On June 22, 1941, Hitler's hordes invaded the Soviet Union, the regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, Admiral Miklos Horthy, reported to Berlin: “I have been waiting for this day for 22 years. I'm happy! . To understand where such hatred for Russia comes from, one must trace his life path.
Miklos Horthy
The fate of this man is quite interesting - M. Horthy was born on June 18, 1868 on the estate of his father (middle hand of the landowner) in Kenderesche of the Solnoksky committee, in the very center of the Great Hungarian Lowland, besides him, there were eight more children in the family. He was brought up in severity, at the age of 8 he was sent to the Reformed College of the city of Debrecen, at the age of 10 he was transferred to a German male gymnasium in the city of Sopron. The boy dreamed of a naval academy in order to become a sailor, but his father was against it - Miklos's older brother, Istvan, chose this path and was seriously wounded in the exercises. Nevertheless, in 1882 he was among 42 students (selected from 612 applicants) enrolled in the naval school in the city of Fiume. In 1886 he received the title of naval cadet.
During the years of study and further service, Horthy mastered the Italian and Serbian languages. At the age of 18 he began serving in the fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1894, Miklos was assigned to test the 1st ship with steam propulsion, in 1897 he became a lieutenant of the 2nd rank, and in January 1900, at the age of 32, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant commander of the 1st rank, he was already in command of the ship … In 1909, after successfully passing the exams, he received the rank of captain of the 3rd rank. In the same year, he received an offer to take the position of a senior officer - one of the four aides-de-camp of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, previously only an Austrian could receive such a position. Until 1914, Horthy served in the Vienna Hofburg, under the emperor. Little was required of him - punctuality, discipline, good knowledge of the German language, the ability to ride a horse, in order to accompany the king-emperor, the emperor of Austria-Hungary was at the same time the king of Hungary) on the hunt. Subsequently, M. Horthy recalled these years as the most beautiful and carefree in his eventful life. He sincerely respected the emperor, took an example from him, having learned a lot during this time, mastered court etiquette and demeanor. He joined art, visited museums and art galleries - he even took up a brush himself, painted portraits and landscapes.
During the second Balkan War (June-August 1913), Horthy was given command of the Coast Guard on the patrol ship Budapest. After its completion, at the age of 43, he received the rank of captain of the 1st rank and returned to the imperial court. With the outbreak of World War I, the commander of the Habsburg ship, and in December 1914, he became the commander of the new high-speed armored cruiser Novara, which performed special tasks. In 1915 he was awarded the Iron Cross, took part in the battles on the Adriatic Sea against the Italian and French navies. In May 1917, in the Otranto area, commanding the cruiser Novara, he took part in a successful battle with the ships of the Entente, was wounded and partially deaf. After this battle, he gained fame throughout Austria-Hungary.
In February 1918, after recovering, M. Horthy was appointed commander of another high-class warship, Prince Eugen. During this period, there was already the problem of a decline in discipline and demoralization of soldiers and sailors. With vigorous measures, Horthy restored order to the ship. King-Emperor Karl (Franz Joseph died in 1916), dissatisfied with the processes of decomposition in the fleet, appointed him on February 27, 1918, the commander of the fleet, Horthy received the rank of rear admiral. But the monarchy was already doomed and the measures of Horthy could not correct the general deplorable situation - on October 28, 1918, Horthy, as a sign of the cessation of the existence of the imperial-royal Navy, lowered the flag of the monarchy from the flagpole of the ship of the commander-in-chief and handed over the fleet to representatives of the newly formed South Slavic state - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. After this act, Horthy returned to his native land, becoming a private person.
Horthy enters Budapest in 1919.
Dictator Horthy - ruler of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920-1944). Trying to avoid participating in the war
But he did not live in peace for long, already at the beginning of the summer of 1919, he accepted an offer to become Minister of War in the counter-revolutionary government headed by Count Gyula Karolyi, which opposed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. During this period, Horthy established contacts with representatives of the Entente. Soon his army grew to 50 thousand people, on November 16 the "national army" - the only real and powerful nationwide Hungarian force at that time - solemnly entered Budapest. It was headed by Horthy on a white horse in the dress uniform of an admiral. Horthy sharply criticized the townspeople for "betraying the thousand-year history" of the monarchy. He did not associate himself with any political force, focusing on order, stability and patriotism.
The National Assembly announced the restoration of royal power, but since the Entente countries were against the restoration of the Habsburg power, in any form, the post of regent or ruler of the country was established. On March 1, 1920, the Hungarian National Assembly elected Horthy (131 out of 141 deputies voted in favor) as the ruler of the state, he was then 52 years old. Hungary became a kingdom without a king. Horthy received great powers - retaining the post of commander-in-chief of the army, the right to dissolve the National Assembly.
