Revolution in Perspective: Essays on the Hungarian Soviet Republic

Revolution in Perspective: Essays on the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, edited by Andrew C. Janos and William B. Slottman, brings together a distinguished group of scholars to reassess one of modern Europe’s most enigmatic revolutions. Arising in the tumultuous aftermath of World War I, the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic lasted just 133 days, yet its legacy continues to spark debate. This collection, the outcome of a landmark Berkeley conference, approaches the 1919 regime not as an isolated Hungarian episode but as part of broader patterns of political collapse, social mobilization, and revolutionary ferment across Central and Eastern Europe. Essays examine the breakdown of oligarchic politics before 1918, the coalition between Socialists and Communists, agrarian dissent, Romania’s and Austria’s reactions, and the movement’s ties to international communism.

By weaving together domestic, regional, and transnational perspectives, the volume illuminates the complexities of coalition politics, the limits of revolutionary legitimacy, and the shifting ideological currents of the European Left. Rather than offering a single interpretation, the essays highlight tensions between local circumstances and global revolutionary aspirations, situating Hungary’s upheaval within the larger story of twentieth-century communism and nation-state formation. Revolution in Perspective thus serves both as a case study in the fragility of post-imperial societies and as a critical intervention in comparative revolutionary history―indispensable for scholars of Eastern Europe, socialism, and the contested legacies of 1919.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1971.