Gyula Kállai

Gyula Kállai, 1964

Gyula Kállai [ ˈɟulɒ ˈkaːlːɒ.i ] (born June 1, 1910 in Berettyóújfalu , Hajdú-Bihar County , Hungary ; † March 12, 1996 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian communist politician and former prime minister .

Study and Minister

Kállai joined the Communist Party in 1931 while still a student. From 1939 to 1944 he worked as an editor and employee of the editor-in-chief and later President Árpád Szakasits at the social democratic newspaper Népszava .

After the founding of the People's Republic of Hungary on August 20, 1949, Kállai succeeded László Rajk, who had been sentenced to death for high treason, as Foreign Minister. He held this office until 1951. He was then arrested, imprisoned and not rehabilitated until 1954.

After the popular uprising in 1956, he helped restore power to the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP), which was subsequently renamed the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (USAP). First he was Secretary of the USAP Central Committee . From 1956 to 1975 he was also a member of the Politburo of the USAP Central Committee .

On November 4, 1956, Prime Minister János Kádár appointed him Minister of Culture. From January 28, 1958 to 1960, he was Minister of State in Ferenc Münnich's cabinet . He was then in the cabinet of Münnich and from September 13, 1961 in the second cabinet of Kádár Deputy Prime Minister and 1st Deputy Prime Minister.

Prime Minister and President of Parliament

On June 30, 1965, Kállai succeeded Kádár as Prime Minister. However, he only retained this office until he was replaced by the economic expert Jenő Fock on April 14, 1967.

Most recently, Kállai was President of the National Assembly from April 14, 1967 to April 25, 1971 . His successor as President of the National Assembly was Antal Apró . He was also chairman of the People's Patriotic Front ( Hazafias Népfront ) from 1957 to 1989, which was responsible for conducting parliamentary elections.

He was a member of the National Assembly from 1954 to 1990.

Publications

The trained journalist published several works in Hungarian between 1943 and 1987. The book The People's Front Movement in Hungary was also published in English in 1979.

• Népiség, demokrácia, szocializmus. 1943.
• A magyar függetlenségi mozgalom: 1936–1945. 1948.
• A magyarországi ellenforradalom a marxizmus – leninizmus fényében. 1957.
• A párt szövetségi politikája és a nemzeti egység fejlődése. 1976.
• A múltról a jelennek. 1976.
• Helyünk a világban. 1977.
• The people's front movement in Hungary. Translated by Gyula Gulyás. 1979.
• Életem törvénye. 1980.
• Két világ határán. 1987.
• Megkésett börtönnapló. 1987.

Web links

• The People's Front Movement in Hungary at allbookstores.com

Sources and background literature

• Short biography in rulers.org
• Report on the 1971 parliamentary elections (PDF file; 16 kB)
• List of Hungarian governments from 1945 to 1989 ( memento from October 26, 2007 in the web archive archive.today )

• Melvyn J. Lasky (Ed.): A White Paper. The Hungarian Revolution. The story of the October uprising according to documents, reports, eyewitness reports and the echo of the world public. Berlin 1958, pp. 64 and 97.
• László Ritter: Hungary and The Warsaw Pact 1954–1989. Main Actors. 2003, p. 2. (online) ( Memento from March 12, 2004 in the Internet Archive )