ABSTRACT
Like in many East-Central European countries, the brief period of parliamentary republicanism following World War II ended with the seizing of power by a communist party (the Hungarian Workers’ Party) with the support of the Soviet Union. The single-party system began to form in 1948 and aimed to reorganize society according to Marxist-Leninist principles within a framework of political internationalism. While those in power between the two World Wars established their rule on the restriction of rights (e.g., Jewish laws), 1 the communist powers in theory declared the execution of an egalitarian society, where equality became a policy for which the working class, the co-operative peasantry and their allies in the intelligentsia would form a foundation. However, what ended up happening was that the anti-egalitarian nationalism that had gained strength between the World Wars persisted in the new political framework. State policy in Hungary based on differentiation received new content and form, and thereby a definitive role was played not by the restriction of the rights of Jews, but by prejudices and social/political passions toward the Gypsies, who were the biggest minority in the eyes of the “majority.”
