The Világosság Socialist Emigrant Group (Hungarian : Világosság Szocialista Emigráns Csoport) was a Hungarian socialist organization, founded in 1920. [1] The centre of the organization was based in Austria, its founders were mainly former members of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP) who had been forced into exile after the crushing of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. [1] The organization published the monthly Világosság ('Clarity') from 1923 to 1933 in Vienna. [1]
Hungarian is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary it is also spoken by communities of Hungarians in the countries that today make up Slovakia, western Ukraine (Subcarpathia), central and western Romania (Transylvania), northern Serbia (Vojvodina), northern Croatia and northern Slovenia. It is also spoken by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America and Israel. Like Finnish and Estonian, Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family. With 13 million speakers, it is the family's largest member by number of speakers.
Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Austria to the northwest, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, and Slovenia to the west. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a medium-sized member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken Uralic language in the world, and among the few non-Indo-European languages to be widely spoken in Europe. Hungary's capital and largest city is Budapest; other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr.
Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi), a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.
Sándor Garbai, Antal Dovcsák and Vilmos Böhm were chairmen of the group. [1] Zsigmond Kunfi was the secretary of the organization from 1920 until his suicide in 1929. [1] From 1929 onwards Zoltán Rónai served as the secretary of the organization. [1]
Sándor Garbai was a Hungarian socialist politician.
Antal Dovcsák was a Hungarian politician.
Vilmos Böhm or Wilhelm Böhm was a Hungarian Social Democrat and Hungary's ambassador to Sweden after World War II. He was born in a middle class Jewish family, his father was Lipót Böhm and Rozália Rosenzweig, his mother. After graduation from vocational secondary school, he became a mechanist. Böhm was fluent German speaker since his early childhood. During 1900s he worked as a technical officer. On 26 December 1905, he married with Mária Steiner, who was also of Israelite religion, daughter of Ignác Steiner and Franciska Schwarz. He joined the labor movement as a young worker and became secretary of the National Federation of Iron and Metal Workers. In 1911 he was elected to the Trade Union Council. He belonged to the center of MSZDP. During the First World War he achieved rank as a lieutenant. In 1918 he was arrested during the general strike. Böhm was actively involved in the Aster Revolution of 1918, and in January 1919 he became Minister of Defense in the Berinkey Government. As Secretary of State, he invited the war hero Aurél Stromfeld to the military chief of staff. He actively participated in the unification congress of the Social Democrat Party and the Communist party. In April Böhm became the commander-in-chief of the Red Army. In May 1919 he resigned, but his resignation was not accepted by government. Böhm remained a member. In July 1919, he was appointed to a position of Viennese ambassador. He is supposedly mentioned in the Venona telegrams as an information source of the soviets during the war. After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet republic, he was forced to emigrate and became the leader of a group of emigrant social democrats, together with Zsigmond Kunfi and Sándor Garbai.
The group was in close contact with the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria (SDAPÖ). It took part in founding the Vienna International (the 2½ International) in 1921. Its relations with MSZDP were not that good, the Világosság repeatedly criticized the moderate leadership of the MSZDP. Világosság was supportive of the leftist opposition within MSZDP that emerged in 1922. It refused to cooperate with the communists, though. [1] The group supported the founding of the Socialist Workers Party of Hungary. [2] [3]
The Socialist Workers Party of Hungary was a political party in Hungary. The party was founded by social democrats and communists in 1925, and led by István Vági. Unlike the established Hungarian Social Democratic Party, the Socialist Workers Party sought to mobilize mass movements and agrarian struggles.
After the defeat of the February Uprising in Austria in 1934, the group continued its activities in France and other countries. The group retained the name Világosság. [1]
The Austrian Civil War, also known as the February Uprising, is a term sometimes used for a few days of skirmishes between Fascist and Socialist forces between 12 February and 16 February 1934, in Austria. The clashes started in Linz and took place principally in the cities of Vienna, Graz, Bruck an der Mur, Judenburg, Wiener Neustadt and Steyr, but also in some other industrial cities of eastern and central Austria.
France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.
The Világosság organization was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. [1] Vilmos Böhm represented the organization in the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International from August 1931 to 1940, being a member with consultative voice. [4]
The Labour and Socialist International was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a merger of the rival Vienna International and the former Second International, based in London, and was the forerunner of the present-day Socialist International.
