István Dobi (31 December 1898 – 24 November 1968) was a Hungarian communist politician who was Prime Minister of Hungary from 1948 to 1952 and Chairman of the Presidential Council of the Hungarian People's Republic from 1952 to 1967.

Early life

Dobi originated from a poor peasant family and was born in Szőny, in the Komárom County of the Kingdom of Hungary. He completed only six years of primary school and started working as a day laborer from an early age. In 1916 he came into contact with the agricultural workers' movement. After having fought in the First World War, he supported the Hungarian Soviet Republic. During the Hungarian–Romanian War of 1919 he was captured by the Romanians. Upon his release, he worked as a casual laborer and became active in the agricultural workers' union as well as in the Social Democratic Party of Hungary from the early 1920s. For this, he was put under police surveillance. In 1936 he switched to the Independent Smallholders' Party and became a functionary in the Kisalföld Chamber of Agriculture. Although he was not a member of the Communist Party, he was arrested several times during the regency of Miklós Horthy.

World War II

During the war he became one of the leaders of the Hungarian resistance until he was called up for duty, returning in the summer of 1945.

Post war

By the end of World War II he had become a leading member of the Smallholders Party, which achieved a majority in the 1945 general elections. Dobi was a member of the left-wing faction of that party, and advocated cooperation with the communists. With the Smallholders being a part of Hungary's post-war coalition government, Dobi served as Minister of Agriculture from February 1946 to November 1946 (under prime minister Ferenc Nagy) and again from April 1948 to December 1948 (under Lajos Dinnyés). As a leading member of the Smallholders' left wing, Dobi contributed some much needed legitimacy to a government that was increasingly dominated by Communists. After several splits and the expulsion, arrest or exile of anti-communist members ("salami tactics"), Dobi was elected chairman of the Smallholders Party in June 1947. The party concluded an alliance with the communists, social democrats and National Peasant Party for the rigged 1947 parliamentary election. Due in part to his support for the Communists, he replaced fellow Smallholder Lajos Dinnyés as prime minister in December 1948, helping preside over the final stage of the Communists' complete takeover of the country. In short order, Dobi removed those elements of his party who were unwilling to do the Communists' bidding, leaving the party in the hands of fellow travelers like himself. This process was also repeated with the other non-Communist parties. Thus, by the time of the 1949 elections, Hungary was effectively a one-party state. The 1949 elections formalized this status, with voters only having the option of approving or rejecting a Communist-dominated list. One of the first acts of the newly elected National Assembly was to approve a Soviet-style constitution, formally marking the onset of total Communist rule in Hungary. The Smallholders' Party was effectively disbanded. In terms of allegations of collaboration with the party, the New Hungarian Encyclopedia summed up Dobi's role in the Communist takeover in this way: "Following the ousting of the Smallholders Party right wing elements, he was selected to be president. Under his direction the party was cleansed of its reactionary elements and it became part of the program for building a people's democracy with the Communists."

Presidency of the People's Republic

In 1952, he gave up the prime ministership because Communist Party leader Mátyás Rákosi wanted that post for himself. Dobi was then promoted to Chairman of the Presidential Council, a post equivalent to that of president. He held this post until his retirement in April 1967. While the presidency was largely a ceremonial post, he took on numerous other high-profile roles to eventually become the second or third most powerful man in Hungary. He supported the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Having been a "crypto-communist" for many years, Dobi formally joined the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party in 1959. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962. He died in Budapest in 1968.

Honours and awards

National honours

Foreign honours