Anna Kethly was born in
Hungary
in 1889. She found work
as a clerk and became an active trade unionist. A member Social Democratic
Party she was elected to Parliament after the First
World War. Kethly
was one of those in the Social Democratic Party who favoured working
with the Communist Party.
The Soviet
Army invaded Hungary
in September 1944. It set
up an alternative government in Debrecen on 21st December 1944 but
did not capture Budapest until 18th January 1945. Soon afterwards
Zoltan
Tildy became
the provisional prime minister.
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 Erno Gero, received support
from only 17% of the population. The Soviet commander in Hungary,
Marshal Voroshilov, refused to allow the Smallholders to form a government.
Instead Voroshilov established a coalition government with the communists
holding all the key posts. Kovacs became minister of agriculture (1945-46).
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
opposition politicians such as Kethly had been imprisoned.
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.
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.
The
Hungarian
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 Erno Gero to resign from office and replaced him with Janos
Kadar.
Imre
Nagy now went
on Radio Kossuth and promised the "the far-reaching democratization
of Hungarian public life, the realisation of a Hungarian road to socialism
in accord with our own national characteristics, and the realisation
of our lofty national aim: the radical improvement of the workers'
living conditions."
On 3rd November, Nagy announced
details of his coalition government. It included Kethly, Janos
Kadar, George
Lukacs,
Geza Lodonczy, Zolton
Tildy, Bela Kovacs, Istvan
Szabo, Gyula Keleman, Joseph
Fischer, Istvan Bibo and Ferenc
Farkas.
On 4th November 1956 Nikita
Khrushchev sent the Red Army into Hungary
and Nagy's government was overthrown. Kethly went into exile and in
1957 became head of the Hungarian Revolutionary Council in Strassbourg.
Anna Kethly died in 1976.
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