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Hungary - Historical Political Flags (1946-1989)

Last modified: 2023-06-03 by zachary harden
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Hungarian Communist Party

Yesterday I have seen the flag of the Hungarian Communist Party from 1947 on the TV. It was red with the symbol of the MKP.
István Molnár, 25 March 2002


International Labour Movement Flag


image by István Molnár, 28 October 2000

The Red Flag of the International Labour Movement. The national flag couldn't be used without this in 1949-1989.
István Molnár, 28 October 2000


Youth Movements

As I was in Budapest recently, here are described two flags that apear on Hungarian post stamps:
The first flag is shown on a series of stamps of 1950 named DISZ (Dolgozó Ifjúság Szövetségének I. Kongresszusa) and again on 1951 MDP II. Kongresszusa. Possibly also on some subsequent stamps too, but I can't find them right now.
In the first glance the flag (on monocoloured stamps) looks almost like contemporary Yugoslav flag - however, the tricolour was undoubtly the RWV. However, looking more carfully one would notice a light charge that is set diagonally "behind" the star, possibly it is a corn ear.
The other flag look like a tricolour trangular pennant (possibly with vertical red stripe at hoist) and some red charge in the middle. It is shown on a 1956 (this one in a metal badge form), 1968 and 1971 stamps. I guess that this is flag (if it was the flag, it may really be just a badge) of the youth organization.
Željko Heimer, 3 May 2001

The first flag is a communist young association's flag. DISZ = Dolgozó Ifjúság Szövetsége - Association of the Working Youth. The DISZ exists until 1956 and between 1957-1989 it was replaced by KISZ = Kommunista Ifjúsági Szövetség - Communist Youth Association. In 1989 it becames DEMISZ = Demokratikus Ifjúsági Szövetség - Democratic Youth Association
The second-fourth is a communist children association's flag. Magyar Úttörok Szövetsége means Association of the Hungarian Pioneers. It was and is a communist type scout association. Here is the description of today flag (in Hungarian)at : <www.mgx.hu> and you can see the flag on the bottom of the page
István Molnár, 3 May 2001

Here is a photo taken on May 1988. On the red flag there is the emblem of the KISZ (Kommunista Ifjúsági Szövetség) and with gold letters: HUSÉG A NÉPHEZ, HUSÉG A PÁRTHOZ (Faith for the people, faith for the party).
KISZ was the youth movement of the Communist party in Hungary after the 1956 revolution to the peaceful revolution (1989).


Flags on Poster

I was in Budapest few days ago, and I had chance visiting an interesting museum - the one that preserves various monuments from the communits period. Not much flaggy contents there to report, but I acquired a post card reproducing a poster from 1950 showing some flag. The poster seems to be rather well known, I think I have seen it reporoduced on several sites on the net. It is captioned in English so: "Czeglédi - Bánhegyi: Forward for the Congress of the Young Fighters of Peace and Socialism! - poster of the first congress of merged youth organizations, 1950, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum"
Three flags are shown:


image by Željko Heimer, 24 March 2002

The flag of DISZ is shown as tricolour fimbriated with golden on three borders and between stripes, in the middle (possible somewhat offset to hoist, but that is hard to judge, but certainly offset towards top) defaced with golden-bordered five-pointed red star inscribed DISZ. The green field reches all the way to the star inbetween the lower rays. I suspect that this may indeed be only the artist's interpretation, and that the real flages were more to what one would expect, but we have (at this point) no other sources.


image by Željko Heimer, 24 March 2002

The other flag, I think, is the Hungarian Communist Party flag - it is tricolour in the middle defaced with golden-bordered five-pointed red star and under it diagonally a golden corn ear.


image by Željko Heimer, 24 March 2002

The third flag is pure red (though mostly obscured by the other flags, but there is little doubt that anything is supposed to be there) - being the flag of the International Labour Movement - usually as a rule displayed among other flags at the time.
Željko Heimer, 24 March 2002

There is a photo at <index.hu>. I think that those flags sent were not in use except the red flag. I know about many postcards with fictional flags from the 1930-1960s.
István Molnár, 25 March 2002


Hungarian/Soviet Flag in 1956


image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 March 2009

At wikipedia, a photo labeled "Soviet flag being burned during the 1956 Hungarian uprising". The flag is not the USSR's, though; it has no star, just a hammer/sickle (centered in the hoist, over what I take to be a small representation of a plain Hungarian triband).
One assumes the pre-1989 Hungarian Communist Party had a flag like all its other Eastern Bloc equivalents.
I don't know what color the hammer & sickle or the fimbriation should be; gold is likely for the former, white a guess for the latter.
Eugene Ipavec, 14 March 2009