György Aczél | |
|---|---|
_Fortepan_89111.jpg) György Aczél in 1978 | |
| First Deputy Minister of Culture | |
| In office 10 February 1958 – 18 April 1967 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1917-08-31)31 August 1917 |
| Died | 6 December 1991(1991-12-06) (aged 74) |
| Political party | MKP(1935–1948) MDP(1948–56) MSZMP(1956–89) |
| Profession | politician |
György Aczél (bornHenrik Appel; 31 August 1917 – 6 December 1991) was a Hungariancommunist politician.[1] He became a member of the then illegalHungarian Communist Party in 1935, and was a founding member of thePolitical Committee (Hu:Politikai Bizottság) of theHungarian Socialist Workers' Party in 1956. He was a deputy minister from 1958 to 1967, later, as one of the leaders of the Party'sCentral Committee (Hu:Központi Bizottság) the most influential figure in socialist culture politics.[2]
He was born as Henrik Appel into a poor Jewish family in Budapest. His father, Gyula Appel was acoachman and abutcher's assistant, his mother, Aranka Weimann was atypist. After his father's death in 1925 who froze to death in aslaughterhouse he was brought up in anorphanage where he also carried out his studies. Later he became abricklayer's assistant. He changed his family name in 1936 and his first name about at the end of the 1930s, but only in 1946 and in 1955 he officially became Aczél and György, respectively.
He was married in 1939 and two daughters were born from his marriage. He mostly educated himself in anautodidact way, furthermore, he completed the autumn semester at theAcademy of Drama and Film besides his work. He started to work as an amateuractor and as a performer. In the beginning, he acted in thecompany stagione ofNándor Alapi, he performed in several minor roles inBudapest, but he also played inGyőr,Pécs andBalassagyarmat. On 24 December 1938, he held an independent performance at theLiszt Academy. In January 1939 he had his own declamation of poems ofEndre Ady,Ferenc Kölcsey,Gyula Illyés,Mihály Babits,Dezső Kosztolányi andLőrinc Szabó. The upcoming anti-Jewish laws blocked him from stage. Between 1942 and 1944 he performed on several occasions in theGoldmark Hall of the Liszt Academy. In the framework of theOMIKE Art Exhibition, and was often featured in the workshops of the workers' organised meetings.
At the beginning of the 1930s he joined theHashomer Hatzair youth movement, and in 1935 he joined the then illegalCommunist Party. At the beginning of 1942 he was arrested for illegal communist activities and locked in the prison ofVác. At the end of 1942 he was summoned tolabor service where he managed to disassemble himself and return to Budapest. During theGerman occupation of Hungary and theArrow Cross Party's seizure of power in 1944, he was baptized as aRoman Catholic for the sake of theJews who were being hidden by him or through him.
Following theSoviet Occupation of Hungary in 1945, he was first a member of the re-forming communist party'sBudapest Party Committee (Hu: Budapesti Pártbizottság), later he joined its organisation in the5th district (Hu:V. Kerületi Pártbizottság), and from August 1946 he worked in itsZemplén county office. In the1947 "blue-ballot" election he was elected to theParliament. He was re-elected in theMay 1949 elections, but only two months later, on 6 July, he was arrested and sentenced to alife imprisonment in one of theshow trials ofLászló Rajk. He was released on 25 August 1954, and rehabilitated on 1 September. On 1 November, he was appointed director of theNr. 23 State Construction Company, but he could not get a political position.
During theHungarian Revolution of 1956, he participated in the armoured defense of the party's headquarters in the 5th district. ion, he immediately joinedJános Kádár's new regime, and on 31 October, he became the founding member of theHungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) and he was elected a member of itsCentral Committee (Hu:Központi Bizottság). In the judgment of the revolution and the role ofImre Nagy, he represented the party's "softer" line.
After the Soviet troops crushed the revolt, on 13 April 1957, he was appointedDeputy Minister of Culture. He served as First Deputy Minister of Culture from 10 February 1958 until 18 April 1967. In this position, he gradually grew up (especially underPál Ilku's ministership) as a leading cultural politician of the Kádár regime. As a result, Ilku was sarcastically named as theFirst Superior Minister of Culture, as Aczél functioned as thede facto head of the ministry. In a letter to the political committee in the summer of 1957, he raised the notorious "three Ts". The three T letters are an abbreviation of the Hungarian words fortiltott, tűrt, támogatott (En:prohibited, tolerated, supported). This attitude became a real, common practice only in the sixties and seventies.
Within its ideological boundaries, his activity was characterized bypragmatism. Due to his extensive personal relationships and his friendship with János Kádár, the powerful leader of the country and the state partyMSZMP, he has had a much greater influence on cultural policy and day-to-day practice. He was in a close contact with important personalities of literary-intellectual life, likeZoltán Kodály,Gyula Illyés andGyörgy Lukács. On 12 April 1967, he was appointed secretary of the Central Committee of theMSZMP and was entrusted with the general control of cultural life in this capacity. In 1971, he became chairman of the newly formed cultural policy working group within the Central Committee, and held his office until 20 March 1974. Meanwhile, he was elected to thePolitical Committee of theMSZMP (Hu:Politikai Bizottság) on 28 November 1970. He was forced to leave the post under the pressure of thehardlineleftist party faction opposing the1968 economic-social reforms, but as "consolation" he was elected the vice-president of the Council of Ministers (i.e. Deputy Prime Minister) the following day, on 21 March, as well as the chairman of the State Committee for theKossuth Prize, and in 1980 the chairman of the National Council for Public Education.
He resigned from all these positions in 1982, when he returned to his former position in the Central Committee on 23 July. Nevertheless, his career and influence was already in decline. Finally, he was dismissed on 28 March 1985. Subsequently, he was Director General of the Party'sSocial Sciences Institute (Hu:Társadalomtudományi Intézet) until his retirement in October 1989, and remained a member of the Political Committee until 22 May 1988, when he was not re-elected at the 1988 Party Congress.
He played an important role in the failure ofKároly Grósz in June 1989 at the Central Committee meeting although he was no longer a member of it. When theMSZMP was officially abolished on 7 October 1989, Aczél retired from politics and began writing hismemoirs, but he could not finish it: he died on 6 December 1991.
Not long before his death, Aczél rediscovered his Jewish roots and traveled to Israel.[3]
