Wesselényi, Miklós

Born 1796 in Szibo; died Apr. 21, 1850, in Pest. A baron and one of the leaders of the gentry opposition in Hungary in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

Wesselényi began his political activity in 1818 in Transylvania. In 1831 he proposed the reform program described in his book Unjust Verdicts (published 1839). From 1832 to 1836, together with F. Kolcsey, he headed the gentry opposition in the Hungarian State Assembly. Wesselenyi linked the problem of his country’s independence to bourgeois reforms, among them the abolition of serfdom. His program envisaged emancipation of the peasantry from feudal obligations for redemption payments. He also set forth the idea of a union of the Kingdom of Hungary and Transylvania. During the Revolution of 1848-49, Wesselényi leaned toward the compromising so-called Party of Peace.