Hungary 1956 Wikia
Advertisement

From the Hungarian Wikipedia page [1]; the English Wikipedia page is [2].

István Bata (Tura, 5 March 1910 - Budapest, 17 August 1982) Minister of National Defense, Member of Parliament.

In 1930 he entered the MSZDP. In 1942 he was convicted and placed under police supervision. In December 1944, he was blinded by one of his bombs. From 1945 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Public Employees' Trade Union and then BSzKRt. Between 1947 and 1949 he was a student of the Moscow Military Academy. In 1950 he was appointed Air Force Commander and then Chief of Staff. From 1951 he was a deputy member of the Central Committee of the Communist MDP since 1953. From 4 July 1953 to 24 October 1956 he was Minister of Defense. As such, in 1955, he was a member of the Hungarian delegation signing the Warsaw Pact.

During the 1956 Revolution, he was one of the developers of the Soviet warship "Wave" (Volna), which was created by Colonel Malesenko, Yuri Andropov, then Soviet Ambassador István Bata and Lieutenant General KGB Tyihonov, for the "restoration of Hungarian peace in Hungary". On October 24, he distributed Budapest to three military districts and commanded the Revolution to be defeated. On 26 and 27 October, however, it became clear that the army was divided. On 26 October, he was exempted from office, on 29 August he fled to the Soviet Union. On November 2 he discussed with János Kádár, who came to Moscow, who was present at the enlarged meeting of the Bureau of the USSR of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ("Military dictatorship must be established, change the government's policy," he said.) He was expelled from the MSZMP on November 16, 1956. He returned to Hungary only in 1958. He spent his retirement at BKV various managerial positions.

Advertisement