A young premier who bore responsibility at the revolution’s threshold
He later recalled accepting the premiership as “a bad decision.”
András Hegedüs was a Hungarian Communist politician and sociologist whose path ran from loyal cadre of the Rákosi regime to critic of the system. Backed by Rákosi and Ernő Gerő, he became prime minister, but during the 1956 Revolution he signed the appeal for Soviet military intervention and bore responsibility for a paralysed leadership. After returning from Moscow, he built a significant career in sociology, protested the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, and was expelled from the party.
Activities and affiliations
- 1955–1956 Government and administration · Hungary
Career Timeline
- 1942Joined the illegal Hungarian Communist Party
- 1945–1947National secretary of MADISZ
- 1951–1953Minister responsible for agriculture
- 1953–1955First deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers
- 1955–1956Chairman of Hungary’s Council of Ministers
- 1956Signed the appeal for Soviet intervention during the revolution
- 1963–1968Founded and led the Hungarian Academy of Sciences sociology group
- 1973Expelled from the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party
Related historical events
- 1953Hungary's New CourseAgriculture minister and Political Committee memberA young cadre invited to Moscow, he entered the new Political Committee.
- 1956The Hungarian RevolutionLast Rákosi-loyalist Prime MinisterServed as Prime Minister until October 1956 and was recorded in the Mikoyan report as present at meetings where Rákosi's fate was decided.
- 1968The Prague SpringParty member protesting the invasionHe protested the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and was later expelled from the party.
June 1953: a thirty-year-old agriculture minister in the Kremlin
When eight Hungarian leaders flew to Moscow in a special plane from the military air base at Tököl on 12 June 1953, András Hegedüs was among them as minister of agriculture. The Presidium of the Soviet party had chosen the delegation itself. With István Hidas, Béla Szalai and Rudolf Földvári he was one of the cadres in their early thirties who had joined the leadership in 1952: none had a background of illegal activity or exile, and none was a Jew. The Soviet leaders saw them as young cadres "worthy of promotion." As a member of the party Secretariat Hegedüs would have learned at the 3 June meeting that Moscow was dissatisfied with the Hungarian situation, but most of the delegation had no idea why they had been summoned.
At the Kremlin talks Hegedüs noticed that although Malenkov was at the top of the power league, Khrushchev's ambition was plain. At the delegation's meeting on 14 June he and Hidas said they had never felt equal in rank to Rákosi. In his later memoir he wrote that at the time they took the premiership to be more important than the post of first secretary, because they regarded Prime Minister Malenkov as the top man in the Soviet leadership. He also recorded how, leaving the meeting room, Nagy wanted to let Rákosi go first, and Rákosi pushed him ahead: "Off you go, Imre, you're the leader now!" He remembered Beria saying that if Rákosi did not help, "we will break his spine."
When the new Political Committee was formed at the end of June, Hegedüs became a full member and was named with Gerő as a deputy prime minister in Nagy's government. But as Rainer notes, the new Political Committee was filled mainly with the young people Rákosi and Gerő had singled out in 1951–53, and Hegedüs was one of them. He was not Nagy's man but part of Rákosi's new generation, and when Rákosi forced Nagy out in April 1955, it was Hegedüs who succeeded him as prime minister.