Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who served briefly as Prime Minister of Hungary in 1953 and again during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He implemented reforms in 1953-55 but was expelled from political life by the Soviet Union. During the 1956 revolution, he was appointed Prime Minister and withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact while calling for free elections and Soviet withdrawal. However, he was arrested by the Soviet Union, imprisoned, and executed in 1958 after a show trial. Nagy became a symbol of the revolution and was later exonerated.
2. Imre Nagy was born in Kaposvár
He dropped out of the secondary school
because his father lost his job
He worked as a locksmith, and he was also
employed in a lawyer’s office
3. During the World War I he fought on the
Italian and the Russian fronts
In 1920 he joined the Hungarian Communist
Party, and later he also became the member
of the Russian Communist Party.
4. In 1921 he returned to Kaposvár where he actively
participated in the local Social Democratic Party and
Trade Union.
Imre Nagy was expelled from the party and became a
founding member of the Socialist Workers’ Party of
Hungary.
He was arrested several times and in 1928 he fled to
Vienna, Austria.
5. In 1930 he emigrated with his family to Moscow
He became the editor in chief of Radio Kossuth broadcast from
Tbilisi during the World War II.
With his family in 1930
6. In 1944 he became the Minister of Agriculture of the
Provisional Government, he implemented the land
reform in 1945
In 1952 he was the Minister for Farm Deliveries then
Deputy Prime Minister
7. Prime Minister on 4th July 1953
In 1954 he started political and economic reform, for
example, higher wages, lower prices and quitting agricultural
cooperatives
8. In 1955 he was expelled from all state and party offices
He was also excluded from the Communist Party
He lived in home guard
He strongly criticised the Stalinist regime, the personality cult
and dictatorship
9. On 23 October 1956 the demonstrating mass in Budapest claimed
Nagy’s appointment to be the head of government
He was accepted next day
On 28 October he called for a cease-fire
On 30 October he announced the multi-party system
On 1 November he announced Hungary’s neutrality and its
withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact
He asked UN and the Security Council for help
10. On 4 November on Tito’s
invitation Nagy and his
colleagues with their families
sought refuge at the
Yugoslavian Embassy.
On 22 November Imre Nagy
and his colleagues were
kidnapped by the KGB and
driven to Romania. This action
was led by János Kádár (the
Prime Minister of Hungary)
and his administration.
11. In April 1957 Imre Nagy and
his colleagues were arrested
and transported to a jail in
Budapest
Their families remained in
Romania as hostages
On 21 December 1957 their
political trial began
In the show trial Nagy denied
the charges against him and
maintained his belief that the
revolution was a pure
movement
12. He was sentenced to death on
15 July 1958 and refused to
apply for clemency.
On 16 June 1958 at 5 am he
was executed
His body was transported to
the most distant section of the
nearby cemetery in 1961.
He was buried face-down
amongst the remains of
criminals and zoo animals
under the female name
Piroska Borbíró.
13. In 1989 he and other martyrs
were exhumed, and a funeral
ceremony was held on the
Heroes’ Square in Budapest on
16 June
The Supreme Court declared
him innocent, and in 1996 the
Parliament passed a law to
eternally engrave Imre Nagy’s
name on the nation’s mind.
Imre Nagy remained faithful to
his beliefs and to the country
and the revolution until his
death.
His figure has become an
example of morality and a
symbol of loyalty.
