Erik Molnár

Erik Molnár (bust of Jenő Grantner de Abony in Kecskemét )

Erik Molnár (born December 16, 1894 in Újvidék , today: Serbia ; † August 8, 1966 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian lawyer, historian, university professor and politician of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party MSZDP (Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt) and later of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party MSZMP (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt) , who was among other things Minister of Welfare from 1944 to 1947, Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1947 and 1948, Minister of Justice between 1950 and 1952, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1952 to 1953 and Minister of Justice of the Hungarian People's Republic again between 1954 and 1956 . For his services as a historian he was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1948 and 1963 .

Life

Degree, World War I and lawyer

Molnár, who came from a middle-class family, graduated from high school in Fiume in 192 and then began studying law at the Royal Hungarian University in Budapest. However, he interrupted this study after he was drafted into military service in the course of the First World War in 1915. As a member of the 20th Infantry Regiment, he was taken prisoner by Russia in 1916 , which he spent in a camp near Vladivostok .

After he returned to his parents in Kecskemét in 1920 , he continued his law studies at the University of Budapest and the University of Vienna and graduated in 1922 with the state examination. At the same time he acquired a doctorate in law and, after being admitted to the bar in 1924, took over the law firm of his brother, who had emigrated. In the following years he became involved, influenced by Marxism , in particular in the legal representation of destitute clients and was nicknamed the "lawyer for the poor".

Beginning of political engagement and World War II

In 1928 Molnár joined the Social Democratic Party of Hungary MSZDP (Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt) as a member and was soon elected as their representative to the city council of Kecskemét. At the same time, he began to write articles such as for the social encyclopedia Társadalmi lexikon published by József Madzsar . At this time he also joined the illegal Communist Hungarian Party KMP (Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja) and published a black book on the activities of the police under the Hungarian Governor Miklós Horthy . In addition to his political work, he was also a lecturer at the Calvinist Law Academy Kecskemét (Egyetemes Református Jogakadémia) and wrote articles for magazines such as Társadalmi Szemle , Gondolat and Korunk . During this time he began to publish monographs published by Erik Jeszenszky, István Pálfai and Lajos Szentmiklósy, such as A magyar agrárkérdéshez (1937) on the Hungarian agricultural issue .

After the occupation of Hungary by the German Wehrmacht on March 19, 1944, Molnár was arrested in April and was in an internment camp until October 1944. After the liberation by the Red Army , he served as Mayor of Kecskemét between November and December 1944 and was elected to the Provisional National Assembly (Ideiglenes Nemzetgyűlés) on December 17, 1944 . At the same time he joined the Hungarian Communist Party MKP (Magyar Kommunista Párt) , which was founded on November 5, 1944, and became a member of its Central Committee (ZK).

post war period

Republic of Hungary (1946–1949)

In the provisional government (Ideiglenes Nemzeti Kormány) formed by Prime Minister Béla Miklós on December 22, 1944 , he took over the post of Minister of Welfare (Népjóléti miniszter) and held this position in the subsequent governments of Zoltán Tildy , Ferenc Nagy and Lajos Dinnyés until 24. September 1947.

On November 4, 1945 Molnár became a member of the National Assembly (Nemzetgyűlés) again in the then Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun County and in the then Bács-Bodrog County and belonged to it with short interruptions until his death. As part of a government reshuffle , he took over the post of Foreign Minister (Külügyminiszter) from Ernő Mihályfi in the government of Prime Minister Lajos Dinnyés on September 24, 1947, and held this post until his replacement by László Rajk on August 5, 1948. At the founding congress of the party of the Hungarian Working People MDP (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja) , which had arisen after the merger of the MSZDP with the MKP on June 15, 1948, he was again elected a member of their Central Committee.

After leaving the government, Molnár replaced Gyula Szekfű as ambassador to the Soviet Union on September 10, 1948 and was also accredited as ambassador to Finland on October 13, 1948 , and held this post until July 17, 1950. In 1948 he was first appointed awarded the Kossuth Prize .

People's Republic of Hungary (1949–1966)

Rákosi era and liberalization under Imre Nagy

In addition to his diplomatic work, Molnár became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences MTA (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia) on October 1, 1949 and served from November 29, 1949 until his death on August 8, 1966 as a member of its presidium and chairman of the committee for historical studies . In 1950 he also took over a professorship at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and at the same time became director of the Institute for History there. After his return from Moscow on July 17, 1950, he took over the post of Justice Minister (Igazságügy-miniszter) from István Ries in the government of Prime Minister István Dobi and held this position until November 14, 1952, in the government of Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi . In the course of a new government reshuffle, he was again Foreign Minister on November 14, 1952, succeeding Károly Kiss, and held this ministerial office until July 2, 1953.

