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Revision as of 07:49, 6 April 2009 by Monegasque (talk | contribs) (Category.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Ernő Gerő | |
|---|---|
| General Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party | |
| In office July 18,1956 – October 25,1956 | |
| Preceded by | Mátyás Rákosi |
| Succeeded by | János Kádár |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1898-07-08)July 8, 1898 Terbegec, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | March 12, 1980(1980-03-12) (aged 81) Budapest, Hungary |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Political party | Hungarian Communist Party, Hungarian Working People's Party |
Ernő Gerő (born Ernő Singer) (July 8, 1898 - March 12, 1980) was a Hungarian Communist leader in the period after World War II and briefly in 1956 the most powerful man in Hungary as first secretary of its ruling communist party.
Gerő was born in Terbegec, Hungary (now Trebušovce, Slovakia) to Jewish parents, though he later totally repudiated religion. An early Hungarian communist, Gerő fled from Hungary to the Soviet Union after Béla Kun's brief communist government was overthrown in August 1919. During his two decades living in the USSR, Gerő was an active KGB agent. Through that association, Gerő was involved in Comintern -- the international organization of communists -- in France, and also fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Ernő Gerő was a member of Hungary's High National Council (provisional government) between January 26, and May 11, 1945.
In the November 1945 elections, Hungary, the Hungarian Communist Party, under Gerő and Mátyás Rákosi got 17% of the vote, compared to 57% for the Smallholders' Party, but the Soviet Commander in Hungary, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov installed a coalition government with Communists in key posts. The Communists took control in 1948, with Rákosi as party leader, Prime Minister (and effective head of state), with Gerő and Mihály Farkas as his right-hand men. Rákosi's authority was shaken in 1953 by the death of Stalin, when the Soviet Union insisted on Imre Nagy taking over as prime minister, but Gerő was retained as a counterweight to the reformers. Rákosi, having managed to regain control, was then undermined by Khrushchev's secret speech in early 1956 denouncing Stalinism, and forced to leave office on 18 July 1956, although he was able to designate Gerő to succeed him as party leader.
Gerő was forced by local envoys of the Soviet Politburo to resign on October 25, 1956, during the second day of the Hungarian Uprising, after being blamed for ineptly responding to it. Gerő fled to the Soviet Union, but after the revolution was crushed, he was prevented from returning from Moscow by the counter-revolutionary regime of János Kádár until 1960, when he was stripped of his Communist Party membership. Back in Budapest, Gerő worked as an occasional translator during his retirement.
| Preceded byMátyás Rákosi | General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party 1956 |
Succeeded byJános Kádár |
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