Hungary experienced a great shame after the war: in fact, one third of the entire Hungarian population, i.e. more than 3 million people remained outside the new borders of the state. Hungary lost about two-thirds of its former territory - it decreased from 283 to 93 thousand square meters. km - and a significant share of the population, which decreased from 18, 2 to 7, 6 million. The people needed the image of an "external enemy", on which all the troubles of the nation could be blamed. It was communism, anti-communism became one of the main ideological pillars of the system created under M. Horthy. Anti-communism supplemented the official Christian-national ideology, which focused on the creation of a middle class.
In the 1920s, when the country's prime minister, Count Istvan Betlen, supported by the Foreign Ministry and part of the industrialists, proposed establishing trade relations with the USSR, but Horthy was against it. He considered the Soviet Union a source of "eternal red danger" for all mankind and opposed the establishment of any ties with it. Only in February 1934 Hungary, and then largely due to the economic crisis, which forced the search for new directions of development, were diplomatic and then trade relations with the USSR established.
Istvan Bethlen, Count Bethlen - Hungarian politician, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1921-31.
Of the Western powers, the first countries to establish close contacts with Hungary were Italy in 1927, and in 1933 with Germany. The new prime minister of Hungary, Gyula Gömbös, met with A. Hitler in June 1933. Hitler's policy aimed at revising the conditions of the Versailles system met with the full support of Hungarian politicians. And the hostile attitude of the countries of the "Little Entente", the indifference of France and England made this choice inevitable. Hitler repeatedly invited Horthy to visit Germany and in the summer of 1936 he visited the Reich - the first meeting of the two leaders took place in Berchtesgaden near Salzburg. They found understanding in terms of rapprochement and rallying of forces under the banner of anti-communism. But, despite the desire of Prime Minister Gömbös to build a system in the country on the model of Germany and Italy, in the 30s Hungary retained the old political system built in the 20s, and he died in the fall of 1936.
After Hitler captured Austria, Horthy announced a program of armaments for Hungary (the army by the beginning of 1938 was only 85 thousand people), calling the strengthening of the defense the main task - Hungary abandoned the restrictions of the Trianon Treaty. After that, Horthy saw no other choice but to go for further rapprochement with the Reich. In August 1938 M. Horthy and his wife Magda were invited by A. Hitler to Kiel, where he took part in the solemn ceremony of launching the ship "Prince Eugen". Horthy refused to participate in the attack on Czechoslovakia. But Hungary's claims were resolved diplomatically: on November 2, 1938, in accordance with the decision of the 1st Vienna International Arbitration, Budapest was transferred 12 thousand square meters. km of the territory of South Slovakia and part of Transcarpathia with a population of almost 1 million people, of which 86.5% were Hungarians and 9.8% were Slovaks. The document was signed by the foreign ministers of the Third Reich, Italy, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, London and Paris took note of it. After the occupation of all of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Hungary received a number of other regions, including the regions of Transcarpathia inhabited by Rusyns.
Hitler and Miklos Horthy, Regent of Hungary, take a walk on a footbridge during Horthy's visit to Hamburg for Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939.
Horthy's visit to Germany in 1938, naval parade.
Horthy continued a very cautious policy, trying to maintain at least relative independence: he refused to participate in the war with Poland and to let German troops pass through the territory of Hungary. Hungary accepted tens of thousands of Polish refugees, Jews from Slovakia and Romania. After Moscow took Bessarabia and Bukovina from Romania, Budapest demanded that Bucharest return Transylvania. The USSR supported the demand, Molotov told the Hungarian ambassador in Moscow J. Krishtoffi: “The USSR has no claims to Hungary and seeks to establish good-neighborly relations with it, considers Hungarian territorial claims to Romania to be justified, treats them kindly and will support them on peace conference ". In 1940, the 2nd Vienna Arbitration of Hungary returned the northern part of Transylvania with a total area of 43.5 thousand square meters. km with a population of 2.5 million people, and the southern part of Transylvania remained part of Romania. Both Hungary and Romania were unhappy with this decision. Hitler was now the complete master of Europe - in 1940 Hungary entered into the Triple Pact. Although Horthy still tried to leave Hungary aside from the war, on March 3, 1941, instructions were sent to the Hungarian diplomatic missions, which, in particular, said: “The main task of the Hungarian government in the European war until its end is the desire to save the military and material forces, human resources of Hungary. We must at any cost prevent our involvement in a military conflict … We must not risk the country, the youth and the army in anyone's interests, we must proceed only from our own. " Hungary was forced to participate in the aggression against Yugoslavia, although Horthy and Prime Minister Teleki were opposed, Teliki eventually shot himself, writing to Horthy a farewell letter, where he wrote "" we became perjurers ", because they could not keep Hungary from" speaking on the side of the villains ".
