Editing Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989)

In October 1956, fascist gangs began an uprising and lynched [[Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party|Communists]] and their supporters. Prime Minister [[Imre Nagy]] succumbed to right-wing pressure, leading to a Soviet intervention. [[Yuri Andropov]], [[Anastas Mikoyan]], [[Mikhail Suslov]], and [[Georgy Zhukov]] directed Soviet troops, and János Kádár took power as General Secretary.<ref name=":03" />

== Governance ==

Healthcare in pre-communist Hungary was of low quality, and the population suffered from poor health and low life-expectancy. However, after the establishment of the Hungarian People's Republic, healthcare conditions began to improve significantly. The US Federal Research Division reports:<blockquote>After the communist government assumed power in Hungary, it devoted much attention to meeting the specific health care and social security needs of the population. In comparison with pre-war standards, the average citizen received far better health care and social assistance as a result of the government's policy.</blockquote>The Encyclopedia Britannica notes:<blockquote>Following World War II, health care improved dramatically under state socialism, with significant increases in the number of physicians and hospital beds in Hungary. By the 1970s, free healthcare was guaranteed to every citizen.</blockquote>The social welfare system was also improved significantly, providing coverage to the vast majority of working people in Hungary. The US Federal Research Division notes:<blockquote>In the late 1980s, the country's pension system covered about 85 percent of the population falling within pensionable ages. Male workers could qualify for pensions at the age of sixty, female workers at the age of fifty-five.</blockquote>These advances are confirmed by the Encyclopedia Britannica:<blockquote>A broad range of social services was provided by the communist government, including child support, extensive maternity leave, and an old-age pension system for which men became eligible at age 60 and women at age 55.</blockquote>However, these improvements in social welfare came with a strange downside. As people began to live longer, and access to social welfare was expanded, the system was placed under more strain. The US Federal Research Division states:<blockquote>The number of pensioners had increased rapidly since the end of World War II as people lived longer and as pension coverage expanded to include additional segments of the population.</blockquote>In addition, various social ills, such as alcoholism, had begun to pose a problem for public health:<blockquote>In the mid-1980;s, the authorities were also discussing the growing incidence of substance abuse. The incidence of alcoholism had increased during the previous generation, and a high percentage of suicide victims were alcoholics. As of 1986, consumption of alcohol per person per year was 11.7 liters; consumption of hard liquor (4.8 liters per person) was the second highest in the world.</blockquote>To compound these issues, the Hungarian government spent a worryingly low percentage of GNP on healthcare:<blockquote>Western analysts estimated that Hungary spent only 3.3 percent of its gross countryal product specifically on health service (the 6 percent figure listed in most statistical data actually included some social services). This percentage was the lowest of any East European country except [[Romania]] (in comparison, the [[United States of America|United States]] spent 11 percent of GNP on health care).</blockquote>Despite these problems, the socialist system in Hungary objectively provided clear benefits to the people in terms of healthcare and social welfare. There are a number of important lessons that we can learn from the Hungarian experience:

# It is also essential that a socialist government should take steps to resolve social problems such as alcoholism and drug addiction, which contributed massively to declining health throughout the Eastern Bloc in the 1970s and 1980s. The importance of these issues can be seen by contrasting the Eastern Bloc with other socialist countrys, such as [[Cuba]], which does not have such widespread substance abuse issues, and which has seen steady and stable improvements in health outcomes for decades (even during the "special period" following the [[fall of the USSR]]).

Pre-communist Hungary had a highly elitist educational system, largely dominated by religious institutions. The US Federal Research Division reports:<blockquote>Before the communist assumption of power in 1947, religion was the primary influence on education... The social and material status of students strongly influenced the type and extent of schooling they received. Education above the elementary level was generally available only to the social elite of the country. In secondary and higher-level schools, a mere 5 percent of the students came from worker or peasant families. Only about 1 or 2 percent of all students entered higher education.</blockquote>However, after the Communists came to power, the educational system was drastically reformed. The Encyclopedia Britannica notes:<blockquote>All this changed after the communist takeover of Hungary following World War II. In 1948 schools were countryalized, and the elitist German style of education was replaced by a Soviet-style mass education, consisting of eight years of general school and four years of secondary education. The latter consisted of college-preparatory high schools that approximated the upper four years of the ''gimnázium'' as well as of the more numerous and diverse vocational schools (''technikumok'') that prepared students for technical colleges or universities but in most instances simply led directly to mid-level jobs.</blockquote>The educational system was greatly expanded. The US Federal Research Division states:<blockquote>Attendance at school was mandatory from age six to sixteen. All students attended general schools for at least eight years. Tuition was free for all students from age six up to the university level. Most students actually began their schooling at five years of age; in 1986 approximately 92 percent of all children of kindergarten age attended one of the country's 4,804 kindergartens. By 1980 every town and two-thirds of the villages had kindergartens. Parents paid a fee for preschool services that was based on income, but such institutions were heavily subsidized by the local councils or enterprises that sponsored them.</blockquote>These reforms succeeded in drastically expanding the educational standards throughout Hungary:<blockquote>By 1980 only 29 percent of males aged fifteen years or older and 38 percent of females aged fifteen years and older had not completed eight years of general school, compared with 78 percent of such males and 80 percent of such females in 1949. About half of the students who completed the general schools subsequently completed their education in two years, through vocational and technical training. The remaining students continued their studies in a four-year gymnasium or trade school.</blockquote>However, the system suffered from similar problems to the healthcare and social welfare systems. Specifically, it was underfunded; Hungary spent a very low percentage of GNP on education compared to other countrys, which resulted in shortages:<blockquote>Critics noted, among other things, that although [[Switzerland]] spent 18.8 percent of its countryal budget on education, [[Brazil]] 18.4 percent, and [[Japan]] 19.2 percent, Hungary allotted only 6.6 percent of its state budget to education. In the 1980s, the country experienced shortages of both classrooms and teachers, so that primary- school classes sometimes contained up to forty children. In many areas, schools had alternate morning and afternoon school shifts in order to stretch facilities and staff. Moreover, not all teachers received proper training.</blockquote>Thus, the major lesson that we can learn from the Hungarian People's Republic in his field is that education must be properly funded, in order to ensure that all people are able to access education of sufficient quality. It is essential that sufficient supplies be made available, as well as funding to hire and train sufficient staff.