Miklós Vásárhelyi (9 October 1917 – 31 July 2001) was a Hungarian journalist and politician from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He was the press secretary in the government of

Imre Nagy Imre Nagy ( ; ; 7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (''de facto'' Prime Minister of Hungary, Prime Minis ...

during 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 ...

. After Hungary’s democratic transition in 1990, he became a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

Life

He was born October 9, 1917, in

Fiume Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...

and studied at Rome University and at the law faculty of the

University of Debrecen The University of Debrecen ( ) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its establishment in 1538. The university has a well established progra ...

. He became a member of the

Hungarian Communist Party 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 ...

in 1938. In 1942, he was sent into forced labor, like other Jews in Hungary. Later, he became a member of the Hungarian resistance against the German occupation. After the war, he worked for '' Szabadság'', the Communist party newspaper. He was shifted to

Magyar Rádió Magyar Rádió (, MR, ''The Hungarian Radio Corporation'', also known as ''Radio Budapest'') was Hungary's publicly funded radio broadcasting organisation until 2015. It was also the country's official international broadcasting station. Since ...

and a propaganda magazine. After

became the prime minister, he appointed Vasárhelyi, who was a friend with his daughter, as the government press secretary. Nagy’s reforms displeased 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 ...

and the government was dismissed. After the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Nagy was asked back into government and reappointed Vasárhelyi as press secretary. The failure of the revolt saw the reformers, including Nagy and Vasárhelyi, take refuge at the Yugoslav embassy. After leaving the embassy under a guarantee of safety, they were arrested and initially deported to Romania. In the trials that followed, Vasárhelyi was sentenced to five years in prison, while Nagy was hanged. Vasárhelyi was released in 1960 and performed freelance work as a translator until 1972. The government of

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

began taking a softer approach, and Vasárhelyi found work at the

Hungarian Academy of Science The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

’s Institute of Literary Studies and as a script editor. He completed a book in 1974, ''The Lord and the Crown''. In 1983, he obtained a fellowship at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

as a guess professor of media history. There he struck up a friendship with

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

. He eventually became the

Soros Foundation Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the st ...

’s representative in Hungary and helped set up educational exchanges. After the fall of the Communist regime, Vasárhelyi helped establish the

Alliance of Free Democrats The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party (, , SZDSZ ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and of Liberal International. It drew its su ...

. At the first free elections, he won a seat in the National Assembly with the party and served from 1990 to 1994. Vasárhelyi died on July 31, 2001, in Budapest.

Works

* ''Nagy Imre Emlékplakett'' (1996) * ''Demény Pál'' Emlékérem (1997) *

Francia Köztársaság Becsületrendje The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ag ...

(1997) * ''Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae'' fődíja (1998)

References

External links

Életrajza: a '56-os Intézet honlapján

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasarhelyi, Miklos 1917 births 2001 deaths Alliance of Free Democrats politicians Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1990–1994) People from Rijeka Hungarian anti-communists Hungarian writers Hungarian expatriates in Italy