László Rajk (8 March 1909 – 15 October 1949) was a Hungarian

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 ...

politician, who served as Minister of Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was an important organizer of the Hungarian Communists' power (for example, organizing the

State Protection Authority The State Protection Authority (, 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 for supporting the ruling Hu ...

(ÁVH)), but he eventually fell victim to

Mátyás Rákosi Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian communism, communist politician who was the ''de facto'' leader of Hungary from 1947 to 1956. He served first as General Secretary of the Hungarian ...

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...

Background and career

Born in

Székelyudvarhely Odorheiu Secuiesc (; , ; ) is the second largest municipiu, municipality in Harghita County, Transylvania, Romania. In its short form, it is also known as ''Odorhei'' in Romanian and ''Udvarhely'' in Hungarian. The Hungarian name of the town "Udva ...

, the ninth of eleven children in a family of

Transylvanian Saxons The Transylvanian Saxons (; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen'' or simply ''Soxen'', singularly ''Sox'' or ''Soax''; Transylvanian Landler dialect, Transylvanian Landler: ''Soxn'' or ''Soxisch''; ; seldom ''sa ...

, his ties to Communism began at an early age when he became a member of the Communist Party of Hungary (KMP). Later he was expelled from his university for his political ideas and would become a building worker, until 1936 when he joined the Popular Front in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. He became commissar of the Rakosi Battalion of

XIII International Brigade The 13th International Brigade – often known as the XIII Dąbrowski Brigade – fought for the Spanish Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War, in the International Brigades. The brigade was dissolved and then reformed on four occasions. ...

. After the collapse of Republican Spain, he was interned in France until 1941, when he was finally able to return to Hungary, where he became Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee, an underground Communist movement. In December 1944 he was arrested by a detachment of the

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party (, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National Unity. They were in power from 15 October 1944 to ...

. He was to be executed, and was transported to the prison of Sopronkőhida, then into Germany; but the intercession of his elder brother, Endre, a fascist under-secretary, saved his life. László Rajk was released on 13 May 1945. He went home to Hungary and took part in party politics. He became a member of all the leader corporations of the party (MKP) and the Extemporal Parliament. Rajk was a member of the High National Council from 7 December 1945 to 2 February 1946. On 20 March 1946 he was appointed minister of the Interior. In this post he organized the Hungarian Communist Party's private army and secret police (an organization analogous to the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

Securitate The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

and so on), the

ÁVH The State Protection Authority (, 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 for supporting the ruling Hun ...

(originally ÁVO), and he became directly responsible for this. Under the cover of "struggle against fascism and reaction" and "defence of the power of proletariat", he prohibited and liquidated several religious, nationalist, and maverick establishments and groups (the number of these was about 1,500), and set up the first

s. He was reassigned from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 5 August 1948 to 30 May 1949. Rákosi, who saw Rajk as a threat to his power, decided to accuse him on false charges and had him arrested on 30 May 1949 on trumped-up charges. Rajk, who was popular among the Communists before, soon became the "chained dog" of Tito, Horthy and "the imperialist".

Trial

László Rajk was accused of being a "

Titoist Titoism is a Types of socialism, socialist political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito and refers to the ideology and policies of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) during the Cold War. It is characterized by a br ...

Spy", an agent for western imperialism and one who planned on restoring capitalism and jeopardizing Hungary's independence. During his time in prison, Rajk was tortured and was promised acquittal if he took responsibility for the charges brought against him. Stalin's NKVD emissary coordinated with Hungarian General Secretary

and his ÁVH to orchestrate Rajk's

. At his trial, held between 16 and 24 September 1949, in the large assembly hall of the headquarters of the Metal and Engineering Workers' Trade Union in Budapest, he confessed to all the charges brought against him. After his confession the prosecution decided, against the promise made, to call for the heaviest sentences to be brought down upon him and the other seven men who stood trial with him. Rajk was to be made an example for the beginning of

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's anti-Titoist purges. Rajk, along with Drs Tibor Szönyi and András Szalai, was sentenced to death. Rajk was executed on 15 October 1949.

