Államvédelmi Hatóság Details, Meaning Államvédelmi Hatóság Article and Explanation Guide

Államvédelmi Hatóság Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Államvédelmi Hatóság or ÁVH (State Protection Authority) was the national security department of Hungary after the World War II. It became very similar to the KGB and other communist secret services.

This is a summary term for the Political police forces between 1945 and 1956. The list of forces:

1945, Budapest Police Main Command Political Dept., (Budapesti Főkapitányság Politikai Rendészeti Osztálya)
1946, Hungarian State Police State Protection Dept., (Magyar Államrendőrség Államvédelmi Osztálya, ÁVO)
1950, State Protection Authority, (Államvédelmi Hatóság, ÁVH)
1956, the authority was officially cancelled, but the methods were used by several, unnamed governmental or communist entities. Hungary would go on to be the only Warsaw Pact country without an intelligence service.

They supported the Communist Party with secret or illegal wiretappings and investigations, ran several prisons and concentration camps, and assisted in several political court cases, notably those of László Rajk and József Mindszenty.

Table of contents

1 The ÁVH in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
2 House of Terror
3 An old joke
4 External links

The ÁVH in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

When Hungarians rose up against their government in 1956, one of the first things they did was hunt down and kill known and suspected ÁVH officers and informants.

When the Revolution began, a mob thousands strong attacked the police headquarters in Budapest, chanting "tear down the star!" and "free the prisoners!", a reference to the enormous red star that stood on the building's roof and the many prisoners kept inside. Fearing for the lives of both himself and his officers, the chief of police let the mob into the building, allowing them to take any political prisoners they wanted.

A Western eyewitness said:

"The secret police lie twisted in the gutter [...] the Hungarians will not touch the corpse of an ÁVH man, not even to close the eyes or straighten the neck."

Mobs who had just lynched ÁVH officers would often throw Party paybooks on to the corpses to show their disdain for both the Party and the ÁVH.

Almost unsurprisingly, when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to support the government, ÁVH officers carried out brutal reprisals against those who had killed their comrades.