Hungary had been on the losing side of World War I. After the announcement of punitive peace terms to be imposed on Hungary (which included the loss of 66 percent of Hungary's prewar territory) were announced in 1919, the postwar coalition government resigned. The reins of power fell to a Socialist-Communist coalition under Communist leader Bela Kun. Kun proceeded to establish a short-lived "Soviet Republic."
When the Kun regime collapsed following a Romanian invasion in June 1919, Admiral Miklos Horthy, who had been an officer in the Austro-Hungarian navy, came to power at the head of a conservative-nationalist coalition. This coalition undid most of the democratic reforms promulgated in Hungary immediately after World War I. Assuming the position of regent for the Habsburg king who would never return to Hungary, Horthy presided for the next 24 years over an authoritarian, almost feudal system of aristocratic rule, which nevertheless had a functioning parliament and permitted political opposition. Among those who opposed the conservative-aristocratic oligarchy were radical nationalists and fascists of middle-class and working-class origin. Many of these politicians called for more radical steps to be taken in "solving the Jewish Question."
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