Mihály Farkas

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Mihály Farkas (born July 18, 1904 in Abaújszántó , Austria-Hungary ; died December 6, 1965 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian communist politician of Jewish origin.

Life

Mihály Farkas completed an apprenticeship in printing presses after graduating from primary school . In 1919, at the age of 15, he became secretary of a youth organization in Košice . Two years later, Farkas joined the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia . For his activities in the Communist Party, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in 1925 . After his imprisonment he became a delegate in the Communist Department of Young Workers, for whom he worked in Western Europe from 1932 to 1935 .

From 1936 to 1937 Farkas fought against the Franco Putschists in the Spanish Civil War . He survived the civil war unscathed and returned to his homeland in 1937, two years before the end of the conflict in Spain . At the request of Mátyás Rákosi , Farkas was transferred from the Moscow headquarters of the Communist Youth International to the Communist Party of Hungary. After fighting at the front in World War II , he re-founded the Hungarian Communist Party with Rákosi and Ernö Gerö in November 1944. Farkas was a member of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party , as his party was officially called. He was responsible for the military and the police . In the parliamentary elections in 1945 , however, the communists only got just under seventeen percent of the vote, which was a huge disappointment. Four years later, however, one was to become the highest force in the country.

Mihály Farkas (center) with Sándor Rónai

In September 1948 Farkas took over the post of Hungarian Defense Minister . As the holder of this office, he promoted the development of the Hungarian army as an ally of the Soviet Union . As a reference to Stalin's political cleansing , where people critical of the regime or other ethnic groups were persecuted, tortured and killed in prison camps, Mihály Farkas organized political cleansing in Hungary together with his communist partners such as Ernö Gerö and Mátyás Rákosi . For example, Farkas and his friends accused the Jews of making a Zionist conspiracy against Raoul Wallenberg , the savior of the Jews from World War II , which led to his death. In reality, however, Wallenberg was abducted to a Soviet camp after the war and died there. The communists used the accusation against the Jews to torture and murder them. Other famous victims of the purges in Hungary were László Rajk , former foreign minister , and later party leader János Kádár . In 1953 Farkas was dismissed from all his offices, which the Soviet government revised. Instead, Farkas became head of the Department of Agitation and Propaganda in the Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers' Party.

Shortly after he took over the post of head of the department for agitation and propaganda, he went on the offensive against Imre Nagy , who wanted to pursue a reform course. However, that meant the end of his political career. Although he remained a member of the central committee until 1955, he continued to publicly criticize the new ruler in Hungary . In 1955, however, he lost his post on the Central Committee and was transferred to the Russian Military Academy . In March 1956 the Central Committee of the Communist Party investigated him for his involvement in the show trials related to the Stalinist purge . He was demoted from general to soldier in the army and was arrested a little later. A short time later, the rumor spread that Farkas had been murdered by former Purge friends so that he would not incriminate others. However, that turned out to be wrong. In 1957 Farkas was sentenced to six years in prison. The sentence was increased to 16 years a little later after the case was reopened. However, after almost four years in prison, he was pardoned in 1960.

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personal data
SURNAME Farkas, Mihály
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian communist politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Abaújszántó
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1965
Place of death Budapest