Imre Dögei

Dögei Imre
Hungary state institutions Marxism–Leninism Hungary Hungary 1912–1964 ○ Natural causes

Peasant communist, Kádár's agriculture minister, who pushed forced collectivization and was expelled as a sectarian

Born to a Calvinist peasant family in Törökszentmiklós, Dögei joined the Hungarian Communist Party in 1944 and took part in the 1945 land reform. He led the union of new landholders and the national federation of cooperatives, and was Speaker of Parliament in 1951–1952. Abroad when the 1956 revolution broke out, he returned after the Kádár government was formed, took charge of agriculture from 12 November and was minister of agriculture from 1957 to 1960. A champion of rapid, forcible collectivization, he lost out to Lajos Fehér and was expelled from the party in 1962.

Activities and affiliations

Career Timeline

November 1956: the agriculture minister back from abroad, and collectivization

The cabinet list of the Hungarian Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government published on 4 November named Imre Dögei minister of agriculture. Yet he had not been in Hungary during the revolution at all. He had left for Italy on 15 October to attend celebrations held by the central body of the Italian farmers' and consumers' cooperatives, and came back, after a few days in Czechoslovakia, only once the Kádár government had been formed. From then on he took part in its work: from 12 November he was in charge of agriculture, and on 9 May 1957 he formally took over the ministry, which he held until January 1960.

He backed rapid and forcible collectivization, which set him against Lajos Fehér, who favoured gentler methods. The conflict ended in Fehér's victory. Dögei was removed as minister and named ambassador to Beijing and Hanoi, but never took up the post: on 12 February 1960 the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party threw him out for "sectarian and anti-party" views and activity, and on 9 January 1962 the party expelled him and made him give up his seat in Parliament. His surname, together with Apró's, helped give rise to the mocking Kádár-era phrase "Kádár apró dögei" ("Kádár's little beasts").