László Piros (10 May 1917 – 13 January 2006) was a Hungarian

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

politician and military officer, who served as

Interior Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

between 1954 and 1956.

Career

Piros was born in to an impoverished peasant family. He fought in 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 opposi ...

, but he was captured by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

s at

Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on ...

(January 1943). After that he took part in the antifascist movements. Piros worked as a partisan during the end of the war. He was a member of the Provisional National Assembly. Following the arrest of

Gábor Péter Gábor Péter (born as Benjámin Eisenberger in Újfehértó, 14 May 1906 – Budapest, 23 January 1993) was a Hungarian Communist politician. Between 1945 and 1952 he was the absolute leader of the State Protection Authority (''Államvédelmi H ...

, Piros led

State Protection Authority The State Protection Authority ( hu, Államvédelmi Hatóság, ÁVH) was the secret police of the People's Republic of Hungary from 1945 to 1956. The ÁVH was conceived as an external appendage of the Soviet Union's KGB in Hungary responsible ...

(ÁVH) from 1953. As Interior Minister he reexamined the previous years'

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so ...

s. During the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

he left the country along with

Ernő Gerő Ernő Gerő (; born Ernő Singer; 8 July 1898 – 12 March 1980) was a Hungarian Communist leader in the period after World War II and briefly in 1956 the most powerful man in Hungary as the second secretary of its ruling communist party. Ear ...

and

András Hegedüs András Hegedüs (; 31 October 1922 – 23 October 1999) was a Hungarian Communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1955 to 1956. He fled to the Soviet Union on 28 October, the fifth day of the Hungarian Rev ...

for 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 nationa ...

on 28 October, but returned to the country on 3 November. On 10 November, at the request of Hungarian dictator

János Kádár János József Kádár (; ; 26 May 1912 – 6 July 1989), born János József Czermanik, was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health l ...

, he was sent back to the Soviet Union, and he was stripped of his parliamentary mandate on 9 May 1957. He was allowed to return again to Hungary in August 1958. From September 1958 he was chief engineer and from 1969 the director of the

Pick Szeged Pick Szeged is a Hungarian company that produces a variety of meat products, most notably Winter salami. It was founded in 1869, and remains based in Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and t ...

salami factory. After his retirement in 1977 Piros served as chairman of the Csongrád County Council of Trade Unions for many years.

References

Az 1956-os Magyar Forradalom Történetének Dokumentációs és Kutatóintézete Közalapítvány
1917 births 2006 deaths People from Újkígyós People from the Kingdom of Hungary Hungarian Communist Party politicians Members of the Hungarian Working People's Party Members of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Hungarian Interior Ministers 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) {{Hungary-politician-stub Hungarian trade unionists