Imre Nagy (1896-1958)
Imre Nagy was a humanistic communist politician from Hungary. He emerged from less powerful political positions to the deputy prime minister under Matyas Rakosi, a Stalinist dictator currently in control of Hungary. In the period following Stalin's death in 1953, there was no clear heir to the seat of Stalin in the Soviet Union and the political turmoil that ensued directly effected the Eastern European satellites.
The Soviet Union, under the new leadership of Georgi Malenkov, no longer favored Rakosi's tactics in Hungary and replaced him with the more favorable Nagy in 1953. (Rakosi, on the other hand, remained in the political arena as the secretary of the Hungarian Worker's Party, thereby staying available for a leap to power should an opportunity present itself.) As prime minister, Nagy advocated for a reforming "New Course" to Hungarian society. In this policy, he relaxed the pace of industrialization, allowed for peasants to leave collective farms, and relaxed the terror of the police. In 1955, however, Malenkov's favorable position slipped and on February of 1955, he resigns. The new opinion in the Soviet Union ruled against Nagy and he too was forced to resign to be replaced again by Rakosi.
This second term of Rakosi was dangerously unstable, especially after Nikita Khrushchev's "secret speech" on February 25, 1953, admitting to the crimes of Stalin. Rakosi's refusal to admit his actions in the purge of the Hungarian communist party caused distrust in the people leading to the appointment of Ernö Gerö to the premiership on July 18, 1956 as a way of reconciling with the people. This attempt was in vain was Gerö's leadership paralleled that of Rakosi.
On October 23, demonstrators in Budapest call for the resignation of Gerö and by October 24, 1956, Nagy resumes as prime minister. Nagy returned to power far after things were out of hand throughout the country, therefore it took all his capabilities to attempt to control the reforms. He offered amnesty to the demonstrators, abolished the one-party system, and negotiated the withdrawal of the Red Army from Hungary. Then, on November 1, Nagy declares Hungarian neutrality and withdraws his country from the Warsaw Pact. By November 4, 1956, the Soviet Union invades Hungary and Gerö is forced from power by Soviet and internal communist pressure to be replaced by the Soviet approved János Kádár.
Fearful for his own future, Nagy seeks asylum in the Yugoslavian Embassy. Nineteen days later, through a guarantee of safe passage, Nagy left the embassy, however he was seized by the Soviets. After two years of incarceration in Romania and a refusal to endorse the new Soviet appointed government, Nagy is executed on June 16, 1958, representing one of the last executions of a politician leaving power. The next day back in Hungary, Kádár announces that Nagy and several of his fellow reformers were executed on accounts of treason thereby curbed any revolutionary reformers that were left in the wake of the Revolution.
Molly Burke
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