Gyula Kállai

Gyula Kállai (1 June 1910 – 12 March 1996) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1949 to 1951, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) from 1965 to 1967 and Speaker of the National Assembly from 1967 to 1971. He was also President of the National Council of the Patriotic People's Front from 1957 to 1989.

Biography The son of a bookmaker, Kállai was born in Berettyóújfalu. In 1930, he enrolled as a student of Hungarian and Latin at the University of Budapest in 1930, transferring to the University of Debrecen in 1932. While a student, Kállai joined the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) in 1931. Because of his political involvement, he was expelled from university in 1937 and started working as a journalist for the newspaper Független Újság in Debrecen and the social-democratic Budapest daily Népszava.

During World War II, Kállai was involved in the resistance against the pro-German regime of Miklós Horthy; he was arrested in July 1942 for participation in illegal demonstrations, but released in November of the same year due to lack of evidence. In September 1944, he participated in the refounding of the MKP, and served as representative of the party to the Hungarian National Independence Front. From 1957, Kállai held a number of ministerial positions: as Minister of Cultural Affairs between March 1957 and January 1958, Minister of State between January 1958 and January 1960, and as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers between January 1960 and April 1965. Between June 1965 and April 1967, he was Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and then a member of the Presidential Council until 1989 as well as Speaker of the National Assembly from April 1967 until May 1971.