Background
He was born in Abaújszántó in 1904 and became a Communist in the 1930s.
He was born in Abaújszántó in 1904 and became a Communist in the 1930s.
He lived in Košice and Prague then He fought in the Spanish Civil War. Later he moved to the Soviet Union.
In 1945 he became under-secretary of Home Affairs.
He was Minister of National Defence from 9 September 1948 to 2 July 1953. He was one of the main instigators during the Rákosi era.
In 1956 he was expelled from the party and convicted. He was released from prison in 1961 and spent his last years working as an editor in Budapest, where he died in 1965.
He returned to Hungary in late 1944 and became a member of the Central Committee, the Political Committee and the Secretariat of the Hungarian Communist Party from May 1945. In 1946 he was elected deputy secretary and became the chairman of the party"s Management Committee.