ANDRáS HEGEDűS

'András Hegedűs' (31 October 1922 - 23 October 1999) is a Hungarian Communist politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1955 to 1956. Hegedűs fled to the Soviet Union on 28 October, the fifth day of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Hegedűs returned to Hungary in 1958 and taught sociology.

Contents

Early years

1945-1990

Post communism

Further reading

Early years

Coming from a poor family, he finished high school in Sopron at the Evangelical Academy. Hegedus first became involved in the underground communist movement during his university years when he studied railway engineering at Budapest Technical University in 1942. He was not able to finish his studies and was put under house arrest in the August of 1944 for two years but managed to escape at the end of November. He became part of the interim government on June 24, 1945.

1945-1990

In 1947 he married Hölzel Zsuzsanna; they had six children. From 1948 onwards Hegedus became involved with the Hungarian Worker's Party eventually taking on leading roles. From the early 1950s he took on numerous ministerial portfolios and served as Prime Minister from April 18, 1955 to October 24, 1956.
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★ 1956 Revolution and its aftermath'
After signing the document asking Soviet troops for assistance during the revolution on October 24, the government and people overwhelmingly supported him handing power to Imre Nagy. He became the most hated man in Hungary and was advised to flee by
Soviet ambassador Yuri Andropov to the Soviet Union along with other Hungarian hard liners such as Erno Gero. In Moscow, he worked as part of the philosophy department at the Soviet Academy of Sciences between 1957 and 1958. In the November of 1956 the interim committee of the Communist party shut him out of the party but by September of 1958 he was able to return home.
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★ Academic career following return'
From the late 1950s he held numerous academic posts and worked in various research institutes:
1958-61: Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) Economic Institute
1961-63: Central Statistics Institute
1963-68: Founded and led the HAS Sociology Research Institute
1966: Karl Marx Economics University
1968-73: Industry Studies
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★ Dismissal'
In 1968 he objected to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring. He was dismissed from his position at the Sociology Research Institute and later in 1973 was shut out of the Communist Party for his differing political and ideological views. He became a pensioner from 1975 to 1982 when he was allowed to teach at the Economics University.

Post communism

Following the collapse of Communism in 1990, Hegedus founded the Worker's Academy. He was often interviewed about the events of 1956 by local and foreign news teams, as he was one of the few survivors from the government of that time.
Parts translated from Wikipedia Hungary.

Further reading

★ Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, , Victor, Sebestyen, Pantheon, , ISBN 0-375-42458-X