/kc/ - Krautchan

 >>/49988/
They do.
And often remain unused. Leonardo's inventions did not become much realities. Funding and time.

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Very nice were having this festivity yearly, but when the tradition started? Because it did not right after Saint Stephen's canonization.
The first who categorized it as a national - "official state" - holiday was Queen Maria Theresia in 1771 when the pope, in order to reduce the number of religious holidays, took out Saint Stephen's feast from the list of those. In order to celebrate the patron saint of her apostolic kingdom, Maria Theresa also ordered the Holy Dexter to be taken to Buda - from Ragusa (today: Dubrovnik), with a stop in Wien - it was presented to the Saint Sigismund chapel in the Castle of Buda.
Since her legitimacy was on wobbly legs, essentially in all her countries, she made an effort to cater to traditions and formalities, to prove and show she has all the rights she needs to rule over her domains. In Hungary too. Related to the topic on hand she also used the title of "apostolic king/queen" of Hungary, which technically all the kings of Hungary were entitled to use (very few did in practice) since Saint Stephen gained the right to carry the apostolic cross in front of him. She had a minor disagreement with the pope Clement XIII over this, whom questioned this entitlement, had a bit of exchanges of mail, and in the end he authorized the use.

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 >>/50889/
She took some other measures that catered to the Hungarian nation (the noble nation). She created the Order of Maria Therese, a military decoration, and rewarded soldiers from all the empire as the Queen of Hungary. Then she created the Order of Saint Stephen, a civilian decoration. She also refreshed and old medieval award specifically for the Hungarian nobility. She was the one who organized the Hungarian noble bodyguard unit for the court, taken the youth sent from the Hungarian counties.
Shel also did steps to mend the body of the country together. The 150 years of the Ottoman conquest and the following reconquest, or as some of the rulers thought about it: new conquest, did a number on the administration of the regions. She gave back the Banat to the country, and Fiume too. She reintegrated those towns of Szepes which were pawned by king Sigismund to the Poles over three centuries ago (on the occasion of the first partition of Polan...). She also created claims for the Hungarian crown onto Galicia and Lodomeria.

I don't want to go into the whole story of her rule - or the problems that left unmended -, so I'll just end this here. Generally she remembered positively, especially considering she was a Habsburg, and and absolutist monarch. Although people don't pay much mind to her these days. I think all in all she was a positive force for the country, but then she recognized she needed to give something to gain support, and she needed a lot of support to keep her countries.

Although there are gossips about her amorous relationships with equines.

 >>/50890/
>  She was the one who organized the Hungarian noble bodyguard unit for the court, taken the youth sent from the Hungarian counties.
This sounds like the strongest message out of any of those measures, she was entrusting her safety to her subjects.

 >>/50891/
I thought that was Katherine the great.

Though it was probably an insult hurled at many rulers in order to discredit them.

 >>/50894/
I can agree with that. It had other effects too, like it offered opportunities for the lower nobility to gain prestige and connections, or it added a unique cultural color to the court.
Most stuff prior are establishing relation with the Árpáds, the OG Hungarian dynasty, the marriage relation to them and the claim of ancestry that came with it gave the Habsburgs legitimacy. Some of em put emphasis on this, some not at all (such as Joseph, son of Maria Theresa).

 >>/50895/
I heard such gossips about Big K too. And you are probably right.

Should have written something for October 6. Perhaps will make up for it on the weekend.

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Well, I missed out on the October 6th commemoration day, but End was down so I'll blame onto that.
But this one is kinda mandatory due to its nature as national holiday.

Let's talk about the Aftermath.
Heh, now I'm thinking I should write about the Western "help", kek. Nah, gonna stick to the aftermath.

Well, let's set the scene:
The Soviet Union's mechanized divisions kicked the eastern door on us (1956. November 4th), and brought Kádár with themselves on their tanks.
Kádár János served as the communist Minister of Interior for a short period in 1948-50 while the Workers' Party monopolized the state power. Then he was imprisoned by Rákosi. His fault was not being a Moscowite communist (or at least a Jew). After the the position of Rákosi and co. solidified they started to purge the Party too, not just everyone else. Rákosi and 4 more Moscowite Jews formed a clique at the top of the food chain, and wanted all the power concentrated in their hands. They were hardcore Stalinist. Everyone outside of them were deemed to be a danger to them and their plans. One of these dangers were the home brew communists, such as Kádár.
But after Stalin's death their position weakened, and the revolution at least managed to let Moscow know the Hungarian people don't want them anymore. So Moscow gave up on this, and reached for other tools they considered sufficient. Kádár might posed a threat in Rákosi's twisted mind, but he was a trustable enough communist, despite some youthful faults in his past. Or perhaps for the faults, I dunno. I'm sure historians wrote about why Kádár was picked for the task, but that would deviate far from our current topic.

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So, while the revolution and war of independence was still ongoing they formed a government around Kádár, and when the Soviet intervetion begin they started a broadcast saying that Nagy Imre (the PM during the struggle, faithful communist himself, Muscowite but not part of the 5-man clique and had troubling social-democratic deviations) was weak and counter-revolutionaries sidetracked the reform movement. They are essentially labeled the revolution as a reactionary counter-revolution - since communists appropriated the term revolution - and said this is why they had to form a new government, and then this government asked the help of the Soviet comrades. On November 7th Kádár and his govt. arrived to Budapest. Fights were went on to the 11th.

