From Clare Sheridan’s Diary, 28 September 1920, Tuesday. Moscow.
I was frightfully disappointed in Bela Kun. I had imagined a romantic figure, but he looks most disreputable. . . .Russian Portraits by Clare Sheridan
London : Jonathan Cape, 1921, page 88.
Or : Mayfair to Moscow — Clare Sheridan’s Diary.
New York : Boni and Liveright, 1921, pages 97-8 .
From ZAHAROFF High Priest of War by Guiles Davenport, 1934
He was distracted by many things during the years from 1919 to 1922 while his Near Eastern campaign was being fought on the plans of Anatolia. The Balkans were afire and Roumania was hanging on the edge of the abyss. Hungary was in the hands of the diabolic Bela Kun, and Russia was beginning an experiment which made impossible such private manipulations as those best suited to a Zaharist. New wars were brewing and the munitions business needed constant attention. New political alignments were to be coördinated, new endeavors to be explored, and new fields for exploitation were being opened on every hand.As a more or less essential part of the plan for the Balkan Alliance . . . Austria’s welfare and good behavior became important to Zaharoff . . . He took it upon himself to deal with Bela Kun. As usual, he took a circuitous route to his end.
Success for Kun meant the death of the Balkan Alliance, and the eventual Bolshevisation of the Near East. This meant certain doom to Zaharoff’s Ionian Empire, then in the early months of gestation. Though this was a dream never to be realized, Zaharoff in 1919 was full of hope for its success. Therefore, Bela Kun must be dealt with.
Roumania’s unhappy situation provided an entering wedge. She was in dire need of money and of an army to control her acquisitions of territory . . . .
Zaharoff had Versailles to thank, too, for this opportunity. The Conference had been utterly taken aback at the turn of affairs in Vienna. They were unable to act, and yet virtually forbade Hungary’s neighbors to act. Though they possessed ample forces with which to deal with Bela Kun, they lacked the diplomatic capacity to do so without reopening an entire area to destruction and combat. They were fortunate in having an individual with experience, ingenuity, and above all, the resources by which to take the problem off their already overburdened hands.
Bela Kun had been shrewd enough to realize that it was excellent strategy to defy the Allies when they were in no position to take up the gauntlet. But he reckoned with the Master of the Unseen Armies.
Zaharoff made a trip to Bucharest. He completed his financial transactions quietly and gave the word of command. The immediate result was the advance of the new and efficient Roumanian army, a few weeks before illy equipped and shaken in morale.
Simultaneously, a mysterious subsidy reached that hitherto loyal Communist, Boehm, head of Kun’s army, and Boehm took the field against his chief. In a few days it was all over and Bela Kun had fled. Boehm’s services were dispensed with, and his place taken by the stolid Jules Peidl. Publicly, credit for the overturn was given in every direction but the proper one.
Boston : Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1934, pages 259 - 261.
From My Life as a Rebel, Angelica Balabanoff, 1938
As I was leaving for the Ukraine, I met Bela Kun, returning from Hungary where the short-lived Soviet Republic had been overthrown with the help of the Rumanian army. I had heard so much of Kun’s devious personal and political record, that I had been surprised, on returning to Moscow, to hear that he had been sent to Hungary to “make a revolution.” The mere fact that the man was said to be a drug addict seemed to me sufficient reason for not trusting him with revolutionary responsibilities. This first meeting with him confirmed my most disagreeable impressions. His very appearance was repulsive. Yet the Bolsheviks, including Stalin, were to make use of him until 1937.New York and London : Harper & Brothers, 1938, page 224.
From Witness, Whittaker Chambers, 1952
. . . the Hungarian Revolution of 1919 . . . most of the source material on it was in German. . . . I did a good deal of research in the subject and acquired a fairly firm grasp of the history of the Hungarian Soviet and the part played in it by Bela Kun and other Communists, and by the Socialists who had invited the Communists to take over the government which they shared with them. But I never wrote up my findings. . . .New York : Random House, 1952, page 213.
