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The Szeged Idea (Hungarian: Szegedi gondolat), also informally known as Szeged fascism refers to the proto-fascist ideology that developed among anti-communist counter-revolutionaries in Szeged, Hungary, in 1919 and later developed into an ideology resembling Nazism.[1] The Szeged Idea was based upon the claim that Hungary was stabbed in the back in World War I by communists and Jews and promoted action to undo this evil by declaring holy war against such traitors.[2] Szeged militants promoted Hungarian nationalism, an economic "third way", and advocated a "strong" state.[1]
Szegedists promoted irredentist claims to territories belonging to Hungary prior to the end of World War I.[1] The ideology claimed the existence of a "Judeo-Bolshevik" conspiracy in Hungary.[1] The principal leader of the Szegedists was Gyula Gömbös.[3] Gömbös declared violence to be "an acceptable means of statecraft... to shape the course of history, not in the interest of a narrow clique, but of an entire nation".[3] Upon being appointed Prime Minister, Gömbös adopted fascist positions, including the promotion of corporatist solutions to national unity like that of Benito Mussolini and a racial policy like that of Adolf Hitler.[3]
Gömbös declared that his government would "secure our national civilization based upon our own special racial peculiarities and upon Christian moral principles".[3]
