20 Facts About Ferenc Nagy

Ferenc Nagy was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1946 until his forced resignation in 1947.

Ferenc Nagy was a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary and a member of the High National Council from 1945 to 1946.

The subsequent Hungarian prime minister Imre Ferenc Nagy was unrelated to him.

Subsequently, Ferenc Nagy became a leader of the Hungarian emigre community and academic lecturer who often spoke on Eastern European affairs.

Ferenc Nagy tried and failed to return to his home country during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and lived out the rest of his life in the United States.

Ferenc Nagy was born into family of middle-level peasants in the small town of Bisse, and started his political career writing news articles as a self-taught man.

Ferenc Nagy was involved in local peasant societies and was the co-founder of the Peasant Union, and in October 1930 he took part in the foundation of the Independent Smallholders' Party.

Ferenc Nagy entered Parliament in 1939, and was involved in anti-war and anti-Nazi activities during Hungary's participation in World War II on the side of the Axis powers.

Ferenc Nagy took part in the organization of the anti-fascist provisional government, and was elected to the Provisional National Assembly.

Ferenc Nagy soon became the Smallholders' Party's second-in-command after Zoltan Tildy.

Ferenc Nagy was named speaker of the new parliament while Tildy became the new Prime Minister, and both became members of the High National Council which served as Hungary's provisional collective head of state.

Ferenc Nagy's government signed the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947, formally ending Hungary's involvement in World War II and renouncing all territorial gains in that war, as well as agreeing to pay reparations to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

Ferenc Nagy's government signed a population exchange agreement with Czechoslovakia, allowing the latter to expel as many ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia as Slovaks in Hungary applied for resettlement in Czechoslovakia.

Ferenc Nagy was accused by many fellow Smallholders of weakness in resisting these demands, but his ultimate goal was to appease the Communists until a peace treaty could be negotiated and their Soviet sponsors withdrew.

Ferenc Nagy hoped that by appeasing the Communists, the Hungarian government could use their leverage with Moscow to gain more favorable terms for the peace treaty.

On 14 May 1947, Ferenc Nagy traveled abroad to Switzerland, likely hoping to warn the West of the deteriorating situation in Hungary.

Ferenc Nagy documented his life and political career in The Struggle behind the Iron Curtain, published by MacMillan in 1948, and royalties from his memoirs helped him buy a house with a substantial garden plot in Herndon, Virginia.

Ferenc Nagy was heavily involved in exile politics and served as a member of the Hungarian Committee in exile, and attended the Bandung Conference in 1955 as an observer on behalf of the US government.

Ferenc Nagy retired from active political life in 1970, but in 1977 he spoke out in support of the return of the Holy Crown of Hungary from the United States to Hungary.

Ferenc Nagy died unexpectedly at his farm in Herndon in 1979 while planning a return to his home country.