A reform communist journalist
On 4 November 1956, as Soviet forces attacked, he took refuge with his family in the Yugoslav Embassy.
Géza Losonczy was a Hungarian journalist and politician who emerged from the communist movement while challenging its repression and dogmatism. Alongside Imre Nagy’s reform circle, he became involved in the upheaval over popular mobilization and the limits of one-party rule, serving as a minister of state in the revolutionary government of 1956. Arrested after the Soviet intervention, he died in prison while on hunger strike awaiting trial, his death forming part of the state repression directed at the Imre Nagy group.
Career Timeline
- 1935–1936Editor of the student journal Tovább
- 1939–1941Joined the Hungarian Communist Party and worked for Népszava
- 1945–1949Head of domestic politics at Szabad Nép
- 1949–1951State secretary under culture minister József Révai
- 1951–1954Imprisoned after a political show trial
- 1954–1956Journalist at Magyar Nemzet and organizer of the Petőfi Circle
- 1956-10–1956-11Minister of state in Imre Nagy’s second and third governments
- 1957Scheduled defendant in the Imre Nagy trial; died in prison during a hunger strike