István Kossa

Kossa István
Hungary state institutions Marxism–Leninism Hungary Hungary 1904–1965 ○ Natural causes

Social-democratic union leader turned communist minister, finance minister in Kádár's 1956 government

A Budapest tram conductor, Kossa joined the Hungarian Social Democratic Party in 1932 and became general secretary of the tramworkers' union. Sent to the Eastern Front with a penal labour company in 1942, he crossed over to the Soviet side and returned on Communist Party orders in 1944. In 1945 he became general secretary of the Trade-Union Council and a member of the Communist Political Committee, but lost influence by defending union autonomy. He served as minister of industry, finance and machine industry; in October 1956 he was finance minister under Nagy and on 4 November finance minister again in Kádár's Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government.

Also known as: István Kósa

Activities and affiliations

Career Timeline

November 1956: a cabinet post learned from the radio

István Kossa was a communist who came out of the social-democratic trade-union movement. As general secretary of the Trade-Union Council from 1945 he clashed with the Communist leadership by defending union autonomy, and he gave up the post in August 1948. He held several ministries afterwards, but lost his seats on the Political Committee and the Central Committee in 1950 and with them any real power.

In the 1956 revolution he was finance minister in Imre Nagy's second government from 26 to 31 October, and afterwards ran the telephone exchange at party headquarters. Only when the radio announced the Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government on 4 November did it become known that he was its finance minister. The Open Letter to the Hungarian Working People scattered the same day carried his signature beside those of Antal Apró, János Kádár and Ferenc Münnich, and claimed that the four had left the Nagy government on 1 November and taken the initiative in founding the new one.

He was elected to the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party in February 1957, moved to the Ministry of Transport and Post in May and held it until he retired in 1963.