Erik Molnár (16 December 1894 – 8 August 1966) was a Hungarian communist politician, lawyer, economist and philosopher who served as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

twice: from 1947 to 1948 and from 1952 to 1953.

Biography

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he fought at the Eastern Front where captured by the Russians. As prisoner of war Molnár met with the communist ideas in a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

Far East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description ...

. Later he returned to home and finished his legal studies. After that he joined to the illegal Hungarian Communist Party's working along with his younger brother, René. He published lot of articles for the illegal communist newspapers (''Gondolat'', ''Társadalmi Szemle'', ''Korunk''). In the Interim National Government he served as Minister of Welfare (1944–1945). Later he was appointed Minister of Information and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1947–1948). Then he was the Hungarian ambassador to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(1948–1949), later he worked as Minister of Justice (1950–1952). He was Minister of Foreign Affairs again between 1952 and 1953. He was the President of the Supreme Court of Hungary between 1953 and 1954, later he was appointed as Minister of Justice again (1954–1956). He was member of the assembly from 1944 until his death, and also member of the communist party's Central Committee. Molnár played a big role in the management of the history research as member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

's history institute and as chairman of the Hungarian Historical Society. He dealt with the problems of the Hungarian social development thoroughly, first of all with the land question, the

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vanguardis ...

applied his teachings to the Hungarian relations. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

bigger studies appeared about the

Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or ''kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' gy ...

era's society. After 1945 Molnár dealt with the Hungarian prehistory and the

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

with the questions of age

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

, the ideological antecedents of the historical materialism and with his philosophical basis problems, the questions of the contemporary

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

, dealt with the development of the

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

and its development furthermore.

Publications

* ''Dialektika'' (Dialect),

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, 1941 (''Erik Jeszenszky'' pseudonym). * ''Magyar őstörténet'' (Hungarian prehistory),

, 1942 (''Lajos Szentmiklósy'' pseudonym). * ''A feudalizmus kialakulása Magyarországon'' (The development of the feudalism in Hungary),

, 1942 (''Lajos Szentmiklósy'' pseudonym). * ''Az Árpádkori társadalom 1. A gazdasági alap'' (The society of the Árpád Era I: The Economy),

, 1943 (''Lajos Szentmiklósy'' pseudonym). * ''Az Árpádkori társadalom 2. A Felépítmény'' (The society of the Árpád Era II: The Forecastle),

, 1943 (''Lajos Szentmiklósy'' pseudonym). * ''Dialektika'' (Dialect),

, 1945. * ''A magyar társadalom története az őskortól az Árpádkorig'' (The history of the Hungarian society from the Prehistory to the Árpád Era),

, 1945. * ''A magyar társadalom története az Árpádkortól Mohácsig'' (The history of the Hungarian society from the Árpád Era to the Battle of Mohács),

, 1949. * ''A történelmi materializmus ideológiai előzményei'' (The ideological antecedents of the historical materialism),

, 1952. * ''A magyar nép őstörténete'' (The prehistory of the Hungarian people),

, 1953. * ''A történelmi materializmus filozófiai alapproblémái'' (The philosophical basis problems of the historical materialism),

, 1955. * ''A jelenkori kapitalizmus néhány gazdasági problémája'' (Some economic problems of the contemporary capitalism),

, 1959. * ''Dialektikus materializmus és társadalomtudomány'' (Dialectic materialism and social science),

, 1962.

References

Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Molnar, Erik 1894 births 1966 deaths Politicians from Novi Sad People from the Kingdom of Hungary Hungarians in Vojvodina Hungarian Communist Party politicians Members of the Hungarian Working People's Party Members of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Foreign ministers of Hungary Justice ministers of Hungary Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1945–1947) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1947–1949) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1949–1953) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1953–1958) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1958–1963) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1963–1967) Ambassadors of Hungary to the Soviet Union Hungarian Marxists Hungarian philosophers Hungarian economists Hungarian jurists