Hungarian Royal Gendarme Veterans' Association

The Hungarian Royal Gendarme Veterans' Association (Hungarian: Magyar Királyi Csendőr Bajtársi Közösség), commonly known by its initialism of MKCsBK, is an international veterans' organization founded in its initial form in 1947 with the goal of maintaining an association of veterans of the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie following its dissolution in 1944 during the Soviet occupation of Hungary. It continues today as an association of the few remaining living veterans, with an additional goal of making original information and records about the Hungarian Royal Gendarmes available to the public in order to correct misinformation disseminated by the government during the years of communist rule.

The Hungarian parliament created the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie with a law sanctioned on February 14, 1881. This day became the official "gendarme day" in 1936. The gendarmerie was a militarily organized corps entrusted with the public safety in the rural parts of Hungary, which at the time accounted for 90% of the country.

With a regional-divisional-chapter-garrison structure it had a relatively short chain of command. The essence of the gendarmerie was the garrisons of five to fifteen gendarmes scattered throughout the countryside, and therefore they performed their duties quite independently, albeit according to strictly detailed regulations, issued by a special division under the authority of the Department of Interior. At the same time, the members of the gendarmerie personally were under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense. The guarding of public safety and peace in the villages, as well as crime prevention and criminal investigations were exclusively the job of the enlisted gendarmes, while the officers were responsible for training, supervision, and communication with other authorities.

Every gendarme owned and was very familiar with the so-called Service Regulations book (Szut.), which codified the laws and regulations affecting their service. Both enlisted and officers alike were expected to continually further their knowledge and improve themselves, not only regarding their vocation, but in a broad range of topics. They actively participated in various sports (to the degree that several members were on the national Olympic team), maintained a small library collection at each garrison (which was also available for use to the local villagers), and made reading and studying a regular part of their daily routine. They also placed an emphasis on character training to become reliable, fair, moral, incorruptible, impartial and unbiased, in addition to being able to make fast, wise and firm decisions. There was a great emphasis on the respect of authority and the love of their country, their countrymen, and their corps. They were expected to live their lives in every respect according to the gendarme oath, the “gendarme ten commandments,” and their motto of “faithfully, honorably, valiantly,” (“Híven, becsülettel, vitézül”). The demands of being a gendarme transcended occupation to become a way of life.

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