WI: Stalin wants to move Hungary west

BigBlueBox

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Shortly before the Yalta Conference, Stalin decides that Hungary should be shifted west. The Vienna Awards would be revoked and Hungary would receive the Burgenland in compensation. The Burgenland would be ethnically cleansed of Austrians and resettled with the Hungarians from Czechoslovakia and Romania. Do the Western Allies accept the proposal? What effect does this have if it goes through?
 
The problem is that the Allies had all agreed that Austria should be treated as a victim rather a perpetrator of Axis aggression. A questionable decision, to be sure, but once made it meant that it would be incongruous for Austria to lose lands to Hungary which had been an Axis power and (unlike Romania) had never managed to switch sides. As for revoking the Vienna Awards, that was done in any event.
 
Is this accompanied by an expulsion of ethnic Hungarians from within Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia, and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe parallel to the expulsion of Germans from roughly the same region?
 
Is this accompanied by an expulsion of ethnic Hungarians from within Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia, and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe parallel to the expulsion of Germans from roughly the same region?

Well, the Burgenland is a small area with a small population--the least populous state of Austria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgenland There is just no way it could absorb a massive expulsion of Hungarians from neighboring east-central European countries. Stalin in any event was opposed to any such explulsion, at least once Hungary became safely established as a "people's republic." Indeed, he even pressured Romania to establish a Magyar autonomous region.

Really, changing the Burgenland's status just wouldn't be worth it--especially since in early 1945 Stalin may well have believed that he would end up dominating Austria. For a while the Soviets even seemed to be open to Austria getting South Tyrol/Alto Adige until the very poor showing of the Communists in the November 1945 Austrian elections settled that question… https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...urn-south-tyrol-alto-adige-to-austria.397862/
 
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Well, the Burgenland is a small area with a small population--the least populous state of Austria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgenland There is just no way it could absorb a massive expulsion of Hungarians from neighboring east-central European countries. Stalin in any event was opposed to any such explulsion, at least once Hungary became safely established as a "people's republic." Indeed, he even pressured Romania to establish a Magyar autonomous region.

In any event, I see that the OP actually did specify such an ethnic cleansing.

Well... that's probably way, way too many Magyars to be easily absorbed by postwar Hungary, even with the addition of Burgenland. In such a scenario, you would probably see a wave of Hungarian immigration to the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere that absolutely dwarfes the exodus after the failed 1956 revolution in our timeline, though it would not be the same set of Hungarians.
 
In any event, I see that the OP actually did specify such an ethnic cleansing.

Well... that's probably way, way too many Magyars to be easily absorbed by postwar Hungary, even with the addition of Burgenland. In such a scenario, you would probably see a wave of Hungarian immigration to the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere that absolutely dwarfes the exodus after the failed 1956 revolution in our timeline, though it would not be the same set of Hungarians.
3.3 million Hungarians were left outside Hungary post-Trianon. I think that if there's any chance of anything like this possibly happening, Hungary would have to annex the whole Soviet occupation zone in Austria (and all of Vienna). Even that would only be just enough.
 
If Stalin keeps that bit of Austria in the Soviet zone they could 'reunify' them and fill it with Hungarians while leaving the Austrians who are there, there, but also they'll be a minority, after the cold war ends, Austria never reunites.
 
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