The Reformed pastor-president who declared neutrality before Soviet tanks
At a press conference on November 1, 1956, asked about the likelihood of a new Soviet assault: "Such a tragedy is humanly impossible… it will never take place."
A Reformed pastor who became the face of Hungary's post-war democracy as founder and leader of the Independent Smallholders' Party. After his party's landslide victory, he served as prime minister (1945–46) and was elected the republic's first president, but communist salami tactics forced his resignation in 1948 on fabricated treason charges against his son-in-law; he spent the next eight years under house arrest. In October 1956 he joined Imre Nagy's revolutionary government as minister of state and was present at the November 1 cabinet meeting that voted unanimously to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and declare neutrality. Arrested after the crushing of the uprising, he was sentenced to six years and amnestied in 1959; the Supreme Court annulled his conviction in 1989.
Career Timeline
- 1921–29Reformed pastor; edited church periodicals
- 1936–44Smallholders MP; pressed to exit the war; hiding after German occupation
- 1945–46Prime Minister
- 1946–48President of the Republic; forced to resign
- 1948–56House arrest
- 1956.10–11Minister of State in Nagy's revolutionary government
- 1958–59/1989Sentenced to 6 years; amnestied 1959; rehabilitated 1989