AHC: Prolong the Hungarian Soviet Republic

The consensus on this board seems to be that the Hungarian Soviet Republic was doomed and that the only way it could have survived was if they were able to get foreign support, either from the Soviets or a successful German Communist revolution. What could they have done to prolong their existence to at least a full year if not longer?
 
The Hungarian Soviet Republic started falling apart after the Soviet capitulated to Clemenceau's ultimatum in mid-June, that entailed giving up all territories regained up till then in the impressively successful Slovakian campaign, in exchange for Romania vacating a large portion of land they had acquired and a ceasefire all across the front. This was a catastrophic error - though only in hindsight - and was single-handedly the greatest contributor to eroding the morale of the Hungarian Red Army as the soldiers lost all will to fight and were no longer a cohesive army after that, even those who didn't defect en masse. Without the benefit of hindsight, one could see why the Hungarian government accepted it - but as it turned out, the Entente and Romania immediately reneged on their promises and Romania invaded anyway.

Without Romania being attacked by the Soviets, there is really no way for the Soviet Republic to survive for a whole year. The Entente had every intention of extinguishing communism from all Eurasia. Having the government defy Clemenceau's ultimatum will probably lengthen the military resistance, but not for more than... three months, I'd say (the economic issues ravaging the country, simply as a result of being wartorn and blockaded, would probably have led to a general collapse in winter, I'm guessing). So we basically need to cheat - organize a massive general strike in France, enough to have the French divert resources that would have been used to supply an offensive into Hungary. Of course, the Soviet Republic also needs to stay defiant - there was actually a pretty sizable grassroots communist movement in the Soviet Republic, but most of the soldiers probably still fought partly or fully out of patriotic fervor, not so much communist internationalism. The Soviets then need to attack or at least seriously threaten Romania. This is going to be a bit harder, since the French were already giving up on Denikin in Ukraine by the end of April, 1919, which was pretty early during the Soviet Republic's life. If we move our aforementioned general strike to just after March 21 (perhaps inspired by news of the Hungarian revolution, French workers go on strike in solidarity? The strike can't happen before March 21 as the only reason the Soviet Republic could form the way it did is because the previous government surrendered power to the socialdemocratic-communist coalition after the French issued the "Vix-note" on the 20th - a move they would have delayed if there had been troubles on the home front), perhaps Denikin still gets a tiny bit less support and the Soviets can defeat Denikin and threaten Romania a bit sooner. At any rate, just find some way to handwave a credible Soviet threat that persuades Romania not to make any more moves against Hungary, and the Soviet Republic can limp along for a bit more, enough to sign ceasefires with all its neighbors. It's probably going to get overthrown eventually, though, unless Hungary can hold onto a secure line of supply to Soviet Russia through Carpatho-Ukraine - which also requires better Soviet performance in the Polish-Soviet War.
 
I once had a post on a surviving Hungarian Republic of Councils, but it was premised on help from Soviet Russia being available:


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What if Bela Kun's Hungarian "Republic of Councils" (i.e., soviets) had survived? For this to happen, I think that Soviet Russia has to score an earlier victory over the Whites than in OTL and then seize eastern Galicia (from the Poles) and Carpatho-Ruthenia (which in OTL was to become part of Czechoslovakia from 1919 to 1939) in order to establish a common boundary with Hungary. Without the Russians to help him, it is doubtful anything Bela Kun could have done would have stopped the Romanian offensive that destroyed his regime in OTL.

In order to dissuade the Western Allies from all-out military intervention on the side of the Romanians, let's say the Reds reluctantly agree to something like the Trianon borders of Hungary. What would be the effects on interwar European diplomacy of having Soviet power extending almost to Vienna? One of the arguments in favor of appeasement at Munich was that the USSR, lacking a common boundary with Czechoslovakia, really couldn't do anything to save it. That argument would not be available in this alternate TL--OTOH, fear of the USSR would be even greater, and that might make appeasement of Germany even more likely.

Assuming that things go pretty much as in OTL--except that Hungary does not begin to share in the division of Czechoslovakia until *after* the Hitler-Stalin pact--what happens in 1941? To what extent does Red Hungary slow down the progress of Barbarossa? And after the war, does it gain territory (or rather, keep the territory that Hitler had awarded it--southern Slovakia, parts of Transylvania, etc.) on the ground that it had been a "victim of fascist aggression" in 1941?

All this is assuming a number of other things: (1) The existence of Red Hungary would not be enough by itself to spark successful communist revolutions in Austria or elsewhere. (2) Apart from the fact that the USSR (specifically its Ukrainian SSR) would include Eastern Galicia and Carpatho-Ruthenia--though perhaps at least part of the latter might be given to Hungary--European national boundaries would remain about what they were in OTL. (Let's say that Poland would be strong enough to keep approximately OTL's boundaries in the Northeast, but not strong enough to reconquer Eastern Galicia; and Hungary would remain nominally independent instead of being incorporated outright into the USSR.)

Presumably Stalin's 1930's purges would extend to Hungary as they did to Outer Mongolia, and Bela Kun would be killed (which also happened in OTL when he was an exile in the USSR)--to be replaced by someone Stalin considered a more reliable puppet, like Rakosi.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/lBtygS9F6k8/PZ81JfuUFrYJ
 
Would the Hungarians not declaring a Slovak Soviet Republic, instead declaring some ambiguous proclamation of regional and national autonomy and federalism to be determined and worked out at a later date, go some way to helping them? As I understand it declaring the Slovak Soviet Republic alienated a lot of the Hungarian nationalists who made up a large part of their army. At the same time not declaring a separate Republic may end up alienating non-Magyar national minorities and make it harder for them to build support in Slovakia. Would it have been strategically better to pander to Hungarian nationalism?
 
In order to dissuade the Western Allies from all-out military intervention on the side of the Romanians, let's say the Reds reluctantly agree to something like the Trianon borders of Hungary.
Wasn't their legitimacy, support and raison d'etre based on maintaining Hungary's pre-war borders. I can't see them agreeing to such a treaty and surviving for long unless they can get some really big concessions.
 
Would the Hungarians not declaring a Slovak Soviet Republic, instead declaring some ambiguous proclamation of regional and national autonomy and federalism to be determined and worked out at a later date, go some way to helping them? As I understand it declaring the Slovak Soviet Republic alienated a lot of the Hungarian nationalists who made up a large part of their army. At the same time not declaring a separate Republic may end up alienating non-Magyar national minorities and make it harder for them to build support in Slovakia. Would it have been strategically better to pander to Hungarian nationalism?

As far as I know, it was already the idea that the Slovak Soviet Republic would immediately join Hungary in a socialist federation after the war, and the Red officers made this perfectly clear to the soldiers underneath them. It was withdrawing from Slovakia - making all of the soldiers' sacrifices pointless, from their perspective - that truly destroyed the support for the regime, not the proclamation of the Slovak SR, which everyone understood to be under Hungarian influence and control anyway. If you look at a list of the Slovakian socialist republic's commissars here - you may not understand Hungarian, but just by looking at the names, you will see how disproportionately many of them were Hungarians, and the de-facto head of government Janousek was a Czech - there weren't enough trained Slovak cadres to fill up all the slots.
 
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