Tibor Szamuely

Tibor Szamuely.

Tibor Szamuely (December 27, 1890 – August 2, 1919) was a Jewish Hungarian politician and journalist who was Deputy People's Commissar of War and People's Commissar of Public Education during the Hungarian Soviet Republic. He also participated in Communist activities in Soviet Russia and Imperial Germany.

Szamuely was an extremist in his views and his methods. In February 1919, as the communists in Budapest became prepared to rebel against the Social Democrat-Communist coalition government, he wrote in the pages of the Vörös Újság (Red News):

Everywhere counter-revolutionaries run about and swagger; beat them down! Beat their heads where you find them! If counter-revolutionaries were to gain the upper hand for even a single hour, there will be no mercy for any proletarian. Before they stifle the revolution, suffocate them in their own blood!

Szamuely stated in a speech delivered in Győr on April 20, 1919:

Power has fallen into our hands. Those who wish the old regime [the monarchy] to return, must be hung without mercy. We must bite the throat of such individuals. The victory of the Hungarian Proletariat has not cost us major sacrifices so far. But now the situation demands that blood must flow. We must not be afraid of blood. Blood is steel: it strengthens our hearts, it strengthens the fist of the Proletariat. Blood will make us powerful. Blood will lead us to the true world of the Commune. We will exterminate the entire bourgeoisie if we have to!

Szamuely became a participant in the Red Terror in Hungary. Szamuely's gangs became nicknamed the "Lenin Boys". The revolutionary tribunals executed between 370 and 587 of those in custody, and others have placed the number at 590.

After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, Szamuely fled and was said to have been killed by Austrian border guards or otherwise committed suicide.