Agency profile: Hungary | Logs
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(Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2000 12:20:10 +0200 (CEST)
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Agency profile: Hungary | Logs
Index | NS NL Home
| Sources: | Federation of American Scientists |
| Library of Congress Country Studies |
National Police ("Rendorseg")
The public police forces performed routine police duties throughout the country. Although they operated within local jurisdictions, they were centrally organized and controlled by the Ministry of Interior.
Security Police
In the late 1980s, Hungary's 15,000 member Security Police was controlled by the Ministry of Interior. However, unique among Warsaw Pact countries, Hungary lacked a uniformed security police force. Such a force --the AVH-- had existed but was disbanded in October 1956. Given the vehemence with which the public hated the AVH and associated it with the Stalinist terror, the Kadar regime saw fit not to revive it, even under a different name. Nevertheless, until the late 1980s the Security Police continued to harass and arrest those persons deemed to be political enemies.
Border Guard ("Hatarorseg")
In 1989 Hungary's Border Guard numbered 16,000, operating in eleven districts. Conscripts totaled 11,000, or nearly 70 percent of the total. Although nominally controlled by the HPA, the Border Guard Headquarters of the Ministry of Interior took orders from both the party Basic Organization in the ministry and the Government Administration and Administrative Department of the HSWP's Secretariat (HSWP= Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party). The Border Guard Command was established in 1946 and reorganized in 1950.
Workers' Guard ("Munkasorseg")
The Workers' Guard, a paramilitary organization directly controlled by the HSWP, claimed to have 60,000 members in 1988. Its mission was officially limited to protecting the population and state property in times of war or unrest. In fact, the Workers' Guard assisted the National Police and army during events that required crowd control. The guard wore its own distinctive steel-gray uniform. Directly controlled by a permanent department of the HSWP's Central Committee, the Workers' Guard was, in effect, the party's private army, and the overwhelming majority of the guard were party members. Founded in 1957 shortly after the revolution, this organization became the chief protector of the newly formed Kadar regime.
State security orginizations
Allamvedelmi Osztaly-AVO ("State Security Department")
Allamvedelmi Hatosag-AVH ("State Security Authority")
Following World War II, Hungary faced the challenge of choosing a new government. In November of 1945, general elections were held and the Small-Farmers Party, won 57 percent of the vote, with the communists winning only 17 percent. Dr. Zoltan Tildy was named the President, and Dr. Ferenc Nagy was named Prime Minister, both came from the Small-Farmers Party, Matyas Rakosi, a communist, was named the Deputy Prime Minister. Rakosi was born as Matyas Rosenfeld, who - in order to hide his Jewish origin - changed his name to Rakosi in 1904. POW in the 1.WW in the USSR, where he became acquainted Lenin's ideas, learned Russian (and probably received other kind of traning, as well). After returning to Hungary he works in the illegal Communist Party as an "agitator" - i.e. agent - and serves prison for his activities.
The Red Army still occupied Hungary, and the communist wanted complete control of the Government, so they created the AVO (Allamvedelmi Osztaly), which served as the communists' secret police, it was controlled by Soviet advisors, and G ?bor Peter was named Director. Peter was a Jewish tailor and former NKVD agent. Peter began a series of Stalinesque purges to cut away the foundation of the Small-Farmers Party. The AVO arrested the most outspoken critics of the communists, accusing them of Fascist coercion and of wartime collaboration with the Fascists. Thousands of loyal communists were dragged into Peter's office (in Budapest, at Andrassy Str.60) and systematically tortured and killed.
On Oct. 23, 1956, students from the Universities took to the streets of Budapest, a quarter of a million people from Budapest joined them. In order to read a proclamation via the Radio Budapest, a crowd gathered at the station's downtown studio (Brody S. Str.5-7). Around 9 p.m. that evening, members of the AVH (AVO's uniformed successor) who guarded the studio, lost patience, shot into the crowd and killed several protesters. The infuriated crowd acquired guns and hand grenades, attacked the studio's building and took bloody revenge on the remaining AVH guards. The shooting was heard in the radio country-wide - until the crying announcer could continue the program. Finally, the transmission was ended with classical music, as no other programs -records- were left available. Over the next several hours, the protesters gathered weapons from sympathizers in the military and police.
A couple of days later, the Red Army began their assault on Budapest with tanks, artillery and foot soldiers.
| Sources: | 1995 CXXV.tv National security services |
| 94/1998 XII.29 OGY Security and defence principles of the Hungarian Republic |
The principles of the security- and defence politics of the Hungarian Republic were laid down in the doctrine of 1995, CXXV, which is ratified by the Parliament in the 94/1998 -XII.29- decree (that became effective on the day of the NATO membership of the country).
According to the above documents, the security services of the Hungarian Republic are:
Note: "Hivatal" translates to "Office". However, the word "Agency" is a better description.
A, B, and E are supervised by the Minister of "security services"; C and D are -due to the nature of their activities- controlled by the Defence Minister.
The main tasks of this Agency are:
This Agency was established 10 years ago. The NBH-Yearbook of 1999-2000 (the first one of its kind) provides details about the goals and task the Agency is trusted with, organigrammes, financial details of the budget, educational details of the staff, addresses, phone and fax numbers and email address of the county offices.
The Agency has the following tasks :
The organization of the Agency :
County offices
The main office of the NSA is at Budapest (tel /fax : 36 1 318-9822, 318-9928,318-9982. E-mail: nbh@mail.matav.hu home page: http://www.nbh.hu), with local offices in the 19 counties.
This Agency is responsible for the following :
The organization of the Agency :
The tasks of the Agency are the same or very similar to those listed above at the other Agencies. However, the MSA performs additional security duties at the defence-related research, development and manufacturing activities within the Ministry of Defence, or the Armed Forces.
This agency provides technical -support, logistics and expert- services for the other secret Agencies. This includes the supply of special devices and materials for secret intelligence gathering operations, establishing special telecommunication for users appointed by the Government, safeguarding security documents.
An important limitation on the activity is that this agency must not conduct any investigation, surveillance or intelligence gathering work independently.
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