Sándor Garbai


Sándor Garbai was a Hungarian socialist politician who served as the prime minister of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

Political career

He was active in the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary. During the First Hungarian Republic he headed the All National Housing Council. He was in favour of the merger of the HSDP with the Hungarian Communist Party which occurred on 21 March 1919. This led to the foundation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic of which he was both prime minister and president. Although Garbai remained titular head of the for the better part of its reign, he held little power or influence. The de facto leader of the state was Communist foreign minister Béla Kun.
Mátyás Rákosi later joked that the revolution's Jewish leaders took the gentile Garbai in so that they would have somebody to sign the death sentences on Shabbat.