Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 408-1-6

Title

Files on the Trials of Gábor Péter and Mihály Farkas

Date(s)

1906 - 1979

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

3 Archival boxes, 0.38 linear meters

Context

Archival history

Originals are kept in the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL).

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

Following the Soviet model, heads of the state security organization and other high ranking officials who were responsible for the unlawful acts and for the terror were charged and tried. In Hungary, the first such persons were State Security Authority (ÁVH) Lieutenant General Gábor Péter (1906-1993) and Mihály Farkas (1904-1965) minister of defense.

Gábor Péter was arrested in January 1953 by secretary general Mátyás Rákosi himself; in the ensuing wave of purges several high ranking party officials and state security officers as well as the members of the Jewish Council of 1944 were arrested. Finally, though on different charges, MIhály Farkas, deputy secretary general of the communist party was arrested on 13th October, 1956, while his son, Vladimir Farkas, colonel of ÁVH, a weak earlier.

The series includes personal files on Gábor Péter from before 1945, as well as on Ernő Szűcs (1908-1950), Péter’s deputy in counter-intelligence within the communist party, who was arrested in 1950 and beaten to death; files of investigations and trials against Gábor Péter, other officers of ÁVH, and MIhály Farkas, convicted with Péter in 1957.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

While these documents were not destroyed as systematically as the files of show trials, some parts were destroyed. The case of Gábor Péter and Mihály Farkas, however, can be reconstructed from the documents. The convicted state security police heads were regularly interrogated between 1954 and 1956 about the show trials. Part of these documents are in series 5.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

The series is arranged chronologically.

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

The general rules of research in OSA Research Room apply.

Conditions governing reproduction

A dokumentumok oktatási és kutatási célból digitálisan másolhatók az OSA kutatótermében.

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by László Varga, March 2, 2015.