Miklós Vásárhelyi

Miklós Vásárhelyi (Rijeka, October 9, 1917 - Budapest, July 31, 2001) was a Hungarian journalist, and in 1956 he was the press officer of the second and third Imre Nagy government.

He spent his childhood in Fiume, and from 1936 to 1937 he studied law at the University of Rome. In 1939 he moved to Hungary where he studied law at the University of Debrecen. He became a member of the Hungarian Party of Communists at that time. In the Second World War, he joined the opposition to the war, until 1941 he was the secretary of the Social Democratic Youth Organization of Óbuda. After Hungary entered the war (June 26, 1941), He was called for labor service due to its Jewish origin. After German occupation, he became a member of the armed resistance.

After the war, he became a member of the newspaper Szabadság and then the Free People magazine. In this capacity he participated in the peace talks in Paris from 1946 to 1947. In 1950 he was also chairman of the Radio for a short time, in 1951 he became editor of the Artistic Folk Publishing House, and in 1952-1954 became editor-in-chief of the Hungarian-Vengrija. In May 1954, he became deputy chairman of the Information Office of the Council of Ministers.

He was a supporter of Imre Nagy and his reform efforts, so in April 1955, the "hard-line communists" were replaced with all the other reform communists, but they were not excluded from the party. On May 27, 1955, however, Miklós Gimes demanded a revision of the Rajk trial at a party meeting and then signed a memorandum calling for the elimination of the control of cultural life. Because of this, they were expelled from the party on December 24, 1955.

After his exclusion, he worked as a librarian and then became the press chief of the second Imre government at the time of the revolution and on November 1, 1956. On the day of the Soviet offensive, on 4 November, he and the other members of the government fled to the Yugoslav Embassy, ​​but he was forced to leave on November 23rd. They were deported to Romania where they were detained in Snagov and then returned to Hungary on April 10, 1957. He was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment in Budapest in the Imre Nagy trial.

In 1960 he was released from amnesty from prison and later worked as a lecturer at the Fine Arts Publishing House, but due to his past, he became a burden to the publisher and was dismissed. He was employed by a construction company where he became a material purchaser until 1972. He worked as a translator, and from 1965 he became a member of the Journal of Life and Science, and from 1972 he became a member of the Institute of Literary Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and conducted press history research. From 1973 he was the dramaturg of MAFILM.

He was actively assisting in the transition of the regime, and supported the rehabilitation of the martyrs of retribution after the 1956 Revolution. In 1988 he became the founding member of the New Martial Front and the Historical Justice Committee. He also spoke at the remainder of Imre Nagy and his companions.

After the political transformation, he became a founding member of the SZDSZ, and between 1990 and 1994 he was a member of the parliamentary assembly. Between 1994 and 2001 he also served as President of the Soros Foundation.

His daughter Mária Vásárhelyi (* 1953) is a sociologist and journalist, and is a founding member of SZDSZ.