The life and rule of Hungarian Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi (9 March 1852-5 February 1971; served as de facto leader of the People's Republic of Hungary between 1945 and 1956).

1. By: Benedict Gombocz

2.  Mátyás Rákosi was born Mátyás Rosenfeld on 9
March 1892 in Ada, Austria-Hungary (now Ada,
Serbia).
 Served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World
War I.
 Was captured by the Russians and spent the
majority of the war in a prison camp in Russia.

3.  Joined the Hungarian Communist
Party upon returning to Hungary
in 1918.
 Was commander of the Red Guard
in the Hungarian Soviet Republic
established by Béla Kun in March
1919.
 Admiral Miklós Horthy, the
commander-in-chief of the
Imperial and Royal Fleet, returned
to Hungary in November 1919 in
the midst of the Hungarian-
Romanian War and led the
successful overthrow of Kun’s
government.
 Rákosi escaped to Russia; with
Joseph Stalin’s support, he became
Secretary of Comintern.

4.  Rákosi returned to
Hungary in 1924, only
to be imprisoned by
Horthy’s government.
 Escaped to the Soviet
Union upon his release
in 1940 and stayed in
Moscow for the
remainder of World
War II.

5.  When the Red Army drove the Nazis
out of Hungary in 1945, Rákosi
returned from hiding and became
General Secretary of the Hungarian
Communist Party.
 In the free elections held in November
1945, the Hungarian Communist Party
received only 20% of the votes.
 However, the Communists took over
Hungary because they filled all the
important posts; Rákosi emerged as
the most important political figure in
Hungary.
 The Hungarian Communist Party
became the biggest single party in 1947
elections and served in the coalition
People’s Independence Front
government.

6.  The communists, with Rákosi as
prime minister, gradually took
control of the government.
 When foreign secretary László Rajk
openly criticized attempts by Joseph
Stalin to impose Stalinist policies on
Hungary, he was arrested, convicted
of treason and executed.
 Nothing could stop Rákosi from
imposing authoritarian rule; nearly
2,000 people were executed and
more than 100,000 were arrested.
 These brutal policies were opposed
even by some members of the
Hungarian Communist Party;
around 200,000 were expelled by
Rákosi from the party.

8.  Rákosi faced great difficulty in managing the Hungarian
economy and living standards in Hungary dropped.
 His government’s popularity declined significantly; when Joseph
Stalin died in March 1953, Rákosi was replaced as prime minister
by Imre Nagy.
 Nevertheless, he remained the General Secretary of the
Hungarian Communist Party; over the following three years,
Rákosi and Nagy fought in a bitter struggle for power.
 In 1956, he was ousted from power ; he was expelled from the
Hungarian Communist Party in 1962.
 Following his expulsion, Rákosi went into exile in the Soviet
Union and died in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) on 5 February
1971, almost 36 days short of his 79th birthday.

9.  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.
co.uk/COLDrakosi.htm