Illyés, Gyula (1902–1983) (1902–1983)
Writer. Having joined the student and young-worker movement in 1918–19, Illyés emigrated to France in 1921, but returned in 1926. In 1934, he joined the paper Válasz, and in 1937 became associate editor of the journal Nyugat. His major prose work, People of the Puszta, appeared in 1936. He was a founder of the March Front. In 1940, he became editor of the paper Magyar Csillag. He was elected to Parliament in 1945 for the National Peasants’ Party (NPP), joining its leadership in 1946. He edited to the paper Válasz in 1946–9. In October 1956, he helped to revive the NPP. After the defeat, he was silent for several years, but in the 1970s and 1980s, became one of the most revered writers under the consolidated Kádár regime. He supported the ‘popular-national’ opposition that arose at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s.
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