The Reprisal was essentially a political murder spree in a legal coating.
Random executions basically started right after the new government came with the Red Army. During the revolution the political police, the AVH was abolished, members fled to the Soviet Union, and they came back, employed again in the state apparatus, mind set on revenge. The Red Army supported them, their local commander was a KGB general.
By 1957 March-April, the legal foundation was laid, but not by the legislation, but by the central committee of the party which issued statutes in the name of the government. They simplified the penal procedure, condensed it to the quickness of martial law. New judiciary bodies were set up entrusted with the retribution.
They were quite busy. They found 26-27 000 people guilty. 470 people got death penalty, 372 were executed by them (some execution were done outside the legal framework). Over 20 000 were sent to prison, and another 10-15 000 were gulaged. Over 200 000 people made the choice to emigrate.

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The era of Reprisal is usually considered the years between 1956 and 1963. But cases went on beyond that, verdicts were made at least to '66. But '63 was the year of the first general amnesty, when many were pardoned. Many rot in prison up to 1974.
Couple of interesting things to note.
In '57 December, they surveyed the work, and the Minister of Interior, Biszku Béla, pointed out, that "the numbers of physical extermination is relatively low". So they reopened the case of hundreds of people who served in various armed bodies of the state (from police, through prison guards, to army), stating their sentences were unproportionally light compared to their crime. 26 were got capital punishment.
Lot of people who participated in the fights against the Soviet forces were treated as common criminals and sentenced for attempted murder or murder. They were imprisoned as such, and 144 were executed as such. In relation to this those who were politically persecuted in 1989 got rehabilitated, the "common criminals" had to wait til 2000.
Biszku Béla was accused of various crimes after 2010, even war crimes, but all cases were dropped.

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During our discussion of this national holiday, the name Metternich came up a couple of times. What do we know?
Apparently Metternich is an Austrian rock band formed in 2016.
https://invidious.protokolla.fi/watch?v=mPAREt9aMUg
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mPAREt9aMUg
https://invidious.protokolla.fi/watch?v=h_4RUPlwOJc
https://youtube.com/watch?v=h_4RUPlwOJc

Okay, this probably not it.
We are, of course, talking about Prince Klemens von Metternich, Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire, the great opposer of revolutionary movements, and the counterweight in the Habsburg Court that prevented any meaningful change from feudalistic order, whose actions to keep the lid forcibly on the pot of boiling water just hastened the emergence of a new revolutionary wave. Some might call him close-minded, some clear-sighted. He was one of the most influential person of his day and age, probably his greatest work was the redrawn Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, although he wasn't the sole author of it.
I don't want to present a biography, read Wikipedia for that. I just want to acknowledge his work that led to the Revolution (and War of Independence) which he was not part of since he was forced by the Viennese to resign two days prior to the events on Hungary. But again while it wasn't entirely his own construct, he made a great pair for Emperor and King Francis in his absolutist politics. And then he became one party in another duo - with Franz Anton von Kolowrat - which replaced the weak Ferdinand to hold the reigns when it came to real governing.

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I skimmed couple of stuff on the internet, flipped couple of pages of books and I got the impression that while he was a diplomat to the bone, who wielded words like a sword, and was a schemer, a central figure in the Court's intrigue he did believe in traditions, in the conservatism of his era, in Christianity (despite being a womanizer apparently), and the enlightened absolutism (although Francis' absolutism was way less enlightened than some previous notable monarchs). He probably wasn't really a cynic, but he thought about the new ideas as silly fads of the youngsters or some such. Most importantly he did not felt ill towards Hungarians or the Kingdom of Hungary - unlike the Czech Kollowrat.
I found his comments to various people about his visits of the 1925-27 Diet (the Hungarian legislation) amusing. Lemme quote him:
actually forces me to change my language and my robes. I have to speak Latin and dress like a Hussar, and the only liberty which I take on this occasion is a refusal to wear moustaches
Fun depiction of Hungarian noble fashion. And:
Today I am traveling back and forth between the two capitals, happily no farther from each other than two London suburbs; in one I am a German and in the other a Hungarian; a strange fate.
The two capitals he meant Vienna and Pozsony (Pressburg), where the assembly assembled in those years.
He did fear Hungarian nationalism tho, but not liberal and socialist notions. Even in case of the moderate Count Széchenyi, he felt suspicion and utilized the secret police to shadow him, just in case. His views also blindsided him, for he saw that the Hungarian nobility as a whole was even more conservative than himself (he even considered the Estates of Hungary as a support of the king), but never considered that the rest of the society will demand a change, with the leadership of couple of key figures from the reform-nobility.

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Couple of more things I wanna note.
It seems Metternich was fond of the extravagant lifestyle a politician of his stature enjoyed - and to keep that up he spent a copious amount of money, both from the imperial treasury and from loans. He was indebted to the Rothschilds throughout his life. Those guys however don't give just money not expecting more in return, but if someone is broke but in high office they surely accept "favors" in return.
Related to this. After he was forced to resign on 1848 March 13th he took his family out of Austria and traveled to London. Their stay was entirely financed by loans, this time besides the bankers he also got money from Czar Nicholas I. It is obvious he preserved his foreign contacts (aristocracy everywhere was all related anyway) and influence, and kept open lines. I bet later for the Russian intervention of 1949 he extended his influence and lobbied. Holy Alliance and all that.
Lastly it is not easy to tell his actual role and actions. As above noted he put the secret police on Széchenyi, but his main area was foreign politics and Kolowrat held the interior matters. Does this means that actually Kolowrat decided to watch Széchenyi? However Metternich was the senior, he was the Chancellor after all, he could have a say in anything. On the other hand it is noted that Francis took Kolowrat to counter Metternich, and they remained competitors forever.
It's obvious that the Court was full of intrigues, and as I noted in this thread it was also full of cliques and the courtiers had their own interests and belonged to various cliques depending on these interests. They tried to play to others to gain advantage and favors, gain more prestige, power, and access to the treasury. One thing unified them tho: they all had an interest to keep the current order , because their existence and the continuation of their games depended on it.

