Pal Maleter was born in
Hungary
in 1917. He joined the Hungarian
Army and during the Second World War was captured
by the Soviet Army. Later he fought as a
partisan against Nazi Germany.
After the war Maleter served
in the Defence Ministry and during the Hungarian
Uprising he supported
the leadership of Imre
Nagy. On 3rd
November, 1956, 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). Major-General Maleter was appointed minister of defence.
Nikita
Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet
Union, became increasingly concerned about these developments
and on 4th November 1956 he sent the Red Army
into Hungary. Soviet tanks immediately captured Hungary's airfields,
highway junctions and bridges. Fighting took place all over the country
but the Hungarian forces were quickly defeated.
Pal Maleter was imprisoned
and executed in 1958.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
