András Hegedüs

András Hegedüs

András Hegedüs in 1956
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary
In office
18 April 1955 – 24 October 1956
Preceded by Imre Nagy
Succeeded by Imre Nagy
Personal details
Born (1922-10-31)31 October 1922
Szilsárkány, Hungary
Died 23 October 1999(1999-10-23) (aged 76)
Budapest, Hungary
Nationality Hungarian
Political party Hungarian Communist Party,
Hungarian Working People's Party,
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party

András Hegedüs (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈɒndraːʃ ˈhɛɡɛdyʃ]; 31 October 1922 – 23 October 1999) was a Hungarian Communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1955 to 1956. He fled to the Soviet Union on 28 October, the fifth day of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, but returned in 1958 and taught sociology.

    Early years

    Coming from a poor family, he finished high school in Sopron at the Evangelical Academy. Hegedüs 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 1944 for two years but managed to escape at the end of November. He became part of the interim government on 24 June 1945.

    1945–1990

    In 1947 he married Zsuzsanna Hölzel; they had six children. From 1948 onwards Hegedüs became involved with the Hungarian Working People's Party eventually taking on leading roles. From the early 1950s he took on numerous ministerial portfolios and served as Prime Minister from 18 April 1955 to 24 October 1956.

    András Hegedüs in the Parliament in summer 1956.

    After signing the document asking Soviet troops for assistance during the revolution on 24 October, 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 hardliners such as Ernő Gerő. In Moscow, he worked as part of the philosophy department at the Soviet Academy of Sciences between 1957 and 1958. In the November 1956 the interim committee of the Communist party shut him out of the party but by September 1958 he was able to return home.

    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

    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, Hegedüs 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. He died on the anniversary of the start of the Hungarian revolution.

    Selected publications

    Books

    Essays

    Further reading

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    Political offices
    Preceded by
    Ferenc Erdei    		 Minister of Agriculture
    1953–1954     		Succeeded by
    Ferenc Erdei
    Preceded by
    Imre Nagy    		 Prime Minister of Hungary
    1955–1956     		Succeeded by
    Imre Nagy
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