István Bata (5 March 1910 – 17 August 1982) was a Hungarian military officer and politician who served as

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

from 1953 to 1956.

Biography

A factory worker, Bata joined 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) ...

in 1930. He was arrested in 1942 by the police for hid political activities and our under supervision. After the end of the Second World War, From 1945 he became a member of the Central Management of the Public Employees' Trade Union, and then became the site manager of Budapest Metropolitan Transport Company. From 1947 to 1949 he was a student at the Moscow Military Academy. In 1950, he was appointed Air Defense Commander and then Chief of Staff. From 1951 he was an alternate member of the Central Executive of the Hungarian Working People's Party and from 1953 he was a full member. From 4 July 1953 to 24 October 1956 he was Minister of Defense. In this capacity in 1955 he was a member of the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...

to the signatory Hungarian delegation. During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution , he was one of the creators of the Soviet operation under the pseudonym “Wave” (Whirlwind), which was enacted in order to“ restore to social peace in Hungary" then Soviet Ambassador

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...

. Bata divided

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 ...

into three military districts and gave an order to defeat the revolution. On 26 October 1956 Bata was relieved of all of his functions. Three days later he escaped to 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, ...

. He negotiated with

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 ...

and wanted to organize a military dictatorship after the fall of the revolution. On 16 November Bata was expelled from the party because of his

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

past. Later he returned to Hungary, where he worked for the Budapest Transport Company.

References

Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bata, Istvan 1910 births 1982 deaths People from Tura, Hungary People from the Kingdom of Hungary Social Democratic Party of Hungary politicians Hungarian Communist Party politicians Members of the Hungarian Working People's Party Defence ministers of Hungary Hungarian generals