The Penal Policy of the Hungarian Soviet Republic

Abstract

Pursuant to a decree issued by the People’s Commissariat for the Interior on 26 March 1919, the Red Guard succeeded the old police, the gendarmerie, and the border guard. However, during the establishment of the Red Guard, the old law enforcement bodies were not actually disbanded, and the new organization largely took over their staff, and supplemented it by recruiting, mainly workers. It was much easier to organize detachments under communist leadership. The most notable of these is the Cserny detachment, which was formed from the Visegrád Street guard, seamen and sailors, with about 200 people (“Lenin boys”), and on the model of which smaller detachments were set up in the countryside. The Cserny detachment was subordinated to the Political Department of the People’s Security Committee, and its staff was further reduced during May and June. However, after the counter-revolutionary uprising of 24 June, it was re-strengthened and assigned to the Second Red Guard district. Ottó Korvin and Tibor Szamuely directed the fight against the counter-revolution. Ottó Korvin was the head of the Political Department of the People’s Security Committee, and since the People’s Commissar for the Interior was mostly at the front, he worked quite independently. Major counter-revolutionary organizations were prevented in the capital, which were then retaliated with unbridled terror.