István Bata

Who was István Bata?

István Bata was a Hungarian military officer and politician, who served as Minister of Defence between 1953 and 1956. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 he divided Budapest into three military districts and gave an order to defeat the revolution. On 26 October Bata was relieved of all of his functions. Three days later he escaped to the Soviet Union. He negotiated with János Kádár and he wanted to organize a military dictatorship after the fall of the revolution. On 16 November Bata was expelled from the party because of his stalinist past. Later he returned to Hungary, where he worked for the BKV.