From BORODIN : Stalin's Man in China, Dan N. Jacobs, 1981
. . . [Gruzenberg alias] Borodin left Moscow soon after the First Comintern Congress had dissolved in early March. It was essential to spread abroad . . . the word and instructions of the CI. The CI was designed to exploit the critical situation in Europe in the later winter of 1918-19. . . . a revolutionary regime was established in Budapest on March 21 by Bela Kun, a convert to the revolution while a war prisoner in Russia. During the first week in April, a Red government was set up in Bavaria. Liaison must be established . . .Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England :
Cambridge University Press, 1981, page 59.
http://www.geocities.com/veldes1/kun.html
Bardy, Roland. Title 1919 [i. e. Dix-neuf cent dix-neuf] La Commune de Budapest. Publisher Paris : Eěditions de la Tête de Feuilles, [1972] Description 244 p. map., plates. 21 cm. Note "Documents": p. [179]-225. "Textes publieěes sous la direction de Max Chaleil." Note Bibliography: p. 237-242. Language FrenchSzelpal, Arpad. Title Les 133 [i. e. cent trente-trois] jours de Béla Kun. Publisher Paris, A. Fayard [1959] Description 286 p. 20 cm. Language French
Communist International. Title Kommunisticheskii̲ Internat̲s̲ional v dokumentakh. Publisher 1933. Description 1007 p. 23 cm. Language Russian Note Romanized. Subject Communist International. Format Book Library SRLF UCD 22 Details/Locations Author Communist International. Congress (1st : 1919 : Moscow) Title Pervyĭ kongress Kominterna : mart 1919 g. / Pod red. E. Korotkogo, B. Kuna i O. Pi︠︡atnit︠︡skogo. Publisher Moskva : Partiĭnoe izd-vo, 1933. Description 275 p. ; 23 cm. Series Protokoly kongressov Kommunisticheskogo internat︠︡sionala Language Russian Note At head of title: Institut Marksa-Ėngelʹsa-Lenina pri T︠︡SK VKP(b) Includes indexes. Subject Socialism -- Congresses Communism -- Congresses. Format Conference Book Library SRLF 23 Details/Locations Author Communist International. Congress (1st : 1919 : Moscow, Russia) Title Pervyǐ kongress Kominterna. Publisher Moskva Partiǐnoe izd-vo 1933 Description 275p. Series Protokoly kongressov Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala Language Russian Note At head of title: Institut Marksa-Engel'sa-Lenina pri T︠S︡K VKP (b) "Feltrinelli reprint," Milano, 1967. Subject Communism -- History -- Sources. Communism -- Congresses. Format Book Library UCD 24 Details/Locations Author Lengyel, József, 1896- Uniform Title [ Visegrádi utca. Russian] Title Istoricheskiĭ reportazh. [Predisl. Bela Kuna] Publisher Moskva, Sovetskai︠a︡ literatura, 1933. Description 203 p. 18 cm. Language Russian Note At head of title: Iosif Lengelʹ. Translated from the Hungarian: Visegrádi utca. Preface signed: Bela Kun. Subject Magyar Kommunista Párt. Hungary -- History -- Revolution, 1918-1919 -- Personal narratives. Format Book Library NRLF 25 Details/Locations Author Kun, Béla, 1886-1939. Title Revolutionary essays, by Bela Kun. Publisher [London] B.S.P. [1920] Description 46p. 18 cm. Series International socialist library,15. Language English Note "Reprinted from Pravda." Subject Socialism -- Austria. Socialism -- Hungary. Format Book Library UCD UCB 26 Details/Locations Author Kun, Béla, 1886-1939. Title Revolutionary essays / by Bela Kun. Publisher [London] : British Socialist Party, [1919?] Description 46 p. 18 cm. Series International Socialist Library,15 Language English Note "Reprinted from Pravda."
http://www.newyouth.com/archives/historicalanalysis/hungary/hungary_1919_forgotten_rev_19791112.asp