Lajos Czinege

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Lajos Czinege (11th from left) with other defense ministers and generals of the Warsaw Pact at a meeting with Erich Honecker (7th from left) in East Berlin (1983)

Lajos Czinege (born March 24, 1924 in Karcag , Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county ; † May 10, 1998 in Leányfalu , Szentendre small area , Pest county ) was a Hungarian politician of the party of the Hungarian working people MDP (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja) and finally the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party MSZMP (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt) , who was Minister of National Defense between 1960 and 1984 and then Vice Prime Minister from 1984 to 1987. He was thus one of the most consistent and influential politicians in the People's Republic of Hungary after the Second World War until the collapse of communism in Hungary (Rendszerváltás Magyarországon) in 1989.

Life

Blacksmith and party official

Czinege, the son of a farm laborer, left elementary school after the sixth grade and then worked as a housekeeper between 1936 and 1939. He then made a professional training for blacksmith and training worked as a blacksmith's apprentice upon completion. In 1945 he joined the Communist Party KMP (Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja) and was then secretary of the Hungarian Democratic Youth Association MÁDISZ (Magyar Demokratikus Ifjúsági Szövetség) in his native Karcag. In 1947 he became a full-time employee of the KMP and initially acted as first secretary of the KMP city administration Karcag, before he became secretary for propaganda, agitation and organization of the KMP administration in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in 1948. Between 1950 and 1951 he worked as a foreman at a company repairing agricultural equipment, the last of which he was deputy director.

Afterwards, Czinege belonged between 1951 and August 1954 to a working group to build the Hungarian People's Army (Magyar Néphadsereg) as deputy head of the political administration of the artillery troops . At the same time he completed a three-year course at the Sándor Petőfi Academy for Political Officers and then became a lieutenant colonel . Subsequently, in August 1954 he was first deputy head and then in June 1955 head of the department for administration of the Central Committee (ZK) of the party of the Hungarian working people MDP (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja), which emerged from the KMP . During the popular uprising he became a member of the military committee of the Central Committee of the MDP in October 1956 and in this function was entrusted with the development of a plan to consolidate the Hungarian Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Government under Prime Minister János Kádár .

Subsequently, in November 1956, Czinege became first secretary for organization and then in 1957 first secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party MSZMP (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt) in the city administration of Szolnok, which emerged from the MDP . During this time he was elected for the first time on November 16, 1958 as a member of parliament (Országgyűlés) and represented Szolnok on the reserve list of the Patriotic Popular Front (Hazafias Népfront) until January 28, 1967 . In addition, on December 5, 1959, at the 7th Party Congress of the MSZMP, he was also elected a member of the Central Committee, to which he belonged until May 22, 1988.

Minister of Defense and candidate for the Politburo

Lajos Czinege's grave in the Farkasréti cemetery in Budapest

In the spring of 1960 he was relieved of his position as first secretary of the MSZMP leadership of Szolnok and on May 17, 1960 took over the post of Minister for National Defense (Honvédelmi Miniszter) in the government of Prime Minister Ferenc Münnich from Lieutenant General Géza Révész and became himself promoted to Lieutenant General (Altábornagy) . His predecessor Révész then became ambassador to the Soviet Union .

He held the post of Defense Minister until December 6, 1984. He was later promoted to Colonel General (Vezérezredes) and finally to Army General (Hadseregtábornok) .

With almost 25 years in office, he was one of the most consistent and influential politicians in the People's Republic of Hungary from the Second World War to the collapse of communism in Hungary (Rendszerváltás Magyarországon) in 1989. As Defense Minister, he also played an essential role within the Hungarian People's Army during the crises in the Warsaw Pact such as the Prague Spring 1968 and martial law in Poland .

On September 12, 1961, Czinege was also appointed a candidate for the Politburo of the Central Committee and was a member of this supreme governing body of the MSZMP until November 28, 1970. However, he was the only Warsaw Pact defense minister who was not a member of the Politburo.

He also became a member of the National Defense Committee (Honvédelmi Bizottság) on September 13, 1961 . Among other things, on November 21, 1972, he wrote a report with the head of the Central Committee for Administration János Borbándi on the situation of civil defense and its future direction.

In an interview with the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland on October 1, 1965, he stated that “the peoples of Europe are concerned that West German militarism has resurrected and the Bundeswehr is strengthening with the help of the Western powers”. In December 1966 he led a military delegation to visit the GDR . Among other things, the officers' college of the air force / air defense Franz Mehring in Kamenz was visited.

Loss of candidacy in the Politburo and Vice Prime Minister

On November 28, 1970, Czinege lost his position as a candidate in the Politburo of the Central Committee. The reason for the loss of this position were his numerous affairs with well-known actresses such as Margit Bara and most recently Ildikó Solymosi . This he built a villa in Budapest; he obtained the material from army stocks. Czinege's wife attempted suicide in April 1970, then asked the first secretary of the MSZMP, János Kádár , for help.

The party leader first sent Czinege on a trip abroad to Cairo and Damascus to check on the Hungarian military advisors working there . Then he was allowed to check once again how his staff officers were performing in the Eastern bloc maneuver "Brotherhood of Arms" on GDR territory. However, the hope of his opponents within the armed forces was not fulfilled that he would be released from his position as Minister of Defense and transferred to Poland as ambassador .

After a reshuffle in the cabinet of Prime Minister György Lázár , he became Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers on December 6, 1984 and held this position until June 25, 1987. His successor as Minister of Defense was then Colonel General István Oláh . After the collapse of communism in Hungary, Prime Minister Miklós Németh adopted him into final retirement in November 1989 .

After his death, Czinege was buried with his wife in the Farkasréti cemetery in Budapest.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chairpersons and members of the Council or Committee for National Defense ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationaler-verteidigungsrat.de
  2. ^ Hans-Hubertus Mack, László Veszprémy, Rüdiger Wenzke: The NVA and the Hungarian People's Army in the Warsaw Pact , 2011, p. 60, ISBN 3-94157-115-X
  3. ↑ Lajos Czinege warns . In: Neues Deutschland from October 1, 1965
  4. ↑ Colonel General Lajos Czinege . In: Neues Deutschland from December 13, 1966
  5. ^ Lajos Czinege attended NVA schools . In: Neues Deutschland from December 15, 1966
  6. ↑ HUNGARY / MINISTER: The beautiful Ildiko . In: Der Spiegel from November 2, 1970
personal data
SURNAME Czinege, Lajos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian communist politician and army general
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Karcag , Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1998
Place of death Leányfalu , Szentendre Small Area , Pest County