Mate Zalka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Máté Zalka (April 23, 1896, Matolcs, Hungary - June 11, 1937, Huesca, Spain) was a Hungarian writer and revolutionary. His real name was Béla Frankl. He attended Polgári Iskola (high school) in Mátészalka, which was later renamed in his honour. (The name was later changed again when communism became unpopular). He lied about his age to get as a volunteer into the Hungarian Army when he was 18 years old.

Officer of hussars Zalka fought in Italy which later became the subject of his novel "Doberdó". He went to battle on the Russian front in 1917 and ended up in a Russian prisoner of war camp where he failed under the spell of Communism. After end of the WWI Zalka instead of returning to Hungary decided to stay in Russia (he met his Russian wife Vera. They had one daughter, who later died due to complications from the accident at Chernobyl).

During Russian Civil War he organized in 1918 a Hungarian unit of the Red Guards in Khabarovsk. Commander regiment of the Red Army, fought in the Crimea and Ukraine. At some point he fought in a war of liberation for Turkey under the assumed name of Lukács Tábornok (General Lukács), and for his efforts was honored with a statue of his likeness in Istanbul.

While he was in the prisoners of war camp he organized the prisoners´ theatre. Director of the famous "Theatre of Revolution" (now called "Mayakovsky Theatre") in Moscow (1925-1928).

In November, 1936 he joined the International Brigades and led the 12th Brigade (later, 45th Division) against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In 1937, his car came under bombardment and he was killed near Huesca, Spain.

Zalka is mentioned in a number of works of Hemingway.

His remains were originally buried in the south of Spain but decades after his death, Zalka's nephew (who also fought in the Spanish war) was invited by the Spanish royal family to a ceremony celebrating the end of the civil war. At this point he was able to carry Zalka's remains to Hungary where they were buried in a military cemetery in Budapest along with other high-ranking Hungarian military heroes.

[edit] References

This article was written by his niece, daughter of his sister Paula Fankl. She remains in possession of several original documents written by her Uncle Bela and has recorded his history for personal reasons over the years.