upper hand for even a single hour, there will be no mercy for any proletarian. Before they stifle the revolution, suffocate them in their own blood!" On 21 March 1919 a coup by the communist members of the coalition government established the Hungarian Soviet Republic, under the leadership of Béla Kun. Szamuely became a prominent politician of the new government. He occupied a number of posts, but he then was made People's Commissar for Military Affairs. He became a figure of the so-called "Red Terror" of Hungary. Szamuely's guards became nicknamed the "Lenin Boys" or "Lenin Youth". They were an element in the heightened political tension and suppression of counterrevolutionaries and anti-communists. The Lenin Boys' activities were sometimes aligned with another paramilitary, the Red Guard, led by , in which, on an armoured train they travelled the country. The foundation for the suppression was given as following by Szamuely in a speech delivered in Győr on April 20, 1919: "Power has fallen into our hands. Those who wish the old regime to return, must be hung without mercy. We must bite the throat of such individuals. The victory of the Hungarian Proletariat has not cost us major sacrifices so far. But now the situation demands that blood must flow. We must not be afraid of blood. Blood is steel: it strengthens our hearts, it strengthens the fist of the Proletariat. Blood will make us powerful. Blood will lead us to the true world of the Commune. We will exterminate the entire bourgeoisie if we have to!" The revolutionary tribunals executed between 370 and 587 of those in custody, and others have placed the number at 590. In late May 1919, Szamuely travelled to Moscow by aeroplane to campaign for world revolution with Vladimir Lenin. As Szamuely progressed with the revolutionary tribunals, Kun became increasingly uneasy of him, and feared that he was gaining more power than the government. The Social Democrats, who were also members of the Revolutionary Governing Council, pushed for keeping Szamuely and Cserny in check. Therefore, the People's Commissar of Military Affairs at that time, Vilmos Böhm, ordered the dissolution of the paramilitaries and the tribunals at the end of April 1919. Szamuely did not obey, but continued the tribunals' activities in Szolnok in May, then in Abony. He planned to assassinate Böhm, but by August 1919, the Hungarian Soviet Republic had ended after the Hungarian–Romanian War,