page_title: György Aczél
section_title: Director of cultural policy
hierarchical_section_title: György Aczél / Biography / Director of cultural policy
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: Aczél György (1917-1991) művelődéspolitikus, MSzMP vezetőségi tag, KB és PB tag, művelődési miniszterhelyettes, Országos Közművelődési Tanács elnöke, országgyűlési képviselő sírja Budapesten. Farkasréti temető: 48/3-2-6/7
context_page_description: György Aczél was a Hungarian communist politician. He became a member of the then illegal Hungarian Communist Party in 1935, and was a founding member of the Political Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party in 1956. He was a deputy minister from 1958 to 1967, later, as one of the leaders of the Party's Central Committee the most influential figure in socialist culture politics.
context_section_description: During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he participated in the armoured defense of the party's headquaerters in the 5th district. ion, he immediately joined János Kádár's new regime, and on 31 October, he became the founding member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) and he was elected a member of its Central Committee (Hu: Központi Bizottság). In the judgment of the revolution and the role of Imre Nagy, he represented the party's "softer" line.
  After the Soviet troops crushed the revolt, on 13 April 1957, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Culture. He served as First Deputy Minister of Culture from 10 February 1958 until 18 April 1967. In this position, he gradually grew up (especially under Pál Ilku's ministership) as a leading cultural politician of the Kádár regime. As a result, Ilku was sarcastically named as the First Superior Minister of Culture, as Aczél functioned as the de facto head of the ministry. In a letter to the political committee in the summer of 1957, he raised the notorious "three Ts". The three T letters are an abbreviation of the Hungarian words for tiltott, tűrt, támogatott (En: prohibited, tolerated, supported). This attitude became a real, common practice only in the sixties and seventies.
  Within its ideological boundaries, his activity was characterized by pragmatism. Due to his extensive personal relationships and his friendship with János Kádár, the powerful leader of the country and the state party MSZMP, he has had a much greater influence on cultural policy and day-to-day practice. He was in a close contact with important personalities of literary-intellectual life, like Zoltán Kodály, Gyula Illyés and György Lukács. On 12 April 1967, he was appointed secretary of the Central Committee of the MSZMP and was entrusted with the general control of cultural life in this capacity. In 1971, he became chairman of the newly formed cultural policy working group within the Central Committee, and held his office until 20 March 1974. Meanwhile, he was elected to the Political Committee of the MSZMP (Hu: Politikai Bizottság) on 28 November 1970. He was forced to leave the post under the pressure of the hardline leftist party faction opposing the 1968 economic-social reforms, but as "consolation" he was elected the Vice-President of the Council of Ministers (i.e. Deputy Prime Minister) the following day, on 21 March, as well as the chairman of the State Committee for the Kossuth Prize, and in 1980 the chairman of the National Council for Public Education.
  He resigned from all these positions in 1982, when he returned to his former position in the Central Committee on 23 July. Nevertheless, his career and influence was already in decline. Finally, he was dismissed on 28 March 1985. Subsequently, he was Director General of the Party's Social Sciences Institute (Hu: Társadalomtudományi Intézet) until his retirement in October 1989, and remained a member of the Political Committee until 22 May 1988, when he was not re-elected at the 1988 Party Congress.
  He played an important role in the failure of Károly Grósz in June 1989 at the Central Committee meeting although he was no longer a member of it. When the MSZMP was officially abolished on 7 October 1989, Aczél retired from politics and began writing his memoirs, but he could not finish it: he died on 6 December 1991.
  Not long before his death, Aczél rediscovered his Jewish roots and traveled to Israel.
caption: György Aczél grave
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