Rákosi Mátyás

Rákosi Mátyás (9 March 1892 - 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian communist politician. He was born Mátyás Rosenfeld in Ada (today in Serbia). He was the leader of Hungary's Communist Party from 1945 to 1956 - first as General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party (1945–1948) and later holding the same post with the Hungarian Working People's Party (1948–1956). As such, from 1949 to 1956, he was the de facto ruler of Communist Hungary. An ardent Stalinist, his government was very loyal to the Soviet Union, and he presided over the mass imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of people and the death of thousands.