In regard to the first question (namely, the political, intellectual, and cultural significance and legacy of the 1919 Hungarian Republic of Councils), in this brief commentary I will discuss the Republic of Councils as a system that operated to foster utopias (although, according to those shaping public opinion at the time, this was realised only much later), and look at it in its political and cultural context.
Both before and after the establishment of the Republic of Councils, political groups participating in the dictatorship published works on the kind of world order they intended to create in the long term. The Hungarian Social Democrats had published August Bebel’s book Woman and Socialism in several Hungarian-language editions prior to March 21, 1919; during the tenure of the Republic of Councils this work was put in print by the new, united party’s book publishing office. The book postulated, among other things, that...
