Miklós Somogyi

Miklós Somogyi (born September 14, 1896 in Abony , Pest County , Kingdom of Hungary , † December 28, 1980 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian politician in the Communist Party KMP (Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja) , the party of the Hungarian working people MDP (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja ) and finally the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party MSZMP (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt) , who was, among other things, Minister of State and General Secretary of the National Council of Trade Unions (Szakszervezetek Országos Tanácsa) . On February 26, 1957, he was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the MSZMP and belonged to this top management body of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party until the IX. Congress on December 3, 1966.

Life

Vocational training and union official

Somogyi, whose father worked in various professions and managed a small farm of seven hectares, left school at the age of fourteen to begin a professional training as a carpenter . After completing his apprenticeship on September 1, 1913, he went to Germany and Belgium as a journeyman in order to expand his professional knowledge. During the First World War he joined the Royal Hungarian Landwehr and last served in a regiment at the front in Italy , where he was taken prisoner on November 3, 1918.

After his release from captivity and his return to Hungary in December 1919, he worked as a craftsman in the villages of Pest County such as Abony, Őrszentmiklós, Sashalom, Rákosszentmihály and Mátyásföld until the end of the Second World War . After joining the construction workers' union , the National Association of Hungarian Workers (Magyarországi Földmunkások Országos Szövetségébe) and the Social Democratic Party MSZDP (Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt) in 1923, he began his union and political involvement. In 1928 he became a member of the central board of the construction workers' union and in 1930 head of the carpentry department and in 1933 vice-president of this union. As such, he was one of the co-organizers of the 48-hour strike of construction workers in 1933 and of the strike to introduce the minimum wage for construction workers in 1935 .

Second World War

Somogyi joined the illegal Communist Party KMP (Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja) in 1940 and became chairman of the construction workers' union in 1941. During this time he was also involved in a group inspired by the ethnographer István Györffy , who died in 1939, to promote Hungarian folklore and also participated in the formation of a national commemorative committee. In the following years he organized demonstrations such as on March 15, 1942 and was arrested two years later on March 26, 1944 for his political activities and taken to the Nagykanizsa internment camp because he refused to cooperate between his union and the government of Prime Minister Döme Sztójay .

After his release in September 1944, Somogyi became a representative of the Communist Party on a committee for the organization of military resistance. On October 12, 1944, negotiations also took place with the regime of Reich Administrator Miklós Horthy and the former Prime Minister István Bethlen , which ultimately failed. He then volunteered in the Artúr Görgey battalion in the armed struggle against the Horthy regime before he was arrested by Red Army troops . Shortly thereafter, however, he was released and took part in the fighting to take Gödöllő , Horthy's summer residence, and then in the Debrecen operation .

post war period

Deputy and Minister of State

After the end of the war, Somogyi moved with his family to Budapest in 1945 and took part in the development of the trade union and party organization.

On April 2, 1945, he was elected a member of the Provisional National Assembly (Ideiglenes Nemzetgyűlés) and in May 1945 appointed as Minister of State to the Provisional Government (Ideiglenes Nemzeti Kormány) of Prime Minister Béla Miklós . He held this government office until September 27, 1945.

In the elections of November 4, 1945, August 31, 1947 and May 15, 1949 he was elected Member of Parliament (Országgyűlés) on the list of the Communist Party and the National Popular Front (Magyar Függetlenségi Népfront) . In the autumn of 1948 he played a leading role in the merger of the trade unions to form the National Council of the Trade Unions SZOT (Szakszervezetek Országos Tanácsa) and thus to a trade union umbrella organization.

In 1949 he became chairman of the construction workers' union, but lost this post in the spring of 1950 and then only performed subordinate tasks in the union.

Hungarian popular uprising, politburo member and general secretary of the SZOT

In 1956 he became director of the brick and building ceramics factory Épületkerámia Vállalat . After the popular uprising , he first became vice-chairman on October 31, 1956, and then chairman of the National Council of Trade Unions on December 2, 1956, after calling on the support of Prime Minister János Kádár's government in a radio address on November 9, 1956 . At the end of 1956 he was again chairman of the trade union for construction, wood and building materials industry workers and held this position until the end of 1960.

In November 1956 Somogyi was elected a member of the Central Committee (ZK) of the MSZMP and belonged to it until his death. On February 26, 1957, he was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the MSZMP and belonged to this top management body of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party until the IX. Congress on December 3, 1966. He was also elected chairman of the Central Party Control Commission at this party congress, but lost this position in December 1959.

In February 1958 he succeeded Sándor Gáspár General Secretary of the SZOT and held this position as chairman of the umbrella organization of the trade unions until his resignation on June 28, 1965. His predecessor Sándor Gáspár, who had been the first secretary of the MSZMP party leadership until then, was succeeded Budapest was.

In the elections of November 16, 1958, he was re-elected as a member of parliament and represented Veszprém County in this until January 28, 1967 .

On the XXI. At the Congress of the National Council of Trade Unions, Somogyi was elected chairman of the examination board on May 6, 1967, and held this position until December 8, 1975. He was also a member of the National Partisan Movement Committee (Magyar Partizánszövetség) until his death .

Web links

• Entry in Történelmi Tár (Hungarian)