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Always keep in mind that all men are born in the same state, and nothing elevates more but the humility, nothing sinks more than pride and malice.

King Saint Stephen dedicated the Admonitions to his son Saint Emeric, a short set if instructions, a so called mirror for princes, a guide on how to rule, about the ten pillars of kings. The actual author seems to be a high priest, close to the king, but it is surely was ordered by Stephen, and contains thoughts that implies he also gave his opinions what to cover and how.
It's fun that the introduction notes: soft things make you soft. Emeric as a child could not yet face the hardships of military campaigns and battles, which were important themes in the life of the adult king Stephen, and he needs not just the nourishment of soft mush he was fed until now, but has to taste the sour wine of life.

I. Keeping he Catholic faith
For starters this is an interesting point. He says only those can gain the title of the king who are faithful and Catholic. We shouldn't forget that when this was written, and when the Hungarian Kingdom formed, when the Hungarian rulers gained the kingship, the title Rex - instead of Dux, elevated from there - the conflict between Rome and Constantinople was deeper and deeper and culminated in the 1054's Great Schism. So firstly this point shows only Christians can become kings, it is a Christian title. Second while at that point still everyone was Catholic, perhaps this is a refusal of Orthodoxy.
The work mentions the importance the belief in the Holy Trinity as is, and warn against those who want to change or reduce or inflate it. Warns about heresy.
II. Honor the Church's order
The Church as institution not the building or ritual. As the title says, honor it, defend it, and make it grow.
III. Respect the high priest
The advice is: they should be the key officials. Absolution is in their hands and they can tie men to sin too. On the other hand if one of them turns to sin, the king should warn him and make him find him the path back to righteousness (or snitch on him to the Church).

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IV. Respect the lay aristocracy and warriors
They are the wall defending the country, the protectors of the weak, the destroyers of enemies, and the expanders of the borders. They shouldn't be put to servitude. Don't be haughty with them, but lead them with virtue
V. True judgement and patience
I feel this one Machiavellian, perhaps I could find hints to previous points too, but this is a bit more apparent. Essentially leave judgements to the judges, and only serve justice in cases which suits well enough to make the king look good. Otherwise appear patient with everyone, don't swear oaths - don't pick sides essentially, he should distance himself from making enemies for decisions, leave that to the judges.
VI. About hosting guests and how to patronize them
Guests and newcomers enrich the country. They are basically sources of information, opportunities to learn. They bring knowledge and skills, weapons (literal, but information is a weapon too).
VII. The weight of the Council
Listen to the Council, listen to the old and wise. Avoid young, dumb, mediocre and proud ones.
VIII. Sons follow the predecessors
This is about continuity and traditions. The one about guests sounds progressive, this one is conservative. Fathers should direct the sons, and sons should obey their fathers. And then repeat when they become ones, follow the customs of the old. This point also says that each folk has their won customs and they should by ruled by that custom.
IX. Keep praying
X. Piety, mercy, and other virtues
Patience, strength, humility, temperance, gentleness, honourable, chasteness.

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I missed out the October 6th commemoration of the Martyrs of Arad. I wanted to take a look of other political martyrs of the era, Italy is bound to have some, and I heard something about the Fenians. But I missed the opportunity, oh well.

So I'm thinking now - in honour of our '56 Revoulution - to take a look at Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The Prague Spring
I don't know much, especially not the details, so this will more like a general inquiry into the topic on my behalf, and perhaps summary of things. See also: Wikipedia. All right maybe I'll try write something that Wikipee does not, I'm curious about Hungarian ties to it ofc.
As stated before politicians always mix daily politics with these national holidays so I don't listen their speeches.