After leaving the government again, Molnár became President of the Supreme Court (Legfelsőbb Bíróság) on October 30, 1953 and held this office until July 24, 1954. As such, he was Prime Minister in the course of the cautious liberalization and de-Stalinization during the first government Imre Nagy jointly responsible for the rehabilitation of numerous victims of the show and secret trials of the Stalinist era by Mátyás Rákosi. On October 30, 1954, he himself took over the post of Justice Minister from Ferenc Erdei in the first Nagy government and held this ministerial office in the government of Prime Minister András Hegedüs and the second Nagy government until October 30, 1956.

Time after the popular uprising

Erik Molnár's grave in the Kerepesi temető ( Kerepesi temető ) in Budapest

In the wake of the emerging popular uprising , Molnár resigned from his ministerial office on October 30, 1956 and resumed his position as chairman of the committee for the history of the Academy of Sciences. At the same time he took over his professorship for history at the Eötvös Loránd University again in 1957 and taught there until his death. He was also head of the department for historical and dialectical materialism at ELTE. Furthermore, between 1957 and 1962 he was president of the editorial committee of the historical specialist journal Századok , of which he had been an editor since 1949. In 1958 he succeeded Erzsébet Andacs as President of the Historical Society (Magyar Történelmi Társulat) and held this position after two re-elections until his death, whereupon Győző Ember succeeded him. He has also been the editor of Acta Historica magazine since 1958 . In these functions he edited a number of studies on national topics and was instrumental in the publication of the two-volume History of Hungary (Magyarország története) , published in 1964 and 1967 .

In 1963 he was honored for the second time with the Kossuth Prize and at the same time President of the Hungarian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). In 1964 the Jagiellonian University in Kraków awarded him an honorary doctorate in history. After his death, Molnár was buried in the Kerepesi temető ( Kerepesi cemetery ) in Budapest.

Publications

As a historian, Molnár wrote numerous specialist books dealing with topics such as the French Revolution , the history of the labor movement , development of land ownership and the peasantry and the class struggle , but also dealing with nationalism and dogmatism . His publications include:

• A magyar agrárkérdéshez , Szentmiklósy Lajos Publishing House, Budapest, 1937
• Dialektika , Jeszenszky Erik Verlag, Budapest, 1941
• Magyar őstörténet , Szentmiklósy Lajos Publishing House, Budapest, 1942
• A feudalizmus kialakulása Magyarországon , Szentmiklósy Lajos Publishing House, Budapest, 1942
• Az árpádkori társadalom. A gazdasági alap , Szentmiklósy Lajos Publishing House, Budapest, 1943
• Az árpádkori társadalom. A felépítmény , Szentmiklósy Lajos Publishing House, Budapest, 1943
• Dialectics. Tanulmányok , Budapest, 1945
• Szent István , Budapest, 1945
• A magyar társadalom története az őskortól az Árpádkorig , Budapest, 1945, 1949
• A zsidókérdés Magyarországon , Budapest, 1946
• Democrats egészségpolitika , Budapest, 1946
• A szocializmus történetéből , Budapest, 1947
• A magyar társadalom története az Árpádkortól Mohácsig , Budapest, 1949
• A magyar társadalom a X – XII. században. 1949/50. tanév II. félévi előadások jegyzete , Budapest, 1950
• Magyar történet a XIII – XIV. században. 2. évesek számára , Budapest, 1950
• A történelmi materializmus ideológiai előzményei , Budapest, 1952
• A feudalizmus kialakulása Magyarországon. Az Árpádok kora , Budapest, 1952
• A magyar nép őstörténete , Budapest, 1953, 1954
• A történelmi materializmus filozófiai alapproblémái , Budapest, 1955, 1961
• A marxista filozófia és népi demokráciánk kérdései , Budapest, 1956
• A jelenkori kapitalizmus néhány gazdasági Schwierémája , Budapest, 1959
• Dialectic materializmus és társadalomtudomány , Budapest, 1962
• A marxizmus szövetségi politikája 1848–1889 , Budapest, 1967
• Válogatott tanulmányok , editor: György Ránki, Budapest, 1969

Web links

• Entry in Történelmi Tár (Hungarian)
• Entry in the Magyar életrajzi lexicon
• Hungary: Key Ministries (rulers.org)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Molnár represented Heves County and the general list of the Hungarian Independent Popular Front MFN (Magyar Függetlenségi Népfront) and the Patriotic Popular Front HNF (Hazafias Népfront) in the National Assembly and the Hungarian Parliament (Országgyűlés), which met on September 16, 1947 .