The reformist Politburo member who called 1956 a 'popular uprising' and dismantled his own party's orthodoxy
In West Berlin he said the East German 'anti-fascist protective rampart' was a 'disgrace' that had to come down.
A reformist member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) Politburo and the ideological patron of the reformers. On 28 January 1989 he told radio listeners that the 1956 Hungarian Revolution was a 'popular uprising,' demolishing the party's foundational lie; in May that year, in West Berlin, he called the Berlin Wall a 'disgrace.' Together with Otto von Habsburg he sponsored the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989, opening the first crack in the Iron Curtain, and later stood as the Socialist Party's presidential candidate but was defeated.
Career Timeline
- 1950Joined the Hungarian Working People's Party
- 1957–1969Agitprop head and secretary, Bács-Kiskun County committee
- 1976–1980Minister of Culture
- 1980–1982Minister of Education
- 1982–1988Secretary-General, Patriotic People's Front
- 1988–1989MSZMP Politburo member and Minister of State
- 1989.01Declared the 1956 Revolution a 'popular uprising'
- 1990MSZP Deputy President and presidential candidate; defeated