Ferenc Münnich

Ferenc Münnich
File:MunnichFerenc.jpg
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary
In office 28 January 1958 – 13 September 1961
Preceded by	János Kádár
Succeeded by	János Kádár
Personal details
Born	(1886-11-18)18 November 1886 Seregélyes, Austria-Hungary
Died	29 November 1967(1967-11-29) (aged 81) Budapest, Hungary
Nationality	Hungarian
Political party	Hungarian Communist Party, Hungarian Working People's Party, Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party

The native form of this personal name is Münnich Ferenc. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Ferenc Münnich [ˈfɛrɛnts ˈmynːiç] (born 18 November 1886, Seregélyes – 29 November 1967, Budapest) was a Jewish-Hungarian Communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary from 1958 to 1961. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I, and fought in the Eastern front. He was captured in 1915, then deported to a lager in Tomsk, Siberia. In 1918, he was freed and returned to Hungary. He participated in the government of the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and was commissar of Rakosi Battalion of XIII International Brigade He joined the Hungarian Communist Party in October 1945. After World War II, he returned from exile and became a chief police superintendent of Budapest. In 1956 Hungarian Revolution, first he was officially part of the Imre Nagy government, serving as interior minister from 27 to 31 October, then fled to Soviet Union. He returned with János Kádár and served as a minister in his "Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government". On 4 November 1956 he was restored to his position as interior minister and also became defense minister, holding these positions until 1 March 1957. A couple of months later, he organized the Worker's Militia. In 1965 and 1967, he was decorated with the Lenin award of the Soviet Union.