Mátyás Rákosi

Mátyás Rákosi [ˈmaːcaːʃ ˈraːkoʃi] (9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian communist politician. He was born Mátyás Rosenfeld in Ada (in present-day Serbia). He was the leader of Hungary's Communist Party from 1945 to 1956 — first as General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party (1945–1948) and later holding the same post with the Hungarian Working People's Party (1948–1956). As such, from 1949 to 1956, he was the de facto ruler of Communist Hungary. His rule was aligned with USSR politics during Joseph Stalin's government. American journalist John Gunther described Rákosi as "the most malevolent character I ever met in political life."

Early years

Rákosi was born in Ada, then a village in Bács-Bodrog County in Austria-Hungary, now a town in Vojvodina, Serbia. Born into a Jewish family, the fourth son of a grocer (his mother would give birth to seven more children), he later repudiated religion and totally repudiated Judaism. One of his younger brothers was Ferenc Rákosi (1904–2006), who later adopted the name Ferenc Biró, a noted mechanical engineer and, for a time, General Manager of the Mátyás Rákosi Steel and Metal Works during his brother's rule. Rákosi's paternal grandfather participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, as a result he had to flee the village following the defeat. Rákosi's father, József Rosenfeld was called "Kossuth's Jew" by the villagers, because he had been a member and avid supporter of the oppositionist Party of Independence and '48. He changed his surname Rosenfeld to Rákosi in 1903.