Background
Gero was born in Budapest on July 8, 1898.
Gero was born in Budapest on July 8, 1898.
He joined the Communist party in 1918 and was active in the revolution led by Bela Kun the following year. When that failed he escaped to Germany but later returned clandestinely to Hungary, where he edited a communist underground newspaper.
Gero lived for a time in Soviet Russia and was in Spain during the Civil War, apparently guiding the Catalan communists. He returned to Hungary in 1944 with the Russian army and was soon occupying leading positions. As minister of transport, he directed the rebuilding of the ruined country and its industry and was responsible for the reconstruction of the bridges over the Danube.
Gero was then successively minister of finance (charged with implementing the five-year economic plan) and, from 1950 minister of state and minister of foreign trade. From 1956 to 1966 he was deputy prime minister and a member of the Politburo, a key personality in governing Hungary.
In 1956, when Matyas Rakosi fell victim to the anti-Stalinist movement in Moscow, Gero was appointed first secretary of the Communist party. His rule was short and unpopular; he introduced harsh measures to try to counter the revolution, but was swept aside during the heady ten days of liberation from Russian domination. He appealed in vain to the Russian army to save him but was deposed and fled the country, reportedly in one of the Russian tanks he had summoned to restore the communist autocracy.
Prevented from returning to Hungary, Gero then lived for a number of years in the USSR, but was allowed to return in 1962, although he was expelled from the Communist party. Thereafter, he remained quietly in retirement.