Tibor Szamuely (December 27, 1890 – August 2, 1919) was a Hungarian politician and journalist who was Deputy People's Commissar of War and People's Commissar of Public Education during the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
Early life
Born in Nyíregyháza, in northeastern Hungary, Szamuely was the oldest son of five children of a Jewish family. After completing his university studies he became a journalist, and started his political activities as a member of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party.
Political career
Szamuely was drafted and fought as a soldier during World War I; in 1915, he was captured by Russia. After the Russian October Revolution in 1917, he was released. By then, Szamuely had become interested in communism. In Moscow, he organised a communist group together with Béla Kun among the Hungarian prisoners of war. Many of them, including Szamuely and Kun, joined the Soviet Red Army and fought in the Russian Civil War.
In January 1918, he resided in Moscow, where he worked with Kun to organize Hungarian prisoners of war who supported the Russian Revolution. He was also a member of the Central Committee, responsible for the management of war prisoners. On March 24, he was appointed political deputy of the Communist group of Hungarian war prisoners. Between April 14 and 18, during the sessions, he participated in the meeting of the deputies. From April 3, 1918, he published a communist newspaper, Socialist Revolution, with Béla Kun. Many Hungarian war prisoners refused to join the Russian Red Guard, despite his efforts. Several Hungarian officers were executed in Russia as a result.
Szamuely later went to Germany and in December 1918, he participated in the formation of the Spartacist League, with Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. He returned to Budapest on January 3, 1919. He became a member of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party and joined the editing of the Red Paper. On February 20, he went into exile but continued his activities in the exiled Central Committee, such as participation in the organisation in the party's paramilitary.
Szamuely was an extremist in his views and his methods. In February 1919, as the communists in Budapest became prepared to rebel against the Social Democrat-Communist coalition government, he wrote in the pages of the Vörös Újság (Red News): "Everywhere counter-revolutionaries run about and swagger; beat them down! Beat their heads where you find them! If counter-revolutionaries were to gain the upper hand for even a single hour, there will be no mercy for any proletarian. Before they stifle the revolution, suffocate them in their own blood!"
On March 21, 1919, a coup by the communist members of the coalition government established the Hungarian Soviet Republic, under the leadership of Béla Kun. Szamuely became a prominent politician of the new government. He occupied a number of posts, but he then was made People's Commissar for Military Affairs. He became a figure of the so-called "Red Terror" of Hungary. Szamuely's guards became nicknamed the "Lenin Boys" or "Lenin Youth". They were an element in the heightened political tension and suppression of counterrevolutionaries and anti-communists. The Lenin Boys' activities were sometimes aligned with another paramilitary, the Red Guard, led by József Cserny, in which, on an armoured train they travelled the country.
The foundation for the suppression was given as following by Szamuely in a speech delivered in Győr on April 20, 1919: "Power has fallen into our hands. Those who wish the old regime to return, must be hung without mercy. We must bite the throat of such individuals. The victory of the Hungarian Proletariat has not cost us major sacrifices so far. But now the situation demands that blood must flow. We must not be afraid of blood. Blood is steel: it strengthens our hearts, it strengthens the fist of the Proletariat. Blood will make us powerful. Blood will lead us to the true world of the Commune. We will exterminate the entire bourgeoisie if we have to!"
The revolutionary tribunals executed between 370 and 587 of those in custody, and others have placed the number at 590.