RÁKOSI, MÁTYÁS

RÁKOSI, MÁTYÁS (1892–1971), Hungarian Communist dictator. Born in Ada (then Hungary), Rákosi was the son of a small shopkeeper. He completed his studies at the Budapest Oriental Academy and after working as a bank clerk in Budapest and Hamburg, went to England where he became active in the socialist movement. During World War i he fought in the Austro-Hungarian army until 1915 when he was taken prisoner by the Russians. Following the October Revolution of 1917, Rákosi joined the Red Army and the Communist Party and returned to Hungary with Béla *Kun. He was made deputy commissioner of trade in Kun's Hungarian soviet republic (1919) and with the suppression of the regime in the same year, fled to the Soviet Union. He returned to Hungary secretly in 1924 to organize the illegal Communist Party, and was arrested and sentenced to death. Following the intervention of leading intellectuals abroad such as Romain Rolland his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. In 1940 he was released and settled in the Soviet Union where he became the leading figure and propagandist among the Hungarian exiles in Moscow.

Rákosi returned to Hungary in 1944, and reorganized the Hungarian Communist Party. Between 1945 and 1948 he served as deputy leader of a coalition government, but step by step he removed the other parties from political life and assumed dictatorial powers. From 1949 he removed all traces of the former regime, among them leaders of the Catholic Church, Social Democrats, and even Communists and secret police chiefs. Rákosi conducted his policy in strict conformity with the Stalinist line. After Stalin's death (1953) he was summoned to Moscow and severely criticized for the failure of his economic policy. He resigned but was recalled to the premiership in the following year and remained in power until the summer of 1956, shortly before the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution. Once again, he was obliged to flee to the Soviet Union but after the rebellion's suppression did not return to Hungary until shortly before his death. Rákosi did not take any interest in Jewish affairs and tried to hide his Jewish origins. His policy of trials against Zionists, the confiscation of private enterprises, and the transfer of populations from the large cities caused great suffering to many Jews.

bibliography:

M.M. Drachkovits and B. Lazitch (eds.), The Comintern: Historical Highlights (1966); T. Aczél and M. Méray, The Revolt of the Mind (1959).

[Baruch Yaron]