György Nyisztor (22 December 1869 – 7 January 1956) was a Hungarian politician, who served as People's Commissar of Agriculture during the

Hungarian Soviet Republic The Hungarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived communist state that existed from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919 (133 days), succeeding the First Hungarian Republic. The Hungari ...

in 1919. After the fall of the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

regime he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1920. However, in the next year he was taken to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

on the occasion of a prisoner exchange. Nyisztor returned to Hungary in 1945.

Early years

His father, György Nyisztor, was a farmer, and his mother, Anna Buga, was a servant. In his childhood, he first worked as a servant, later as a goulash cook, then became a canner, and then a woodcutter. He then worked as a day laborer at the Szatmárném distillery. He joined the labor movement at the beginning of the 1890s, where he encountered socialist ideas, and together with two of his friends, he founded the local organization of the

Social Democratic Party of Hungary The Social Democratic Party of Hungary (, , MSZDP) is a social democracy, social democratic list of political parties in Hungary, political party in Hungary. Historically, the party was dissolved during Government of National Unity (Hungary), the ...

(Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt or MSZDP) in

Szatmárnémeti Satu Mare (; ; ; or ) is a city with a population of 102,400 (2011). It is the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania, as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvan ...

. He went to the countryside, where he worked on the organization of harvest strikes and labor unions of Hungarian and Romanian workers and farm workers. On 7 January 1906 the founding meeting of the Hungarian Land Workers' National Association elected him to the central leadership, after which he became the Association's secretary. He took part in the booming strike movements in various parts of the country as an independent leader, and soon emerged as one of its best-known agitators. He was considered a gifted orator. He took part in the debates organized against Vilmos Mezőfi and his followers. In 1907, he also assisted in the work of the liberal education congress in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

. His articles were published by Világszabadság, the land workers' newspaper. He represented the consistent left-wing position in the leadership of the association.

Revolutionary career, exile and return

He was present at the social democratic meetings that prepared the revolutionary movement of October 1918. After the

was proclaimed, he belonged to the left within the MSZDP. He became a member of the

Party of Communists in Hungary The Hungarian Communist Party (, , abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary (, , abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar period and briefly after World War II. It was founded on Novem ...

(Hungarian: Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja or KMP) in March 1919, and worked as a People's Commissar for Agriculture during the Hungarian Council Republic. After the fall of the Soviet Republic, he set himself the goal of further maintaining the Land Workers' Union, but was arrested on 5 August. In 1920, he was brought to court together with nine of his fellow people's commissars, and in the people's commissar trial he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1921, he was transferred to the Soviet Union as part of the Soviet-Hungarian prisoner exchange, from where he returned home as a pensioner in 1945. He did party work until his death.

References

* 1869 births 1956 deaths People from Satu Mare People from the Kingdom of Hungary Social Democratic Party of Hungary politicians Hungarian Communist Party politicians Ministers of agriculture of Hungary Hungarian communists Politicians from Austria-Hungary {{Hungary-politician-stub