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One could think the Hungarian Revolution of '56 had great impact to the other Eastern Block countries. It is hard to measure but it seems the opposite is the truth. Officialy it was labelled as a counter-revolution and the rest of the opinions were suppressed. There were little to no samizdat activity that could give a voice, censorship ruled.
We already had some understanding with Poland, but Romania was openly hostile, Czechosolovakia ditto (with serious anti-Hungarian chauvinist overtones in both countries). Officially in the latter country as a direct reaction there was a "secret" memorandum that declared support for the leadership of Antonin Novotny, securing his position of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia which he held since 1953, then he became president in 1957, held both offices till the Prage Spring removed him.
As our Revolution gained some of the ideas from the de-Stalinization and some wind too, Novotny's reign started with that - but as a counterweight. He seems he was more of a hardliner, who put effort into halting any thawing processes, and his "socialist" constitution of 1960 was even more formally communist than the previous one they accepted in 1948. So this "destalinization" went slow with occasional pushes from more reformist elements (such as writers, or the next First Secretary, Alexander Dubcek), eroding Novotny's popularity.
I can't say how wide was the popular support, but judging by the events that followed the later Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion it seems that sympathizers were from all over the country from all level of the society - but not in any impactful numbers. People wanted changes but did not want to risk a more serious push for them. What we should see, that the changes were the product of the rise of an internal political opposition, and were introduced upside down, no armed uprising against the communist leadership happened unlike at Hungary.
In 1968 January Dubcek and a pal cornered Novotny, and Brezhnev (probably already probing the opinions of the leaders of the satellite states) decided to green light Novotny's retirement. The issue seemed to be decided but then Dubcek and many reformists started to talk nonsense about living standards, multi-party systems, democracies, building relations with the West and such. This compelled Brezhnev to engage them and tell 'em they should slow down a bit. They agreed, but The Head and Brow of the Soviet Union was not convinced, he saw that the process will lead to losing Czechoslovakia, and ordered the tanks of the SU and allied Warsaw Pact (Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary) countries' tanks rolling. No clash happened between the two sides, almost only civilians resisted, mostly with non-violent methods.
Dubcek had to go, he was replaced by Gustav Husak. All enacted laws and reforms were reverted, except the one that made Czechoslovakia a federation of two countries. Later some of the reforms were activated again as amendments if I understood correctly.

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As for Hungary.
It appears that at the same time the Czechoslovak reforms started, the Kádár regime here introduced new economical practices, trying to make the country's economy actually work. The changes put forward in the neighbour were mostly political in nature, so our leadership started to pray to Saint Lenin that they keep them very "moderate". They feared if things were getting out of hands then our economical project will be scraped, or perhaps even the thoughts of resistance will be reignited here or at least Moscow will think that's happening too.
Since their fears seemed to become true, they decided to show they are loyal subjects of Moscow, and they can march along with the Warsaw Pact, right into Czechoslovakia, when finally Brezhnev decided at the military solution. Kádár even declared that if it comes to counter-revolution in Czechoslovakia, he will vote wholeheartedly for military intervention. Well he did the same with his own country so I don't see how could he not applied the same principle elsewhere.
From his opinion we could also deduce, that the Dubcek-turn, was went far enough for him to consider it a counter-revolution. However this is not the case. He gave the opinion to Brezhnev (on the day of the invasion, on August 21), that the events in Czechoslovakia are closer to the Polish events of 1956 than to the Hungarian counter-revolution of the same year. Still, Hungarian forces were participated the same.

Supposedly later in 1988-89 when our socialist system started to collapse they considered the moral Czechoslovakian lesson and example.

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 >>/52518/
 >>/52517/
 >>/52516/

Interesting.

Where you or your parents alive when all these things happened Hungarybernd?

 >>/52567/
Luckily I'm not that old. But parents were around already. Maybe I'll ask them what they heard about things.

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 >>/52574/
 >>/52574/
Please do.

I think a lot of people would like to know more about what happened.

 >>/52627/
I actually asked. They don't remember much tho.
What they said that there were news and they knew Hungarian soldiers are participating. There was some tension, uncertainty, and a bit of fear. They said the Czechs were labeled as counter-revolutionaries.
That's about it.

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Listening Orbán talking about current, daily politics, loosely tied to the events of this day: he tries to set himself as revolutionary, a rebel. Jesus he really licks his own arse shiny.
I should post about something else.

I found a digitized book, from 1898, about the revolution and the war, in pictures as the title goes. Quite a bit of text is also included. I will cherry pick some of those pictures. They are a mix of drawings, imprints, copper engravings, daguerreotypes.
https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/SzabadsagharcTortenete-SzabadsagharcTortenete-194849-es-szabadsagharc-tortenete-2-2/ezernyolczszaznegyvennyolcz-az-184849-iki-magyar-szabadsagharcz-tortenete-kepekben-4570/kepek-elso-resz-458B/

#1 the publisher's logo, says:
be impactful, creative, productive
This is a great motto. Take from a poem written by the author of the text of our national anthem.
In 1869 they moved to Pest (there wasn't any Budapest back then), I assume that's the date.
#2 the saber of Józef Bem
The Ladies of Transylvania gave him as a present. Originally it belonged to II. Rákóczi György (George II Rákóczi), prince of Transylvania, candidate for the Polish throne.
I mentioned Uncle Bem in this thread briefly. He is a Polish national hero, veteran of the Napoleonic wars who served in the Russo-Polish military, did research for the artillery, and prominent figure in the Polish November Uprising of 1930-31. He is our national hero too, a general in the War of Independence, the topic of today.
#3 Kossuth Lajos in 1941
Kossuth was one of the most prominent politician of the Reform Era, prior to the revolution. Then minister of finance in the first free government, then governor-president (head of state) of the independent Hungary.
#4 Széchenyi István
The other most prominent politician of the Reform Era, and usually his work these times considered the more impactful. Him and Kossuth did not agree on many things, partially due to their background, partially due to their experiences they viewed things differently. He was the minister of transportation in the first free government.

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 >>/54177/
cont.
The book starts out with many personal pictures, from the life of the two statesmen above. Family members, personal items, place.
#5 The birth home of Kossuth on Monok
#6 The flute of Széchenyi
#7 Petőfi Sándor
A great folk poet, central figure of the events of March 15. Hero of the war. He disappeared during the fights, supposed dead in a battle. Some evidence that he was captured and sent to a prison camp in Russia, where he died. As far as I know this was never proven, there were some talks about DNA testing and such.
#8 Petőfi as a soldier
Doodling a poem on the side of the sentry box.