War against the USSR
Berlin until the last hid its plans with regard to the USSR from Budapest, and on April 24, 1941, A. Hitler assured Horthy that German-Soviet relations were "very correct" and that nothing threatened the German empire from the east. German military plans did not provide for the participation of Hungary in the war, since.planned to win the "lightning war", where the weak and poorly armed Hungarian army could not help. In addition, Hitler was not sure of complete loyalty to Hungary, and he did not want to promise new territorial concessions. But after the start of the war, Berlin, like part of the Hungarian elite (especially the military), was not averse to Hungary taking part in the war - in the spring of 1941, the chief of the Hungarian General Staff, General Henrik Werth, demanded from both M. Horthy and the head of the Hungarian government Bardosi, so that they put the question to Berlin about the indispensable participation of the Hungarian troops in the "crusade" against the USSR. Horthy waited, the government was against it.
Therefore, a provocation was organized: on June 26, 1941, a "bombardment" was organized by supposedly Soviet planes of the city of Kosice - as a result, Hungary declared war on the USSR. It is believed that the provocation was organized by the Germans, or the Romanians with the consent of the military command of Hungary. On the same day, a proposal was received from the high German command to the general staff of the Hungarian army to join the campaign against the Soviet Union. In an official report published on June 27, it was noted that as a result of the air raid, “Hungary considers itself to be in a state of war with the Soviet Union. dividing the "bear skin".
In late June - early July, troops of the Carpathian group were sent to the front, as part of the 8th Kosice corps (it included the 1st mountain and 8th border brigades) under the leadership of Lieutenant General Ferenc Szombathely, a mobile corps (2 motorized and 1 cavalry brigade) under the command of General Bela Miklos. The Carpathian group was attached to the 17th German army as part of the army group "South" and on July 1 it entered the battle with the 12th Soviet army. She took part in the battle of Uman in late July - early August 1941. Hungary also opened its territory for the transit of military goods to Germany and Italy. In addition, Hungary became the "agrarian base" of the Reich.
Hungarian troops in the Don steppes, summer 1942.
In September, several more infantry divisions were deployed to Russia to protect communications and fight partisans in Ukraine, in the regions of Smolensk and Bryansk regions. In Russia and Yugoslavia, Hungarian soldiers "noted" a number of atrocities: in the Serbian Vojvodina, soldiers of the Szeged corps of General Fekethalmi (the future head of the Hungarian General Staff) staged a real massacre, Serbs and Jews were not even shot, but chopped with axes and drowned in the Danube. In Chernigov region, Bryansk region, near Voronezh, Hungarian warriors thanked "God" that they could participate in the destruction of "Slavic and Jewish infection", destroying women, old people and children in Soviet villages.
By the beginning of 1942, the number of Hungarians in the USSR had grown to 200 thousand people, and the 2nd Hungarian Army was created. She took part in the Battle of Stalingrad, in January-March 1943 she was almost completely destroyed - having lost 80 thousand people killed and 65 thousand prisoners, as well as up to 75% of the army's weapons. After that, Hitler removed the function of combat units from the Hungarians, they now performed only logistical functions in Ukraine.
Hungarian soldiers killed at Stalingrad.
In 1944, after the severe defeats of the Wehrmacht and the Romanian army in the southern strategic direction, including in the Jassy-Kishinev operation, A. Hitler demanded that Horthy conduct a total mobilization. The 3rd army was created, but Horthy continued to bend his line - he began separate negotiations with the Anglo-Saxons and Moscow. Hitler deposed him, planting a faithful puppet - the leader of the local Nazis, Ferenc Salasi. Horthy and his family were taken to Germany, where they were kept under arrest. Part of the Hungarian military, outraged by such a rude intervention of the Reich, went over to the side of the USSR. But most of them continued to fight the Red Army. Together with the Wehrmacht, they participated in desperate battles - they defended Debrecen, and then Budapest, in March 1945 they fought in the last German counteroffensive near Lake Balaton. The remnants of the Hungarian armies surrendered to the Red Army in early April 1945 on the outskirts of the Austrian capital Vienna.
Ferenc Salasi in Budapest. October 1944.
After the war, Horthy was not prosecuted, although the Yugoslav government insisted on this and ended his interesting life in 1957 at the age of 88, living in Portugal. Hungary lost almost a million lives in this war, of which only a third was military. Salashi, Bardoshi, Werth were executed as war criminals.
Miklos Horthy, Regent of Hungary 1920-1944.
