János Gyöngyösi

Who was János Gyöngyösi?

János Gyöngyösi was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1944 and 1947. He fought in the First World War. After the war he worked as a journalist and finished his studies in the Budapest University. During the Second World War he was a reserve officer in Debrecen, near the Hungarian-Romanian border.

In 1931 Gyöngyösi joined the Smallholders Party. From 1944 he supported the Allies and the Red Army in his articles and asked the Hungarian home defence soldiers to capitulate. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the illegitimate Interim National Government. He could have been minister because he had good contacts with the Soviet Union. However Gyöngyösi realised the superpower's real intentions. That's why he searched the connections with the Western powers. In 1947 Gyöngyösi signed the Treaty of Paris, Hungary lost again huge parts of its territory, for example Northern-Transylvania. Gyöngyösi's political career was doomed when Ferenc Nagy had to resign.