János Kádár
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| “ | He who is not against us is with us. | „ |
| ~ 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 would serve in for 32 years. Declining health led to his retirement in 1988, and he would die a year later in 1989.
Biography edit
Trained as a skilled mechanic, Kádár became a member of the then-illegal Hungarian Communist Party in 1931 and was arrested several times in the following 12 years. He was admitted to the Central Committee of the party in 1942 and to the Politburo in 1945. After World War II, he became minister of the interior (1949), but in 1950 he came into conflict with the Stalinists and consequently was expelled from the party, jailed (1951–53), and allegedly tortured.
Rehabilitated in 1954, Kádár joined Imre Nagy’s short-lived government. Nagy, who pledged the liberalization of the Communist regime and the evacuation of Soviet troops from Hungary, had been brought to power on the strength of the Hungarian revolt (started Oct. 23, 1956). After Soviet troops took over the country on November 4, Kádár deserted Nagy and formed a new government under Soviet auspices, serving as premier until 1958. Unable to implement Nagy’s reforms, Kádár resorted to repressive measures to curb the revolt. He served another term as premier from 1961 to 1965.
In foreign policy Kádár as party leader steered a course close to Moscow’s, while trying to raise the Hungarians’ standard of living and maintain more liberal internal policies. In contrast to such Stalinist predecessors as Mátyás Rákosi, Kádár minimized political surveillance in Hungary and eventually permitted limited freedoms of expression.
Hungary’s cultural life benefited from the greater political tolerance experienced under Kádár’s pragmatic rule. To achieve faster economic growth, Kádár’s government in the late 1960s adopted a new system of decentralized economic management in which plant managers and farmers were given greater freedom to make basic decisions in the operation and development of their enterprises. The profit motive was thus partially introduced into many sectors of the state-run economy, with the result that Hungary became the most prosperous nation in eastern Europe.
Kádár was known for his simple and modest lifestyle and avoided the self-indulgence persona of other Communist leaders. Although he was never personally corrupt, he sometimes overlooked corrupt dealings of other members of the elite to an extent. To strengthen his popularity, whispering propaganda depicted him as totally intolerant to corruption by his underlings.
Playing chess was one of his favorite pastimes. However, he was an avid hunter (hunting for sport used to be an aristocratic hobby before 1945 in Hungary and this pattern continued during the Communist era when it became a cherished pastime and occasion for the new elite to informally socialize and to get drunk), and was a member of an exclusive hunting association made up by Party leaders and other dignitaries. He wasn't a heavy drinker though and demanded modesty when he was present. Also, foreign guests often visited the Hungarian forests too, from the Shah of Iran through Fidel Castro to the King of Nepal, and Leonid Brezhnev hunted with Kádár several times. The popularity of this "gentleman's sport" among Communist leaders was marked by political decisions made on hunting excursions.
Kádár’s government slowed and eventually stopped the pace of reform in the mid-1970s, and by the 1980s Hungary’s economy had entered a state of stagnation. Consequently, Kádár was removed from his post as general secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party in 1988 and was given the largely ceremonial post of party president until May 1989, when he was removed from the party presidency and from the Central Committee.
He died of cancer on 6 July 1989 at age 77, three months before the formal end of the regime he had largely created.