Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy was a Hungarian politician and prime minister whose reform program challenged the rigid Stalinist direction of postwar Hungary. During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he supported a ceasefire, called for the withdrawal of Soviet forces, announced Hungary’s neutrality, and declared its withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. After the uprising was suppressed, Nagy was executed in 1958 and later became a central symbol of Hungary’s democratic transformation.