Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
From the Liberation to Greater Budapest (1945-1950)
Budapest consequently became the scene of a bitter struggle lasting 49 days. The population lived through the siege in terrible privation, in cellars and shelters. Small Hungarian units such as the members of the Volunteer Regiment of Buda, and dispersed, isolated groups also took part in the battle against the Nazis. The storm of war finally swept away the counter-revolutionary regime, and a new chapter opened in the history of Budapest. From the Liberation to Greater Budapest (1945-1950) (Selection of documents covering the period: XXVI-XXX) The liberation of Budapest by the Soviet Army took seven weeks of heavy fighting. On the left bank of the Danube the fighting ended on 18th January with the capture of Pest, but on the right bank, in Buda, the last remnants of the encircled fascist German and Hungarian troops only surrendered on 13th February. During that seven-week siege fought from street to street, Budapest became a city of ruins. The census of 25th March 1945 only found 832,800 inhabitants in the capital as against 1,379,562 in 1944. Most of the missing five hundred thousand persons were victims of deportation, the Nazi and Arrow-Cross terror, the famine during the siege, and the bombing. The extent of the material damage sulfered by Budapest can be gauged by the fact that only 10,000 buildings out of 40,000 remained intact, entire districts—the Buda Castle District and its surroundings—and rows of streets were obliterated, debris of approximately one and a half million cubic metres covered the city. All the Danube bridges had been destroyed and the city was completely cut into two; traffic in the streets was paralysed, public utilities were not functioning, there was no electricity or gas, and scarcely any water came from the taps. The cold, semi-starving people on coming out from the cellars and shelters saw before them the ruins of a great city. Most of the Arrow-Cross leaders of Budapest fled westwards with the retreating German and Hungarian troops, and the burning, half-destroyed Town Hall was occupied by troops of the Soviet Army on 18th January. The Beginnings of Reconstruction The task of reviving and restoring the city fell to the National Committee of Budapest. In the final days of the siege, Communist Party leaders living underground in Pest contacted the leaders of the Hungarian Front parties established during the German occupation, also hiding in the capital, and in the first days of the liberation of Pest, on 21st January, they officially formed the National Committee of Budapest. The Committee was made up of the representatives of the Hungarian Communist Party and delegates of the Social Democratic Party, the Independent Smallholders’ Party, the National Peasant Party and the Trade Unions. In the first days of the liberation similar committees were set up in the various 58
