Badges of the Great War in the 1919 Hungarian Commune

At the end of the Great War, after the collapse, hundreds of thousands of Hungarian soldiers returned home. After the lost war, Hungary’s neighbors, including former “comrades”, also set off on their conquest of Hungary, stimulated and equipped by the Entente. Unfortunately, the incompetent Hungarian government, which trusted the Entente promises of armistice, was busy with disarmament and did not deploy an adequate force to stop the invaders. The main force of the Hungarian resistance was the Székely Division. This unit successfully slowed the Romanian advance, but the multiple superiority of forces pushed them back from the borders of Transylvania to the edge of the Hungarian Great Plain in the early spring of 1919. After the communist takeover, there was an effort to develop the Hungarian military. This process was hindered by the fact that the political and military leadership of the Commune violently forced the ideological transformation of the military. Many volunteers were unwilling to do this, so the number of experienced, battle-tested crews hardly increased, but rather decreased. The recruitment was mainly carried out with ideologically motivated, but inexperienced urban citizens, workers, which meant a deterioration in quality compared to previous conditions.

The soldiers of the resistance teams of late 1918 and early 1919 who had served on the fronts were happy to wear their World War I Kappenabzeichen. In many cases, these badges were even retained in the Commune’s forces. Although the rank insignia and cap cocades were removed or replaced with a red star, the insignia reminiscent of wartime merits remained. In the photo attached to the entry, the soldiers of the Commune are wearing the badge of the assault troops of the 51st Honvéd Division. I have previously presented this insignia here.