Miklós Gimes, 1917–1958
The parents of Budapest-born Gimes were psychiatrists and he studied medicine in Szeged, but never qualified. He earned his living by casual intellectual work until the war, when he was called up for labour service. He deserted in the summer of 1944 and joined Tito>’s army in Yugoslavia. Returning to Budapest in January 1945, he joined the Hungarian Communist Party and the staff of its central daily paper, Szabad Nép (Free People). After 1953, he became an adherent of Imre Nagy’s reforms. For that reason, he was moved to the less important daily Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian Nation) after Nagy’s removal in 1955. At a party meeting in May 1955, Gimes called for the fabricated trials of László Rajk and others to be reopened. For this, he was expelled from the party and dismissed from his job. He then worked as a librarian and a publisher’s reader. Gimes became a leading figure in Nagy’s circle, with more radical and democratic political views than most of his associates. He returned to work at Szabad Nép on the day before the 1956 revolution broke out. During the revolution, he and his friends founded a daily paper called Magyar Szabadság (Hungarian Freedom). After November 4, he became a leading figure in the intellectual resistance, editing the illegal paper Október Huszonhatodika (October 26) and founding the Hungarian Democratic Independence Movement. He was arrested by the Soviets on December 5, 1956. He was convicted of initiating and heading a conspiracy in the trial of Imre Nagy and associates, before the Council of the People’s Court of the Supreme Court, chaired by Ferenc Vida, with no room for appeal. His death sentence was carried out the next day.
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