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 >>/54178/
cont.
#9 The Habsrburg dinasty in the 1930's
Big list. Just the most important ones:
> 3. Ferdinand V. King of Hungary
> 4. Maria Anna of Savoy, Queen of Hungary
> 5. Archduke Joseph Anton of Austria, palatine of Hungary
> 29. Franz Joseph, King of Hungary from 1867
#10 A cartoon of the political situation and public life of Hungary
I think it's about the 1840s. There is a list who is depicted, but would take long to look it up. The artis is a count, notable for his work in the steel industry. He did caricatures like this too.
#11 Another cartoon, about the Austrian camarilla
#12 And another cartoon, about the Hungarians and the two herder of theirs.
Hungarians are stubborn like a donkey - pulled by Széchenyi, proded by Kossuth - they don't want to move forward.

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 >>/54179/
cont.
#13 Female fashion in Paris, 1848, from the Parisian Cabinet des Estampes
#14 French Revolution in 1848, attack on Palais Royal on February 24
#15 French umbrella-gun
#16 Hungarian delegation visits the French government of the Republic

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 >>/54180/
cont.
#17 The start of the revolution in Vienna
Very romantic notion, the ladies tying ribbons on the arms of the gentlemen sending them to their mission for Freedom.
#18 Viennese mob attacks Archduke Albrecht
This is more liek it.
#19 Austrian soldiers fire at the revolutionaries at Hoher Markt on March 14
I think this event was inititated by the aforementioned Archduke Albrecht, who give the order to fire in the mass of people.
#20 Adolf Fischhof
Jewish-Hungarian citizen of Pest, physician in Vienna. He gained popularity with his public speeches, got into politics, a notable figure in the Viennese revolution. Today Orbán mentioned him in his speech.

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 >>/54181/
cont.
Goddamit lots pics.
#21 Welcoming of the Hungarian delegation in Vienna
#22 Release of political prisoners in Vienna
#23 The fall of Metternich, cartoon
He takes censorship with himself as he leaves the country.
#24 Metternich as a street entertainer in Siberia, cartoon

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 >>/54182/
cont.
Last round with some pics from 1848 March 15
#25 We wow that we won't be slaves anymore!
A line from a revolutionary poem of Petőfi. He recited this poem to the mass during the initial protests at Pest. The drawing is a romanticized depiction of the event, by Zichy Mihály.
#26 Liberté, égalité, fraternité
Same artist.
#27 A more realistic depiction of the recitiation of said poem.
The event happened at the Hungarian National Museum. Gonna post a pic in of it in the next post.
#28 A memorial of the revolution.

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 >>/54183/
That's it for today. Lots of material in the book I linked. Some are quite fun.

 >>/54177/
> 1898
How much did they have to worry about censorship?

 >>/54188/
Interested in knowing this too. Pls respond bernd

 >>/54188/
Sorry, Bernd. Haven't noticed you posting. I just suppose noone posts, so it's gone overlooked.
Censorship? By then, not much. The years of repression were 1849-1867. During these year the Hungarian nobility practiced what they called "passive resistance", which meant they didn't do anything that was good for the court and the system. That and some failures in foreign politics forced the Habsburg court to different approach, and the Dual Monarchy was born. And then in the Kingdom of Hungary, they pretty much could write anything about the Revolution and War of Independence as they wanted.

 >>/54282/
Yes, sorry again.

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Since it's the day of Saint Stephen, I'll write about Saint Stephen.
That is the Tegetthoff-class battleship.

Austria-Hungary - despite her illustrious colonies such as the Franz Joseph Land or a 1 sqKm os suburbs in China - wasn't really a seafaring oriented state, but we did built our own battleships. Always lagging in design, a bit too small, bit undergunned compared to the most modern ones, but we did.
In the 20th century, prior to WWI they designed three battleship classes, the Erzherzog, the Radetzky and the Tegetthoff. The latter followed a real dreadnought design, the others were the "pre-" types which we call "casemate ships". These represented quite strong firepower, even the Radetzky's got relatively large caliber guns, but the Tegetthoffs were the first dreadnoughts with 3 barrels in their turrets. Furthermore they invested in a whole new fleet, with cruisers, destroyers, submarines, various torpedo boats and whatnot. The budget of the navy growth to 264% and effectively doubled the crew, from ~7700 sailors to ~16000. Comparison of the budget growth: Italy 151%, Germany 99%, France 66%, Great Britain 48%, Russia 36%. But you can grow the most where you had nothing much really.  In general this shipbuilding program was a type of investment into local industry on behalf if the Court, both in and outside of our Kingdom. And of course their aim was to catch up with the main contestant: Italy. Tho have to note: just before the war, the two countries aimed to defeat the French navy together.
Hungary herself, or at least Hungarian shipbuilding and other factories, also produced some of these, and we participated in the production of the largest units too. In fact the last of these, the Saint Stephen - launched on 1941 January 15 or 17 or 18 (my sources conflict) - was built almost exclusively from Hungarian materials and by Hungarian companies.

