Sándor Garbai

Garbai was born into the family of a Protestant bricklayer. An active participant in the labor movement from a young age, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Hungary (MSZDP) in 1901 and quickly rose through its ranks.{{cite book |last1=Roszkowski |first1=Wojciech |author-link1=Wojciech Roszkowski |last2=Kofman |first2=Jan |title=Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century |date=2016 |page=277|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317475941 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_HGlDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA276 |language=en}}

File:Garbai Sándor és családja (Vajda M. Pál, 1917).jpg

From 1908 he was the chairman of the Workers' Insurance Fund and during the First Hungarian Republic he headed the All National Housing Council.{{Cite web|title=Politikatörténeti Intézet|url=http://polhist.hu/?option=com_phlev&controller=rep&fond_id=269&Itemid=68|access-date=2022-01-02|language=hu}} He was in favour of the merger of the MSZDP with the Hungarian Communist Party which occurred on 21 March 1919. This led to the foundation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, with Garbai as the Chairman of the Revolutionary Governing Council, both head of state and prime minister. Although Garbai remained titular leader of the Soviet Republic for the better part of its existence, the de facto leader of the state was Communist foreign minister Béla Kun.

File:Garbai Kun.jpgAfter the fall of the Soviet Republic, he was arrested by the Romanian military. Fearing reprisals, Garbai escaped from Romanian captivity in Cluj and fled to Czechoslovakia and first in settled Bratislava and then emigrated to Vienna. He was a leader of the centrist Marxist movement among the Hungarian political refugees. With his family, he opened a restaurant in Vienna, where he hosted former communist and other socialist leaders. The restaurant soon went bankrupt, Garbai suffered huge financial losses and lived in poverty for the rest of his lifetime. After leaving Austria in 1934 due to the victory of the right-wing Fatherland Front, he settled in Bratislava, and in 1938, in Paris.{{Citation|title=Gyenes, Lajos Sándor|date=2011-10-31|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00081888|work=Benezit Dictionary of Artists|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00081888 |access-date=2022-01-02|url-access=subscription}}

During the German occupation of France he did not participate in the Resistance Movement, although the underground tried to recruit him. He was also not bothered by the German occupiers. After the liberation of Hungary, Garbai and his family desired to return to their homeland but their request was rejected.

File:Garbai Kalló Kiskunhalas.JPG

Garbai remained in Paris where he died on November 7, 1947.

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{{succession box|title=Minister of Religion and Education|before=József Pogány|after=Sándor Imre|years=1919}}

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Category:1879 births

Category:1947 deaths

Category:People from Kiskunhalas

Category:Hungarian Calvinist and Reformed Christians

Category:Social Democratic Party of Hungary politicians

Category:Prime ministers of Hungary

Category:Ministers of education of Hungary

Category:Hungarian Marxists

Category:Heads of government who were later imprisoned