Miklós Molnár ( b. 1918)
Born in Budapest, Molnár studied at Budapest University from 1936 to 1938. He was an editor of the newspaper Nemzet (Nation), and then from 1937, of Reggel (Morning). During the war, he worked on the Peasant Party paper Szabad Szó (Free Word). Molnár joined the Hungarian Communist Party, working from 1947 to 1950 on the central communist daily, Szabad Nép, and then as an editor of the literary paper Irodalmi Újság. He wrote theatre reviews and articles on other cultural subjects. In 1956, he became a fellow of the Institute of Literary Studies and joined in the activity of the opposition writers. In his article 'Reply to Pravda' , which appeared in the Szabad Nép on October 29, 1956, Molnár refuted several libellous allegations about the revolution, which had appeared in a leader in the Soviet party daily. In November, he was involved in the illegal Hungarian Democratic Independence Movement. He fled to Yugoslavia on February 2, 1957, where he was taken first to the camp at Csáktornya (Čakovec) and then to Pancsova (Pančevo). He has lived in Switzerland since 1957, working for the first year as a labourer in Zurich. Molnár helped to compile a book of documents entitled The Truth about the Nagy Affair. Facts. Documents. Comments. He studied history at the University of Geneva in 1958-63 and joined the staff of the Imre Nagy Political and Social Science Institute in 1959. In 1963, he obtained a doctorate at Geneva, where he taught at the university Institute of International Relations until 1988. From 1969 to 1985, he also taught at Lausanne University. He has been an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 1995 and a life member of the Méosz since 1997.
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