József Révai

From the English Wikipedia page [1]

József Révai (born József Lederer; 12 October 1898 in Budapest – 4 August 1959 in Budapest), Hungarian communist politician.

He was born to a Jewish family, (Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1945-56, 2012, ISBN 0385515693, page 144) he was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Hungary (Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja; KMP) in 1918. He lived in the Soviet Union between 1934 and 1944. From 11 May to 27 September 1945 Révai was a member of the High National Council. Between 1945 and 1950 he was chief editor of Szabad Nép ("Free People").

He controlled all aspects of Hungary's cultural life from 1948 until 1953; from 1949 he was also the Minister of Culture. After 1953 his influence decreased.

Between 1945–1956 he was a member of the Central Committee of his party, which was renamed in 1948 to Hungarian Working People's Party (Magyar Dolgozók Pártja; MDP) after merging with another party. He was the member of the Political Committee (1945–1953; 1956). After the Workers' Party was dissolved and the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party took over its role as the ruling Communist party, Révai became a member of the new party's Central Committee in 1957. He was vice-president to the Presidential Committee between 1953–1958.

More information on the Hungarian Wikipedia page [2]

Shortly before the fall of Rákosi's government, in June 1953 , he was arrested in a party ruling for his dominance in the field of culture, so he was expelled from the PB and the Secretariat of the GOK and also lost his wallet. The Presidential Council of the People's Republic has been compensated for the weightless vice-chairman and has been upgraded to the editor-in-chief of the Social Review , a theoretical party journal. In July 1956 , after the XX. Stalinism was condemned at the SZKP congress, and he himself made severe criticism against Mátyás Rákosi , again he became a member of the rehabilitation with János Kádár and György Marosán . TheDuring the 1956 Revolution , on October 25 , he was again expelled from the PB and fled to the Soviet Union with the help of the Soviet Embassy , returning only in April 1957 .

After the revolution, Révai plunged for the ruthless retaliation, rejected ideological renewal, and defeated the old party leadership and direction, hoping to return to Rákosi and Gerő. After the majority behind János Kádár refused, he accepted the majority position, so he could become a member of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party (MSZMP KB) and remained the vice president of NET . In November 1958 he lost his NET vice president, although he remained a member of the board until his death. He died of heart disease for years since 1959.