Post-trial/reburial

The Rajk trial marked the beginning of the anti-Titoist drive movement of Stalin. His trial also marked the beginning of the removal of all political parties in Hungary. The purges, however, left the economy in a truly disastrous state whereby a lack of capital inflow doomed the building projects that were underway. A vast number of the

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

were then employed on the sort of manual labouring duties usually reserved for skilled professionals. The result left the country with an inadequate infrastructure and unsatisfactorily manufactured goods. The government was also using too many men to search for spies within the country and not enough to perform the productive work to sustain the economy. Dissatisfaction with Rákosi's rule began to surface. On 28 March 1956, following numerous demonstrations, Rajk was rehabilitated in spite of his responsibility for the excesses of the secret police

which he had founded in 1946, including initial large purges and executions under his direction. The rehabilitation speech, even though it was not publicized, had vast consequences for Rákosi, who had used the Rajk guilt as an explanation for the other purges that followed. Now that he had to admit that he was, indeed, wrong, it would end up ruining Rákosi's rightful authority. Lászlo Rajk was then reburied, before 100,000 mourners, on 6 October 1956, along with two other men who lost their lives during the purges. (This was a precursor to the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

, which began on 23 October.) Júlia Rajk's commitment to rehabilitating her late husband's reputation was instrumental to the large turnout for the funeral.

List of defendants in the Rajk trial

*László Rajk (born in 1909), Minister of Foreign Affairs (executed) *György Pálffy (1909), Lieutenant General (sentence deferred to military court, executed) *Lazar Brankov (1912), Counsellor, Yugoslav Legation (life imprisonment) *Dr Tibor Szönyi (1903), Member of the National Assembly (executed) *András Szalai, (1917), government official (executed) *Milan Ognjenovich (1916), government official (9 years) *Béla Korondy (1914), Police Colonel (sentence deferred to military court, executed) *Pál Justus (1905), member of the National Assembly (life imprisonment) 15 people were executed and 78 others were sentenced to prison in relation to the Rajk case.See the historian Tibor Zinner's notes on p. 416 of the 1989 Hungarian edition of Béla Szasz's ''Without Any Compulsion'' (1963)

Play

László Rajk: the events of his political and family life, beginning circa 1945, his trial, execution, reburial, atonement, and ending with the

and the USSR's armed invasion of Hungary, are all portrayed in

Robert Ardrey Robert Ardrey (October 16, 1908 – January 14, 1980) was an American playwright, screenwriter and science writing, science writer perhaps best known for ''The Territorial Imperative'' (1966). After a Broadway (theatre), Broadway and Cinema of th ...

's 1958 play, '' Shadow of Heroes''.

Notes

References

* *

Bibliography

Koltai, Ferenc: ''László Rajk and his Accomplices before the People's Court'', Budapest 1949
(MEK) * Litvan, Győrgy ''The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Reform, Revolt, and Repression 1953–1963'', Longman Publishing Group, 1996. * Rajk, Laszlo'', Columbia Encyclopedia'', 6th Ed. Columbia University Press, 2001. https://web.archive.org/web/20060509173752/http://www2.bartleby.com/65/ra/Rajk-Las.html (December 1, 2005) * Stokes, Gale (ed.) ''From Stalinism to Pluralism: a Documentary History of Eastern Europe since 1945'', New York and Oxford University Press, 1991.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajk, Laszlo 1909 births 1949 deaths People from Odorheiu Secuiesc Székely people Hungarian Communist Party politicians Members of the Hungarian Working People's Party Ministers of the interior of Hungary Ministers of foreign affairs 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) Hungarian people of the Spanish Civil War Executed Hungarian people 20th-century executions by Hungary International Brigades personnel Executed communists