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BELA KIRALY (Associated Press/File 2008) |
Bela Kiraly, 97; led forces in Hungary against Soviets
Associated Press
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July 5, 2009
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BUDAPEST - Bela Kiraly, one of the military leaders of Hungary’s short-lived anti-Soviet revolution in 1956, has died, the government said. He was 97.
A brief defense ministry statement provided no other details, including the cause of death or where and when it occurred. However, the daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet reported that Mr. Kiraly died yesterday morning in Budapest.
He served in the Hungarian Army during World War II and later led its military academy.
In 1952, he was sentenced to death on trumped-up conspiracy charges by Hungary’s Stalinist regime, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison.
The October 1956 revolution, aimed at overthrowing the communist regime, lasted less than two weeks before it was crushed. Mr. Kiraly had been freed from prison just weeks before the revolution and he was named as Budapest’s military commander and head of the National Guard.
His task was to organize the police, army, and individual groups of insurgents into a cohesive body to help Prime Minister Imre Nagy’s newly minted multiparty government stabilize the country.
But when about 100,000 Soviet troops and 4,500 tanks invaded the country on Nov. 4, the Hungarians could do little to stop their advance. The revolution was quickly crushed.
According to historian Ignac Romsics, Mr. Kiraly “judged that any resistance would be suicidal’’ and decided to flee to Austria with his staff.
After the revolution, Mr. Kiraly continued to advocate for the revolution’s cause and testified at the United Nations about the 1956 events and Soviet brutality.
Mr. Kiraly settled in the United States. He earned a doctorate degree in history from Columbia University and taught military history at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
In 1989, the last full year of Hungary’s communist regime, Mr. Kiraly was allowed to return and he gave a speech at the June 16 reburial of Imre Nagy and other revolutionary leaders, one of the key events in Hungary’s road to democracy.
At age 78, he decided to stay in Hungary and was elected to Parliament, where he served from 1990 to 1994. Later, he was a government adviser on the armed forces.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
