet leadership to head the new government and chair the new ruling [[Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party|Socialist Workers' Party]]. Kádár quickly normalised the situation. In 1963, the government granted a general amnesty. Kádár proclaimed a new policy line, according to which the people were no longer compelled to profess loyalty to the party if they tacitly accepted the socialist regime as a fact of life. Kádár introduced new planning priorities in the economy, such as allowing farmers significant plots of private land within the collective farm system (''háztáji gazdálkodás''). The living standard rose as consumer goods and food production took precedence over military production, which was reduced to one-tenth of prerevolutionary levels.

In 1968, the [[New Economic Mechanism]] introduced free-market elements into the socialist command economy. From the 1960s through the late 1980s, Hungary was often referred to as "the happiest barrack" within the Eastern bloc. During the latter part of the Cold War Hungary's [[Lists of countries by GDP per capita|GDP per capita]] was fourth only to [[East Germany]], [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], and the Soviet Union.<ref name="madison185">*{{Cite book|last=Maddison|first=Angus|title=The world economy|publisher=OECD Publishing|year=2006|isbn=978-92-64-02261-4|page=185}}</ref> As a result of this relatively high [[standard of living]], a more liberalised economy, a less censored press, and less restricted travel rights, Hungary was generally considered one of the more liberal countries in which to live in Central Europe during communism. In 1980, Hungary sent a [[Cosmonaut]] into space as part of the [[Interkosmos]]. The first Hungarian astronaut was [[Bertalan Farkas]]. Hungary became [[Timeline of space travel by nationality|the seventh nation to be represented in space]] by him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://qubit.hu/2018/05/06/hogyan-lettunk-a-vilag-hetedik-urhajos-nemzete-nyolc-magyar-aki-nelkul-nem-tortenhetett-volna-meg|title=Hogyan lettünk a világ hetedik űrhajós nemzete? – Nyolc magyar, aki nélkül nem történhetett volna meg|last=Béres|first=Attila|date=2018-05-06|website=Qubit|language=hu|access-date=2019-12-14}}</ref> In the 1980s, however, living standards steeply declined again because of [[Early 1980s recession|a worldwide recession]] to which communism was unable to respond.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Watkins|first1=Theyer|title=Economic History and the Economy of Hungary|url=http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/hungary.htm|website=sjsu.edu|publisher=San José State University Department of Economics|access-date=6 August 2014|archive-date=7 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207184439/http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/hungary.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> By the time Kádár died in 1989, the Soviet Union was in steep decline and a younger generation of reformists saw liberalisation as the solution to economic and social issues.