Rákosi-era planning chief who fell from grace and joined Imre Nagy
He joined the Hungarian Communist Party at sixteen in 1919, fought in the Soviet Republic's Red Army and spent most of the Horthy era in prison. Released with Rákosi in 1940, he went to the Soviet Union and returned as a Soviet officer in 1944. Mayor of Budapest in 1945, secretary-general of the Supreme Economic Council (1945–49) and head of the National Planning Office (1949–53), he drafted the Five-Year Plan and ranked among the party's leading 'Muscovites'. Stripped of every post in February 1953, he joined Imre Nagy's line and headed the government secretariat in 1954–55; in January 1955 the Soviet Presidium condemned him with Nagy. In November 1956 he fled with Nagy to the Yugoslav embassy, was interned in Romania, and later lived outside politics as a writer.
Activities and affiliations
- 1945–1953 Economy, finance and planning · Hungary
- 1954–1955 Government and administration · Hungary
Career Timeline
- 1919Joined the Hungarian Communist Party; served in the Soviet Republic's Red Army
- 1925–40Arrested on a Comintern mission home; nearly fifteen years in prison
- 1945Mayor of Budapest
- 1945–49Secretary-general of the Supreme Economic Council
- 1949–53President of the National Planning Office; MDP Politburo member (from 1951)
- 1954–55Head of the Council of Ministers' secretariat under Nagy
- 1956–58Refuge in the Yugoslav embassy; internment in Romania