picrel
#1 The Tegetthoffs
#2 The Saint Stephen

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Here's a closer look at this majestic battleship.
It's 152 meters in length and 27,3 m wide, with a draught of 8,8 m. Displacement was 20023 tons (21595 tons max). Armor on the side was 280 mm, on the deck 48 mm, at the fire control centers 356 mm, and on the turrets 305 mm. Range: 7778,4 km (4200 nautical miles). It was manned by 1087 crewmembers.
The main pint of interest is the main guns and the turrets the were placed in. The usual build was 5 turrets with 2 main guns each. But turrets were heavy as fuck due to all the armor, so after some considerations they reduced the number of turrets to 4 and with the gained weight they replaced with guns. So they put three of the 305 mm guns into one turret, so they gained more overall firepower with 12 main guns.
The ship also had twelve 150 mm secondary guns, and another 20 auxiliary guns in 70 mm caliber. They rounded this with 47 mm AA guns, and torpedo launchers.
The Saint Stephen differed in some of the designs and even in the turbines and boilers. One curiosity is that it had only 2 propellers, for the older Tegetthoffs needed 4 since they had double the turbines to move forward and back, but the stronger ones on the S.S. solved this issue.

picrel
#1 Designs
#2 Comparison of the Saint Stephen's sister ship, the Viribus Unitis, with the Dreadnought
#3 Saint Stephen rear view

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The most famous surface action the Saint Stephen seen when it got sunked by two torpedo hits under the surface.
Towards the end of WWI, Rear-Admiral Horthy planned another break through the blockade at Otranto. He used all the available units anchoring on the Adriatic for his "Korfu plan". The cruisers should have had sneak close to the Entente ships, shell em, then scurry back, drawing the enemy to the front of the guns of the tactically placed battleships to hammer them.
It was a good plan as far as we can tell, and the fleet set sail on 1918 June 8th and 9th. However on June 10th a small Italian MAS flotilla, led by Captain Luigi "The Sinker" Rizzo, discovered them, and one slipped through the screening ships, targeting the Saint Stephen and by launching two torpedos from 300 meters, she sent our proud battleship to a rendezvous with Neptune. With the ship 4 officers and 85 from the crew found rest in the watery grave.
Since the whole operation depended on surprise, Horthy called it off and all the units returned to port.

picrel
#1 the sinking Saint Stephen
#2 an Italian MAS
#3 the wreck


Well, that's it.
Happy Birthday, Hungary.

> sunked
It was really really long time ago.

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Today I'll concentrate on the 14th executed: Count Battyány Lajos the first Prime Minister of our country who was executed on the very same day, at Pest (Buda and Pest were separate settlements back in the day).
Due to lack of time, I'll use a publication from 1870 as the basis of these posts. Some I wrote might not be supported by other sources, and I avoided adding my opinion. He was hidden in a Franciscan temple until they re-buried in a cemetery of historical importance. This book was published on the occasion of this second funeral.

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 >>/54723/
cont.

He was born in 1809 (Wikipedia says 1807 based on other sources) and he was noted for his tempestuous nature in his youth. He entered military service, stationed near Venice, where he stepped into adulthood. They say the culture of Italy made an impact on him to better himself, learn, and step onto a path better suited for his stature, he left the military.
He couldn't deny his nature entirely he spent lot of his youth and money on frivolities and social life. But wanting to do more, he also learnt, built a library to hisself, and entered politics. First on the county level, but payed mind to international affairs, especially to the Polish events.
Married a daughter of another aristocratic family, with whom he traveled all over Europe. He continued to spend generously but also made steps to modernize his holdings. He built a sugar factory, and created orchards.
His ambition moved him towards politics. He learnt Hungarian, which he spoke broken (it wasn't unusual for aristocracy, they spoke German, Latin, French and other languages like Italian and English), so he could address the legislation in their own mother tongue. He never became great flowery orator, his speeches were short and to the point. By 1838 he was a central figure among those with opposing notions, he was courted by several groups offering membership. On the 1843-44 Diet (assembly) he is one of the leaders and organizer of the aristocratic opposition, vehemently struggling against the politics of Metternich. Played a great role as financier as well in the elections of 1847 and helped Kossuth into the assembly. With his seat in the Upper House he voiced against feudal privileges and the authority of a foreign bureaucracy, he had both liberal and nationalist characteristic, which wasn't unusual in that era.

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 >>/54724/
cont.

And we arrived to the events which led to his tragic faith.
He was a natural pick for the position of the Prime Minister in the first independent and responsible government. The King Ferdinand sanctified his appointment and Batthyány formed his government, and sent the list for approval. But the Court was hesitant to separate the ministry of finance and war causing controversy and delay. Finally the appointments arrived, and the constitutional assembly also did it's job, so by 1848 April 11th the new government and the basic laws were ready. The national assembly and the independent government, responsible to the assembly moved to Pest-Buda from Pozsony.
The case of Croatia and her ban, Jelacic became a thorn they couldn't pluck out. In previous post I wrote about the case >>/16937/. His disobedience and the invasion and the situation around legality toppled the government, ministers resigned, Batthyány left alone at the helm. He attempted to form a new government, but even the nádor (the representative of the King as the Head of State) fled the country for he couldn't pick between his responsibility towards the country and loyalty to his King and family.
The reactionary clique in the Court worked with all their influence. The nádor resigned, new Prime Minister was appointed, and a military governor to boot, in the person of Count Lamberg Ferenc. Him Batthyány knew and hoped he could agree on stopping Jelacic, so he went to seek him out in his camp. Meanwhile Count Lamberg himself went to a meeting at Pest, and while crossing the bridge a group of angry Hungarians stopped his coach, and murdered him on September 28th.
Events spiraled out, Batthyány resigned on October 2nd and joined the army to fight as a simple soldier. However due to an incident he fell of his horse and broke his arm.
While healing from the injury he was asked to return to politics. He became a member of the Parliament, then sought out Windisch-Grätz with a delegation, trying to negotiate. After this failed he remained at Pest where he was arrested after the army of the Court entered the city, on January 13th, 1849. He ceased to be a public figure and the shaper of the events.

