Mátyás Rákosi

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Portrait of Mátyás Rákosi

Mátyás Rákosi (born March 14, 1892 as Mátyás Rosenfeld – February 5, 1971) was a Stalinist dictator of Hungary from 1945 to 1956 through his post as General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party supported by the Soviet Red Army.

Early life and career

Rákosi was born in Ada, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Serbia). The sixth son of a Jewish grocer, he later repudiated religion. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War and was captured on the Eastern Front. After returning to Hungary, he participated in the communist government of Béla Kun; after its fall he fled, eventually to the Soviet Union. After returning to Hungary in 1924 he was imprisoned, and was released to the Soviet Union in 1940, in exchange for the Hungarian revolutionary banners captured by the Russian troops at Világos in 1849.^{[citation needed]} In the Soviet Union, he became leader of the Comintern. He returned to Hungary with the Red Army.

Leader of Hungary

When the communist government was installed in Hungary, Rákosi was appointed General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party. In 1948, the Communists forced the Social Democrats to merge with them to form the Hungarian Workers Party. At this point, Rákosi dropped all pretense of democratic government, and Hungary became an outright Communist state.

Rákosi described himself as "Stalin's best Hungarian disciple" and "Stalin's best pupil." He also invented the term "salami tactics," which related to his tactic of eliminating the opposition slice by slice. At the height of his rule, he developed a strong cult of personality around himself.

Rákosi imposed totalitarian rule on Hungary — arresting, jailing and killing both real and imagined foes in various waves of Stalin-inspired political purges – as the country went into decline. In August 1952 he also became prime minister of Hungary, but on June 13, 1953, to appease the Soviet Politburo, he was forced to give up the office to Imre Nagy, yet retained the office of General Secretary. Rákosi led the attacks on Nagy. On 9 March 1955, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Worker's Party condemned Nagy for "rightist deviation." Hungarian newspapers joined the attacks and Nagy was accused of being responsible for the country's economic problems and on 18 April he was dismissed from his post by a unanimous vote of the National Assembly. Rákosi once again became the leader of Hungary.

Economic Policy

The postwar Hungarian economy suffered from multiple challenges. Hungary agreed to pay war reparations approximating US$300 million, to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, and to support Soviet garrisons. The Hungarian National Bank in 1946 estimated the cost of reparations as "between 19 and 22 per cent of the annual national income." Moreover, Hungary's participation in the Soviet-sponsored COMECON (Council Of Mutual Economic Assistance), prevented it from trading with the West or receiving Marshall Plan aid. Postwar economic recovery reversed under the Rákosi government. The Hungarian currency experienced marked depreciation in 1946, resulting in the highest historical rates of hyperinflation known. By 1952, disposable real incomes sank to two-thirds of their 1938 levels; whereas in 1949, this figure had been 90 percent.

By 1953, post-war Hungarian manufacturing output fell to one-third of pre-war levels. The government used coercion and brutality to collectivize agriculture, and it squeezed profits from the country's farms to finance rapid expansion of heavy industry, which attracted more than 90% of total industrial investment. At first Hungary concentrated on producing primarily the same assortment of goods it had produced before the war, including locomotives and railroad cars. Despite its poor resource base and its favorable opportunities to specialize in other forms of production, Hungary developed new heavy industry in order to bolster further domestic growth and produce exports to pay for raw-material import.

Rakosi's regime also established wage controls and a two-tier price system made up of producer and consumer prices, which the government controlled separately. In the early 1950s, the authorities used these new controls to limit domestic demand and cut relative labor costs by tripling consumer prices and holding back wages. Popular dissatisfaction mounted as the economy suffered from material shortages, export difficulties, and mounting foreign debt.

Forced retirement

Rákosi was then removed as General Secretary of the Party under pressure from the Soviet Politburo in June 1956 (shortly after Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech), and was replaced by Ernő Gerő. To remove him from the Hungarian political scene, the Soviet Politburo forced Rákosi to move to the Soviet Union in 1956, with the official story being that he was "seeking medical attention." He spent the rest of his life in the Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic. Shortly before his death, in 1970, Rákosi was finally granted permission to return to Hungary if he promised not to engage in any political activities. He refused the deal, and remained in the USSR where he died in Gorky in 1971.

After his death, his body was returned to Hungary for burial in Budapest.

Preceded by: —	General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party 1945–1956	Succeeded by: Ernő Gerő
Preceded by: István Dobi	Prime Minister of Hungary 1952–1953	Succeeded by: Imre Nagy

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