Exploding Patriotism? : Quasi-State Paramilitary Formations and the Wave of Terrorism in Hungary in the First Years of the Horthy-Era, 1922–1924

Kántás, Balázs (2025) Exploding Patriotism? : Quasi-State Paramilitary Formations and the Wave of Terrorism in Hungary in the First Years of the Horthy-Era, 1922–1924. In: The Longue Durée of Paramilitarism. South-East European History (14). Peter Lang Verlag, New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, pp. 101-119. ISBN 9781636676432

Preview

Text Kantas_Balazs_Exploding_Patriotism.pdf - Published Version Download (13MB) | Preview

Abstract

In the 1920s, paramilitary violence was a natural phenomenon in Hungary, like in many other countries of Central Europe. After the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the fall ofthe Hungarian Soviet Republic the new right-wing government, establishing its power with the help of the Entente powers, had difficulty ruling the anarchistic conditions. In 1920-1921, Hungary was terrorized by irregular military formations that were formally part of the National Army, and radical soldiers committed serious crimes with anti-Semitic motivations. It is less known how and why these irregular soldiers became involved in terrorist attacks, and such actions were committed by the members of the state-sponsored secret military organisation called Double Cross BUmkI Union. The controversial relationship between these paramilitary radical right-wing movements and the government, the role of paramilitary commanders who also operated as radical right-wing politicians and the fact that the state stood behind a terrorist organization invoke analogies with the institutionalization of paramilitarism later in Nazi Germany, etc., and raises the issue oftransnational transfer and finally the entanglement of typological categories based on state and violence as definitory factors for paramilitarism.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item