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 >>/54725/
cont.

He was trialed by military court, which he felt unauthorized and illegitim to judge, he voiced his reservation. Among others they also accused him to incite the Viennese revolution of october 6th and the death of Latour, Imperial Minister of War, when he wasn't Hungary's Prime Minister anymore.
He was transported to Laibach (Ljubljana) while under way the civilian population twice recognized him and tried to free him, both in Hungary and Styria. Himself, believing in his innocence, asked the people to stop and leave him, he won't be found guilty.
The investigation and trial was not fair. He tried to get a lawyer - the widely acknowledged Deák Ference, who later played important political role - which they denied of him. He tried to get a copy of decrees and other documents him and his government issued and the national assembly created, he was denied. He called for witnesses, but since they were all high ranking officials, even King Ferdinand himself, they were all denied from him, and the lower ranking ones, the court never listened them. He was denied all the tools he could try to build his own defence. On the other hand all the accusations and unknown witnesses testimonies were accepted as facts. 
Despite all this when he was took to Olmütz, for the charges he was found innocent, but they could not let him go so the court there sentenced him to few years prison. Then the Minister-President of the Empire, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg told the court that since they did not find him guilty there is no basis to keep him in prison. He ordered them to sentence him to death which then the Emperor can give public pardon for as was customary in such cases. However right at the time as Schwarzenberg issued this decree, Batthyány was transported to Pest from Olmütz. And at Pest it wasn't the Emperor who could give the pardon, but Haynau, the plenipotentiary military commander of the defeated Hungary was. And Haynau has no issue with refusing to give pardon, taking the blame for it, instead of the Kaiser.

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 >>/54726/
cont.

In their captivity at Pest, he wasn't bothered by anyone. His family, wife and children could visit him. His captors told him he'll walk free soon as the fort of Komárom surrender. On the 3rd of October the defenders gave up the fort, on the 5th in the morning, he was led to the military court again, and they read him the sentence: all his property was to be confiscated and himself sentenced to death by hanging, executed on the 6th at 7 in the morning.
Ge got angry and demanded a fair trial. Denied. He demanded to change the shameful hanging to bullet. Denied. He wanted to see his family. Denied. He was allowed to write a letter to his wife, with the help of a Friench priest. After he was done he went to sleep, he asked for his favorite horse fur pillow. His guards stayed in his room all night. In the morning one of them tried to wake him up and as he pulled the blanket off, they found him covered in blood. With a small dagger he stabbed himself into his neck, arm, and chest. He did all this while guarded closely, without a sound.
He did not die. Due to the blood loss he weakened so could not finish the job, and his wounds weren't fatal. Doctors woke him with stimulants. One of them declared the hanging cannot be executed due to the wounds, but doesn't even necessary, he is so weak, he will die within hours.
Out at the courtyard of the barracks and the streets mass of people waited all day. They kept him awake and alive with stimulants. The news that they changed the sentence to bullet raised his spirit. In the evening, with the support of the priest he walked in front of the firing squad. His eyes were covered, and he lowered himself to one knee. Took his hat off and cried:
Long live the Homeland! Allez Jäger!
For the sword sign of the commanding officer three of the five rifleman moved forward, and from two steps distance they shot him, with two in the chest, one in the head. After a short struggle he fell onto his back.

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 >>/54727/
cont.

His body was transported to a hospital. During the night with secrecy, Franciscan friars took it and placed to rest in their crypt. In the presence of four witnesses they performed a short burial rite. They put him into a simple pine coffin and put that into a grave cavity, which they closed off with a red marble slab with engraving on the inner side. It said: "Passed away on the 6th of October in the year of our Lord 1849. G.B.L. Blessing and peace upon his ashes."
Over twenty years later the city of Pest took the matter of his re-burial in its hand. In the presence of one of Batthyány's son and officials they opened his grave. They found the coffin in tatters, the corpse decayed. The main feature he was recognized was his great reddish-brown beard. The piece of his skull with the bullet hole remained, and as some of the buttons on the suit they dressed him into. Based on these and some other evidence they made a positive identification. The remains were consecrated by the Franciscans again for the transportation and ceremony.

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National holiday! Not listening to politicians as usual.
Let's consider the wider geopolitical context of the event, especially the other conflict going on in the Middle East: the Suez Crisis.

First the dates.
Hungarian revolution: 1956 October 23 to November 11
Suez Crisis: 1956 October 29 to November 7

Events in tl;dr format.
Hungarian revolution:
Due to the mismanagement and oppression a popular movement removed the Stalinist elite and made steps to reform the communism regime and leave the Eastern Block. The Soviet Union set up a new client regime which they installed with military intervention.
Suez Crisis:
Nasser of Egypt was kicking out the French and Brits from the Suez Canal, so they conspired with the Israelis to take it over. Israel invaded the Sinai and France with Britain pretended to intervene by separating Egyptian and Israeli forces so they can occupy the Canal. The US with the help of the SU and the UN told frogs and limeys: No! Then a UN force was formed to keep everyone out.

