Ernest Gero
was born in Hungary
in 1888. He became a member
of the Hungarian Communist Party and was a member of Comintern
in France and in the 1930s took part in the
Spanish Civil War.
In elections held in November,
1945, the Smallholders Party won 57% of the vote. The Hungarian Workers
Party, now under the leadership of Matyas
Rakosi and Gero, received support from only 17% of the population.
The Soviet commander in Hungary, Marshal Voroshilov, refused to allow
the Smallholders Party to form a government. Instead Voroshilov established
a coalition government with the communists holding some of the key
posts.
Zoltan
Tildy, was named president and Frenc Nagy
prime minister, both of the Smallholders Party. Matyas
Rakosi became deputy prime minister. In
February 1947 Soviet troops began arresting leaders of the Smallholders
Party and the National Peasant Party. Several prominent figures in
both parties escaped abroad. Later Matyas
Rakosi boasted that he had dealt with his partners in the government,
one by one, "cutting them off like slices of salami."
The Hungarian Communist
Party became the largest single party in the elections in 1947 and
served in the coalition People's Independence Front government. The
communists gradually gained control of the government and by 1948
the Social Democratic Party ceased to exist as an independent organization.
Its leader, Bela Kovacs was arrested
and sent to Siberia.
Matyas
Rakosi also demanded complete obedience from fellow members of
the Hungarian Workers Party. When Laszlo
Rajk, the foreign
secretary, criticised attempts by Joseph Stalin
to impose Stalinist policies on Hungary
he was arrested and in September 1949 he was executed. Janos
Kadar and other
dissidents were also purged from the party during this period.
Matyas
Rakosi now attempted to impose authoritarian rule on Hungary.
An estimated 2,000 people were executed and over 100,000 were imprisoned.
These policies were opposed by some members of the Hungarian Workers
Party and around 200,000 were expelled by Rakosi from the organization.
Rakosi rapidly expanded
the education system in Hungary. This was an attempt to replace the
educated class of the past by what Rakosi called a new "toiling
intelligentsia". Communist indoctrination took place in schools
and universities. Religious instruction was denounced as propaganda
and was gradually eliminated from schools.
Rakosi's power was undermined
by a speech made by Nikita
Khrushchev in February 1956. He denounced the policies
of Joseph Stalin and his followers in
Eastern Europe. He also claimed that the trial of Laszlo
Rajk had been
a "miscarriage of justice". On 18th July 1956, Rakosi was
forced from power as a result of orders from the Soviet Union. However,
he did managed to secure the appointment of Gero, as his successor.
On 3rd October 1956, the
Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party announced that
it had decided that Laszlo
Rajk, Gyorgy
Palffy, Tibor Szonyi and Andras Szalai had wrongly been convicted
of treason in 1949. At the same time it was announced that Imre
Nagy had been
reinstated as a member of the Communist Party.
On 3rd November, Nagy announced
details of his coalition government. It included communists (Janos
Kadar, George
Lukacs,
Geza Lodonczy), three members of the
Smallholders Party (Zolton Tildy, Bela
Kovacs and Istvan Szabo), three Social
Democrats (Anna Kethly, Gyula
Keleman, Joseph Fischer), and two
Petofi Peasants (Istvan Bibo and Ferenc
Farkas).
The
uprising began on 23rd October by a peaceful manifestation of students
in Budapest. The students demanded an end to Soviet occupation and
the implementation of "true socialism". The following day
commissioned officers and soldiers joined the students on the streets
of Budapest. Stalin's statue was brought down and the protesters chanted
"Russians go home", "Away with Gero" and "Long
Live Nagy".
On 25th October Soviet
tanks opened fire on protesters in Parliament Square. One journalist
at the scene saw 12 dead bodies and estimated that 170 had been wounded.
Shocked by these events the Central Committee of the Communist Party
forced Gero to resign from office and replaced him with Janos
Kadar. Gero now
moved to the Soviet Union for safety.
Ernest Gero died in 1980.
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