Vilmos Böhm
Böhm Vilmos
Social Democratic leader who was defence commissar and Red Army commander-in-chief of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Born to a middle-class Jewish family, he trained as a mechanic and rose through the iron and metal workers’ union to the Social Democratic leadership. He became war minister in the Berinkey government in January 1919 and took part in the merger talks with the Communists. In the Soviet Republic he was defence commissar and commander-in-chief of the Red Army, and in July, as envoy in Vienna, he agreed with the Entente missions, on behalf of the Social Democratic leadership, on removing the council government. In exile he lived in Vienna, Czechoslovakia and Sweden; he headed the Hungarian legation in Sweden from 1946 to 1948 and resigned when the Social Democrats were merged into the Communist Party. He died in Stockholm in 1949.
Career timeline
- 1911Member of the Trade Union Council
- 1919War minister in the Berinkey government
- 1919Defence commissar and Red Army commander-in-chief
- 1919Envoy in Vienna
- 1946–1948Head of the Hungarian legation in Sweden