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 >>/54769/
cont.

I want to expand on the issue of Suez.
The crisis was multicausal, all components developed in parallel.
First the three involved Western powers - US, UK, and France - were all worried about Soviet involvement in the Middle East and they tried to organize the region to become resistant to that. UK and France were the chief colonial powers who held interests, mandates, and clients all over the place.
Arab countries were just getting organized, gaining independence, or at least elevated to client status. They all tried to build relations with each other, they were in the process to figure out how to proceed. Algeria became a sore point with the French as Egypt supported Pan-Arabism. And the formation of Israel was like a bomb dropped amidst of the Arabs, and they reacted accordingly. One problem of the US was how to solve this issue.
Egypt herself had problems with Israel. Egypt held Gaza, and Palestinian guerillas and Israeli counterinsurgents attacked each other all the time, Israelis were sending raids into Egyptian supervised areas. For Egypt the rapid arming of Israel also meant threat. This lead to the classic security dilemma of Realpolitik.
Egypt also sought weapons, but the three Western powers denied them. So Nasser reached out to the Soviet, whom supplied them via Czechoslovakia. This in return alarmed Israel and the Westerners. Partially for the security dilemma, and partially for the growing Soviet influence.
The US particularly hated the purchase. They had great hopes for Egypt becoming a client. CIA had good rapport with Nasser, who became the leader of the country after they couped King Farouk. They supported his regime, but Cairo refused the client status. Then Egypt not just bought armament from the Soviet, but they recognized the People's Republic of China. The US got so pissed off they refused to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam, the project which aimed to power the new Egyptian economy.
And the Canal itself. Both French and the British held stake in the Canal, and private company managed it, in theory keeping it neutral for everyone, but in practice British political interests decided who can use it, since they occupied Egypt back in the late 19th century.

I can only continue tomorrow.

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Let's continue:  >>/54770/

And we arrived to the importance of the region.
Even without the Canal, Egypt and the Middle East was an important bridge between Europe and Asia. Napoleon, at the start of the wars named after him, tried to disrupt the British trade and power by delivering a strike into the area. And the Brits reacted with the force that matched the seriousness of the situation.

How is this important for us, and how this influenced the events on the Hungary?
Well, I think we have to understand how the Anglos view the world, because it's very different from how continental Euros, the French, German, Russian, and of course us think about it. We lament about center/core and periphery, ofc in all of our case the center is at a bit different places.
But the Anglos - either on the Small Island or their isolated continent - think in hubs, choke points, springboards along the sea lanes which help them projecting their power all over the globe. The inland wherever those may be are the periphery. Lands that can be sacrificed and pull back from, to return and take back later. Maybe many decades later. If a rival rises within those lands, the Anglos can blockade them, and harass them from all sides. They can land troops wherever they want. They can make deals with the regimes at places what the central considers as periphery. They enlist them and turn against the rivals.

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 >>/54773/
cont.

The Middle East is one such a hub. Probably the most important of all, the meeting point of Europe, Africa, and Asia. The Brits spent literally hundreds of years to establish their presence and control there. They established trading companies (most notably the Levant Company) not just to conduct trade but to build ties with the Ottomans, who ruled those lands. And as the Ottos started to decline they propped them up, with money, advice, training and weapons just like how the US props up her clients... then as they started to crumble they took over areas and when they sided with the Central Powers and defied the Anglo they broke the empire of the Turks up. They gained control in Egypt, Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, Gulf, South Arabia, Aden.

The US inherited the agenda, and after WWII the UK had to understand they are not the Anglo global empire anymore. Lo by today all the listed areas are US clients except "South Arabia" - ie Yemen with the Houthis. The US was forward enough about it. The 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine is all about it:
[the U.S.would] cooperate with and assist any nation or group of nations in the general area of the Middle East in the development of economic strength dedicated to the maintenance of national independence ... [and] undertake in the same region programs of military assistance and cooperation with any nation or group of nations which desires such aid.
(quote from the US Foreign Policy in Perspective: Clients, Enemies and Empire)

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Both in the British and American society the Hungarian revolution echoed, they reacted, those who thought Yalta was a mistake saw a chance to fix it.
On the level of actions however the governments of these powers had better things to do at places that they could reach more easily, and were more important for geopolitical reasons. So our struggle became a handy bait to distract the Soviet and gave time to secure the precious Canal from a perceived pro-Soviet threat in the Middle East - with the consent of the Soviet Union.
Consider this:
Egypt went from a candidate ally and client to enemy for the US in a couple of years perhaps less, but have to check the the chronology closer. They bought Russian weapons, recognized PRC, and nationalized the Canal. This was alarming. The threat that an enemy can cut off one of the most important sea lane on the world became a #1 item to solve on the problems list. When the SU is distracted elsewhere seems like the best time to fix this issue.
Since both French and British interests were harmed, surely they didn't need much encouragement to take matters in their hands. And since the US wasn't part of the action, Washington could step in as an outsider who wants to end the killing, legitimized by the United Nations and with it by the Soviet Union.
Sure, French and the Brits did not get back their "property", but the enemy lost a potential leverage too. The Canal was safe and sound, overseen by international participants.
With the very low cost of not doing anything about a Soviet client.

I want to read this, I put it here, I hope I won't forget.
https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/a-fatal-case-of-empathy-hungary-and-the-un-1956-1963/