Dobi, István

Born Dec. 31, 1898, in the village of Szóny, comitat of Komárom; died Nov. 24, 1968, in Budapest. Hungarian political and government figure. Son of an agricultural worker.

Dobi joined the peasant and revolutionary movement in his youth and fought in the ranks of the Hungarian Red Army at the time of the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919; he joined the All-Hungarian Union of Agricultural Workers in 1922. After joining the Smallholders’ Party in 1934, Dobi became the leader of the party’s left wing in 1937. Arrested and harassed during the Horthy regime, Dobi fought in the Resistance Movement in World War II. He was organization secretary of the Peasants’ Union (founded in 1942) from 1942 to 1947 and became chairman of the Smallholders’ Party in May 1947.

Dobi was chairman of the Council of Ministers from December 1948 to August 1952, chairman of the Presidium of the Hungarian People’s Republic (HPR) from 1952 to 1967, and member of the Presidium of the HPR from 1967 to 1968. He joined the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party in 1959 and was elected a member of the party’s central committee in December 1959. From 1955 to 1965 he was chairman of the Council of Agricultural Producers’ Cooperatives, and from 1957 to 1968, vice-chairman of the All-Hungarian Council of the People’s Patriotic Front. He became chairman of the All-Hungarian Council of Cooperatives in 1968. He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor of the HPR in 1967 and the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples in 1961. Dobi made a great contribution to the development of friendship and cooperation between the Hungarian and Soviet peoples.