Ernő Gerő | |
|---|---|
%2c_Bestanddeelnr_914-2279_(cropped).jpg) | |
| First Secretary of theHungarian Working People's Party | |
| In office 18 July 1956 – 25 October 1956 | |
| Preceded by | Mátyás Rákosi |
| Succeeded by | János Kádár |
| Minister of the Interior | |
| In office 4 July 1953 – 6 June 1954 | |
| Prime Minister | Imre Nagy |
| Preceded by | József Györe |
| Succeeded by | László Piros |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 3 December 1948 – 11 June 1949 | |
| Prime Minister | Lajos DinnyésIstván Dobi |
| Preceded by | Miklós Nyárádi |
| Succeeded by | István Kossa |
| Minister of Transport[a] | |
| In office 11 May 1945 – 18 February 1949 | |
| Prime Minister | Béla MiklósZoltán TildyFerenc NagyLajos DinnyésIstván Dobi |
| Preceded by | Gábor József |
| Succeeded by | Lajos Bebrits |
| Member of theHigh National Council | |
| In office 26 January 1945 – 11 May 1945 Serving with Béla Miklós andBéla Zsedényi | |
| Preceded by | Ferenc Szálasi(as Leader of the Nation) |
| Succeeded by | József Révai |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ernő Singer (1898-07-08)8 July 1898 |
| Died | 12 March 1980(1980-03-12) (aged 81) |
| Party | Hungarian Communist Party(1918–1942) Hungarian Working People's Party(1942–1956) Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party(1956–1962) |
| Spouse | Erzsébet Fazekas (died 1967) |
| Children | 3 |
Ernő Gerő ([ˈɛrnøːˈɡɛrøː]; bornErnő Singer; 8 July 1898 – 12 March 1980) was a HungarianCommunist leader in the period afterWorld War II and briefly the most powerful man in Hungary in 1956, as leader of the rulingHungarian Working People's Party.
Gerő was born inTerbegec, Hont County of theKingdom of Hungary (nowTrebušovce,Slovakia) as one of 10 children to Jewish parents, although he later repudiated religion. His father was a retail merchant. Gerő completed his secondary education inÚjpest outside Budapest and then enrolled inmedical school. A member of theHungarian Communist Party from its foundation in November 1918, he abandoned his studies when theHungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed and became a permanent member of the Young Communists. When the revolution was crushed, Singer emigrated toVienna, and participated in organizational work in a number of foreign locations. He returned illegally to Hungary in September 1921 and was arrested after twelve months. Sentenced to 16 years in prison, he was released with a group of Communists after a year and a half following a prisoner exchange agreement between Moscow and Budapest, and subsequently deported to theSoviet Union.
Already speaking seven languages, he was hired by theComintern in 1925, which immediately sent him to a factory for six months to learn Russian; he was then sent toFrance, where he headed the Hungarian subsection of theFrench Communist Party until 1928. From his arrival to the Soviet Union, Gerő was an activeNKVD agent, and performed foreign assignments for the NKVD and the Comintern inBelgium,Sweden,Finland andYugoslavia. He also fought in theSpanish Civil War, during which he performed purges againstTrotskyist groups in theInternational Brigades.[1]
The outbreak of theSecond World WarinEurope found him inMoscow again, and he remained there for the duration of the war. After the dissolution of theCommunist International in 1943, he was in charge of propaganda directed at enemy forces and prisoners of war. Gerő was among the first Communist functionaries to return to Hungary in early November 1944, and later that month participated in discussions in Moscow detailing the terms of Hungary's surrender in the war. Back in Hungary in December, he was one of the main organizers of the provisional assembly which concluded an armistice with the victorious powers. Gerő finally settled in Budapest during the last stages of theBudapest offensive in January 1945, and began heading the party apparatus in the capital.[1] He served as a member of theHigh National Council, Hungary's provisional government, from 26 January until 11 May 1945, when he was appointed Minister of Trade and Transport (from 15 November 1945 only Minister of Transport).[2]
In theNovember 1945 election, the Hungarian Communist Party, under Gerő andMátyás Rákosi, got 17 % of the vote, compared to 57 % for theIndependent Smallholders' Party, but the Soviet commander in Hungary, MarshalKliment Voroshilov, installed acoalition government with communists in key posts.[citation needed] In June 1948 Gerő became a member of the Secretariat of theHungarian Working People's Party, formed following a forged merger between the Hungarian Communist Party and theSocial Democratic Party of Hungary, and was appointed deputy to General Secretary Mátyás Rákosi in November.[2] In theMay 1949 election the Hungarian Independent People's Front, a coalition headed by the Hungarian Working People's Party, won an absolute majority of the vote and took full control. Gerő andMihály Farkas were Rákosi's right-hand men,[citation needed] with Gerő serving as Chairman of the National Economic Council and heading thecollectivization of agriculture.[2]
Rákosi took over thepremiership as well in 1952. However, his authority was shaken a year later by the death ofStalin, when the more reform-mindedImre Nagy took over as Prime Minister. Gerő was retained as a counterweight to the reformers. In June 1953, Gerő took part in a party delegation to Moscow, after which he adopted a self-critical stance regarding the political and economic mistakes and excesses committed since 1948; however, this did not lead to a change in policy. From July 1953 to June 1954 he served as Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister under Nagy.[2] Rákosi, having thus far managed to regain control, was finally undermined byNikita Khrushchev's so-called "Secret Speech" denouncingStalinism in early 1956, and was forced to leave office on 18 July 1956 byAnastas Mikoyan. He retained enough influence for the Hungarian Working People's Party to designate Gerő as his successor as First Secretary.[citation needed]
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Gerő led the country for a brief period of just over three months, known as the Gerő Interregnum, starting on 18 July 1956; however, his close association with Rákosi made his leadership unacceptable for large parts of the Hungarian population.[2] On 23 October, students marched through Budapest intending to present a petition to the government. The procession swelled, prompting Gerő to reply with a harsh speech that angered the people, as police opened fire. It proved to be the start of theHungarian Revolution of 1956.[3] His inability to quell the protests caused Gerő to lose support from the Soviets.[2] As the revolution spread throughout the country, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Working People's Party met on 25 October and agreed thatJános Kádár, a former government minister who had been imprisoned on trumped-up charges of espionage between 1951 and 1954, be made party leader, and that Imre Nagy, the former Prime Minister who had been dismissed due to political differences with the party's Stalinist wing, again be made Prime Minister.[citation needed]
On 28 October 1956, the deposed Gerő was evacuated from Hungary to the Soviet Union, where he was given a position at the Institute of Economics of theAcademy of Sciences. On 9 May 1957, he was stripped of his parliamentary mandate and his membership of thePresidential Council. He was finally allowed to return from exile in April 1960; in August 1962, a resolution of the Central Committee of theHungarian Socialist Workers' Party (which had succeeded the former Hungarian Working People's Party) established Gerő's responsibility for the violations and excesses committed in the 1950s, and expelled him from the party. During his retirement he lived in seclusion in Budapest, working as an occasional translator. In 1977 he sought to be readmitted as a member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, but his application was rejected.[2] He died in Budapest in 1980 at the age of 81.[4]
His character plays a central role inVilmos Kondor's 2012 novel,Budapest Noir.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister of Finance 1948–1949 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1953–1954 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | General Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party 18 July 1956 – 25 October 1956 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
