Goergy Marosan; Helped Suppress ’56 Hungarian Revolt

Goergy Marosan, a veteran Communist who was a key figure in suppressing the 1956 Hungarian revolution, died Sunday of unreported causes. He was 84.

Marosan joined the Hungarian Social Democratic Party in 1927 when he was an apprentice baker and later became a labor leader in the food workers union. He was repeatedly jailed for his union activities during World War II.

After the war, he said the Social Democrats should cooperate with the Communist Party, and many Social Democrats accused him of selling out their party to the Communists. The parties merged in 1948.

Marosan’s previous role notwithstanding, he was arrested on trumped-up charges in 1950 and “rehabilitated” in early 1956.

During the popular uprising against Communist and Soviet rule in October, 1956, Marosan sided with Janos Kadar, who had been handpicked by Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev to lead the Hungarian Communist Party. Marosan was Kadar’s right hand in the suppression of the revolt by Soviet troops and its aftermath.

Marosan was a member of the ruling Politburo until 1962, when he resigned over differences with Kadar, whom he accused of backtracking on the purge of Stalinists from the party.