Dezső Bokányi (11 February 1871, Pest – June 1943,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

) was a Hungarian communist politician, writer, translator and journalist who was a leading figure of the

Hungarian Soviet Republic The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...

Biography

Bokányi was born in to a deeply religious Catholic family and had worked as a stonemason. In 1886 became a member of a trade union and in 1889 he became member of the

Social Democratic Party of Hungary The Social Democratic Party of Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt, MSZDP) is a social democratic political party in Hungary. Historically, the party was dissolved during the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany (1944–1945) ...

. He was distinguished in the Social Democratic Party by his influential ability to speak. In 1893 he was sent to the second congress of the MSZDP. From 1894 to 1919, he was a member of the board and a speaker, and also worked as a journalist. He translated several products of Marxist literature, including several works by

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
''

August Bebel, into Hungarian. In 1896 he published the first Hungarian translation of the '' Communist Manifesto'', from which the "Világ proletárjai egyesüljetek!" (Proletarians of all countries unite!) was translated for the first time in Hungarian. After the Aster Revolution, he became a member of the Hungarian National Council, participated in peace negotiations with the Entente powers and became a member of the party leadership in March 1919. Although initially he did not take heart in the aspirations of

Béla Kun Béla Kun (born Béla Kohn; 20 February 1886 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. After attending Franz Joseph University at Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napo ...

and the Communists until 1919, he eventually accepted and even supported the unification of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party and the

Hungarian Communist Party The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...

and became a prominent leader of the Soviet Republic. During the period of the Soviet Republic, he served as the People's Commissioner for Labor and Welfare of the Revolutionary Governing Council. The leadership of the united party and at the same time the Budapest Central Revolutionary Workers' and Military Council. He was also a member of the Bureau. He attacked many unions because they did not see their main activity in boosting production. His social policy proposals included workers' insurance, the nationalization of pension associations, state benefits for orphans and widows, but also the expropriation of the homes of the rich for the benefit of families with many children and, as an atheist, the abolition of religious teachings in schools. In December 1920, Bokányi was sentenced to death in the case of the Hungarian People's Commissars after the fall of the Soviet Republic. In 1922, he was a prisoner exchange by the

Soviet Union 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, ...

, where he worked in the movement, the work done in the field of social insurance, he also worked at the Moscow radio station. Dezső Bokányi was arrested during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

in 1938 and it was previously believed that he had died in 1940 in captivity, but according to recent research he died in June 1943.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bokanyi, Dezso 1871 births 1943 deaths Hungarian communists Hungarian Communist Party politicians Social Democratic Party of Hungary politicians Hungarian journalists Hungarian Marxists Hungarian Marxist writers Hungarian translators Hungarian expatriates in the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Hungary