Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

armed the workers, strove to win over the government troopsand organize the demobilized soldiers, staged armed demonstrations,led the workers in expelling their bosses and occupyingthe factories, led the agricultural workers in seizinglarge estates, disarmed the reactionary army officers, troopsand police, combined strikes with armed uprisings, and soforth.In fact, the Hungarian revolution abounded in armed struggleof various forms and on various scales. Bela Kun wrote:From the day of the founding of the Communist Partyto the taking of power, armed clashes with the organsof bourgeois power occurred with increasing frequency.Starting with December 12, 1918 when the armed Budapestgarrison came out into the streets in a demonstrationagainst the War Minister of the Provisional Government,. . . there was probably not a single day on which the pressfailed to report sanguinary clashes between the revolutionaryworkers and soldiers and armed units of the governmentforces, and in particular of the police. The Communistsorganized numerous uprisings not only in Budapestbut in the provinces as well. 1The leaders of the CPSU are telling a glaring lie when theysay that the Hungarian Revolution was an example of peacefultransition.It is alleged in the Soviet press that the Hungarian bourgeoisgovernment “voluntarily resigned”, 2 and this is probablythe only ground the leaders of the CPSU base themselves on.But what were the facts?Karolyi, the head of the Hungarian bourgeois governmentat the time, was quite explicit on this point. He declared:I signed a proclamation concerning my own resignationand the transfer of power to the proletariat, which in reality1Ibid., p. 57.2“How the World Revolutionary Process Is Developing”, SovietskayaRossia, August 1, 1963.379