Elek Köblös

Elek Köblös (; 12 May 1887 – 9 October 1938) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Hungarian and Romanian communist activist and political leader. He was also known by the pseudonyms Balthazar, Bădulescu, and Dănilă. He served as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1924 to 1927 and was executed in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge.

Biography

Early years Köblös was born on 12 May 1887 into an ethnic Hungarian family in Sáromberke (present-day Dumbrăvioara, part of Ernei, Mureș County) in Transylvania. After completing elementary school in his native village, he continued his studies in Nagyenyed (today Aiud, Romania). He dropped out of school after four years, and started as an apprentice carpenter in Marosvásárhely (today Târgu Mureș).

As a carpenter, Köblös became active in the trade union movement and was won over to the ideas of revolutionary socialism. He took part in revolutionary activities in the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of 1918, fighting against Romanian troops in defense of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, during the Hungarian–Romanian War. When Transylvania was incorporated into the Kingdom of Romania in 1920, Köblös became a Romanian citizen. Köblös headed the party's trade union section, with particular attention given to the woodworkers' union, of which he was the head.

In the summer of 1924, Köblös travelled to the Soviet Union, where he attended the 4th World Congress of the Communist International on behalf of the Romanian party. This effort at legal work proved unsuccessful, however, and Köblös was forced to flee the country in the fall of 1925. He remained in exile until 1927, staying in Vienna and the Soviet Union as a part of the Romanian Communist Central Committee in exile. most likely in the Lubyanka Prison, Moscow.

He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1968, during Nicolae Ceaușescu's move to establish his legitimacy in Communist Romania.

Footnotes

Additional sources Vladimir Tismăneanu, Fantoma lui Gheorghiu-Dej, Editura Univers, Bucharest, 1995 Dosarele Istoriei, 10/1998