Original article, by Alan Woods (written in 1979), via In Defence of Marxism:
On March 21st, 1919, the Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed. On the 1st of August, 133 days later, this heroic chapter in the history of the Hungarian working class was brought to a close with the entry of the White Rumanian army into Budapest. Had the Hungarian proletariat succeeded, the isolation of the Russian Workers' Republic would have been brought to an end.
A show of virtual hands now: How many had honestly heard of the Hungarian Soviet Republic before? Mind you, not Hungary after they fell into the Soviet Union's bloc after WW II, but the HSR which was proclaimed in the aftermath of WW I? Any?
The brief experience of the Bavarian Soviet Republic which lasted from April 7th until May 1st 1919 was an indication that the flood-tide of revolution was spreading from East to West with what seemed at the time an irresistible urge. Had the Hungarian workers' state managed to consolidate itself for just a few months longer, the flames of revolution would have engulfed Vienna and Berlin, where the working class was already in a state of revolutionary ferment.
Imagine a Socialist Revolution throughout the whole of Europe! This would have been a revolution of a non-Stalinist type. Stalinism was probably a plan in the back of Stalin's mind at the time, but it hadn't been implemented. How would history look if such a widespread revolution had been successful? Of course, it wasn't in the long term, and we ended up with Stalinism being a byword for Socialism.
Nevertheless, from a study of the causes of its failure, the Hungarian Soviet Republic half a century later can help us to enrich our knowledge of the processes whereby the socialist transformation of society is brought about, in order better to equip ourselves for the struggle for socialism today.
Here's the key point, and you don't even have to have any socialist tendencies to understand it. We are in the midst of a major upheaval of the social and economic landscape. If we study and understand the failures of past attempts to harness that change, we may not make the same mistakes which were made at the time. Whatever path we choose to stand up for, there are lessons we can learn from the Hungarian revolution of 1919.
I'll let you read the rest of Woods' article. It's a good one, and worth reading if only for the historical context. I will point out that there is a very interesting, and I think quite relevant portion of his text which should be read by all:
Alarmed at the rapid growth of the CP which threatened to undermine their increasingly tenuous hold on organised labour, the Social Democratic leaders started a scare campaign against the "Russian" Bolsheviks and "splitters" and "counter-revolution from the left". Like the Russian Mensheviks, the Hungarian SDP leaders did not consider Hungary "ripe" for a socialist revolution.
They based themselves on the idea of a lengthy evolutionary process in which, peacefully, gradually, without sudden upheavals, Hungary would pass, firstly through a long period of bourgeois democracy and then, perhaps after 50 or 100 years, Hungarian society would be "ready" for socialism.
Unfortunately for the ideologies of gradualism, the current of events was moving swiftly in the opposite direction. Seeing the failure of the bourgeois democracy to deal with any of their pressing problems, the masses took to direct action. There was a wave of factory occupations.
The ideologies of gradualism. You know, the same one's that say no single payer today but somewhere in the future. The same one's that tell you that yes, change is coming, but not nearly as fast as you think is needed. These ideologies are the type adapted by centrists who want to harness any revolutionary fervor of the masses while co-opting said Masses toward the status quo. Established national parties tend toward ideologies of gradualism (well, at least those who would seem to be supporters of change toward the left), as we in the US well know.
So, read the article. Take from it any lessons you may have learned. Add said lessons to your political toolbox should some similar circumstance arise. You don't even have to be a socialist to do so!