Mihály Táncsics

Early socialism 1799–1884 ○ Natural causes

Writer freed from prison on 15 March 1848, publisher of the Workers' Newspaper and one of Hungary's first socialist politicians

Born in 1799 into a serf family at Ácsteszér, he trained as a weaver, became a teacher and wrote popular textbooks. In the 1840s he argued for freeing the serfs without compensation and abolishing feudal relations by revolution; pamphlets such as The Word of the People Is God's Word led to his arrest, and in 1847 he was convicted of press offences and incitement. On 15 March 1848 the people of Pest and the revolutionary youth freed him from prison in Buda. That year he won the Siklós constituency and published the weekly Munkások Újsága (Workers' Newspaper) for workers and peasants, which Kossuth had banned at the end of the year. After the defeat he hid for eight years under his house; sentenced to fifteen years in 1860, he was freed almost blind in 1867. In 1869 he returned to parliament and was elected president of the General Workers' Association. He died in 1884.

Also known as: Mihaly Tancsics