Chapter 85: Black History
Chapter 85: Black History
Budapest, ever since the Austrian army had laid siege to the city, the city was on edge, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the new government still had illusions about the Kingdom of Sardinia as an ally, many people would be running for the hills right now.
Of course, those who did not run away are also preparing to run away. The city of Budapest is not small, in order to prevent the enemy from jumping over the wall, the Bohemian Legion strictly enforces the siege of three short of one.
A few people want to run away is still very easy, as long as it is not a large force out of the city, the Austrian army is not easy to notice.
Gorgay, the Minister of War of the Republic of Hungary, said with difficulty, “Mr. Kosut, just received information that the gang of traitors in Croatia is going to join up with the Austrians outside the city tomorrow.
By then, the number of enemy troops surrounding the city will rise to 150,000, and Budapest will soon be untenable!”
“General Gorgay is right, Budapest simply cannot hold the enemy’s army, this revolution has already failed. In order to recoup as much damage as possible and preserve Hungary, I propose peace talks with the Vienna government!” Minister of the Interior Schemil spoke up
With the military defeat, the Hungarian reactionary has begun to raise its head.
The bourgeois aristocrats, led by Schemil, and the military compromisers, led by Görgyi, attempted to preserve their interests by negotiating with the Austrian government.
This was undoubtedly bad news for Kossuth, who, long before the siege of the city by the Bohemian Legion, had advocated taking the initiative while the enemy had not yet gained a firm foothold, but unfortunately was opposed by the military.
Now the enemy was busy outside the city fighting the landlords and distributing the land, relying on the liberation of serfs and distribution of land, the Austrian army had reaped the support of the local population.
On the contrary, the Republic of Hungary was hostile to the local people. In the minds of the common people, the Emperor far away in Vienna was their protector, while the Hungarian government in Budapest was only a tool for the aristocrats and capitalists to oppress them.
The Minister of Education, Petőfi, hastily objected: “No, Hungary will be divided if peace talks are held with Austria now. The government in Vienna is plotting to divide Hungary, and then all we will have left is a province!
Even this one province, we have no autonomy. How can the Vienna government make a compromise when it has the upper hand?”
Compromise, in fact the revolutionaries didn’t mind compromising with the Vienna government, it’s just that the difference in conditions between the two sides was just too great.
The Austrian government, headed by Franz, was prepared to divide Hungary into five provinces: Croatia, Slavonia, Vojvodina, Transylvania, and Hungary.
It is no secret that Croatia and Transylvania have already been established as independent provinces, and the provincial governments of Slavonia and Vojvodina are in the process of preparation.
Once this plan succeeds, the Kingdom of Hungary becomes history, and because of their ethnicity, they will only have the only remaining Hungarian province if they want to be independent again, and this is several times more difficult.
Shemil asked rhetorically, “Mr. Pedrofi, but the reality of the problem is that we simply can’t win the war!
If we don’t negotiate with the Austrian government, then I’m afraid that the end result will be even worse and they will turn Hungary into history.
In the course of history, disappeared peoples have disappeared for untold millions of years, and you don’t want to see the Hungarian nation disappear, do you?”
Kossuth said excitedly, “The great Hungarian nation will not disappear, history will prove that the enemy’s machinations are futile, as long as we persevere, we will surely win!
In order to win this war, I have invited the famous Polish general, Henrik Dembinski, and I believe that we can definitely win this war!”
Shemir’s face sank without saying anything, even though he hated that Kosut was moving into a speech, the ones who were in power now were still the revolutionaries, and he didn’t intend to directly clash with them.
The war had reached this point, how could it be changed by the power of an individual?
They dared to establish the Hungarian Republic independently, and that was because at that time Hungary was a whole, while the Austrian Empire was already faltering, and the reform measures of the government in Vienna, offended their interests.
Who knows that only a short time after the independence, the Austrian domestic stabilized, Hungary on the contrary, in the political offensive of the Vienna government in tatters, the two sides of the strength of the contrast has been a shocking change.
No one is a fool, in addition to the revolutionary party this group of barefoot, the rest of the people are thinking about the way back. The Vienna government did not treat the rebels with the slightest bit of softness this time, and who among them with a family and a job would be willing to fight for their lives?
……
What the bigwigs thought was of no concern to the underclass of Budapest. They are worried about three meals a day, since the Austrian army siege of the city, Budapest and the outside world’s material transportation channel has been cut off.
Hungary is the main food producer in Europe, Budapest is surrounded by farmland, there is no shortage of food in the city.
Unfortunately, prices can’t help but skyrocket! Don’t talk to the capitalists about the big picture, there are plenty of people who want money but not their lives, and at this time of crisis, what they want is not to ride out the storm together, but to take advantage of the fire.
The cheapest black bread, for example, has risen by fifty-eight percent since before the revolution, and the price of coal for cooking has risen by one hundred percent.
In order to save fuel, many families are forced to cook together. Even so, the rising prices are making it difficult for them to make ends meet.
To make matters worse, the Hungarian republican government issued republican coins and restoration vouchers to plunder the wealth of the people.
Since the establishment of the Hungarian Republic, the people of the city of Budapest had not had a few days of comfort. How can a nation, a state, and freedom be worth three meals a day?
On April 18, 1848, a workers’ movement broke out in Budapest. Hungry workers and poor citizens took to the streets to demand that the government calm prices, punish traders for price gouging, enforce the Labor Protection Act, and solve the unemployment problem.
The Hungarian Republican Government, as the spokesman of the bourgeoisie, naturally paid no attention to their demands, and the Kossuth Government was the first to carry out a brutal suppression.
On April 23, 1848, the Austrian bill to abolish serfdom reached Hungary, and the small Körösz serfs, who could not bear to be exploited and oppressed, rioted, and the insurrectionary army attacked the manor house, killed the overseer, and divided up the land.
The uprising soon spread to the Danube, which frightened the Hungarian nobles, who looked to Vienna and Budapest for help.
Undoubtedly, the Austrian government, which wanted to suppress the Hungarian nobility, refused on the grounds that it was beyond its reach. The Kossuth government once again stood against the people in order to win the support of the nobles.
After the suppression of the labor movement, the Hungarian Republican Government gained the support of the capitalists and the nobles, and the cohesion of the Hungarian nation rose, while at the same time completing the break with the lower classes.
The suppression of the labor-peasant movement by the bourgeois government in 1848 is real history, not the author’s own. As to why the bourgeoisie did this and did not buy the hearts and minds of the people, this question the author can only attribute to greed.
(End of chapter)