Rare and interesting Soviet communist era Hungarian military / political officers' presentation dagger. Awarded to Hungarian Lieutenant General Istvan Szabo in 1950. Blade reads: Szabo Istvan Altabornagy elvtarsnak 1950. november 7. Szabo was appointed lieutenant general on November 7, 1950. The date of November 7 is primarily known as the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 (October 25 according to the Julian calendar), which had been a public holiday in Hungary. Under Lenin's leadership in 1917, the Bolshevik Party seized power, leading to the formation of the Soviet Union. In Hungary this day was a celebration of the Soviet-Hungarian friendship and the socialist system between 1950-1988. Szabo Istvan was born in 1906 into a working-class family with eight children. His father, Joachim Szabo, earned his living as a laborer, while also farming four acres of land. In addition to his work, he was also an active communist and became the leader of the local directorate during the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919. After the Treaty of Trianon, their home became part of the newly formed Czechoslovakia, and they were granted Czechoslovak citizenship. Istvan Szabo completed six years of elementary school, then had to take a job at a brick factory at the age of 11. In 1920, now a Czechoslovak citizen, he became an apprentice iron turner in his hometown, then in Komarom. Then, in 1924, the year of his emancipation, he moved to Pozsony, where he joined the ironworkers' union and left the church, officially becoming non-denominational. In 1926, he joined the youth organization of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, and in 1928, he became a member of a Bratislava cell of the CzCP. Thanks to his activities, he was able to attend the International Lenin School in Moscow from September 1930 to November 1931, and upon his return, he became an independent functionary (i.e., he received a salary for his party duties and did not have to work alongside them). From 1931 to 1934, he was secretary of the CzCP in the districts of Dunajska Streda, Levice, and Lu?enec, and in 1934, he became secretary of the district party committee in Nove Zamky. Due to his political activities, he was arrested several times by the Czechoslovak authorities and spent a total of two years in prison. From 1934, he was a member of the expanded party leadership, and from 1937, he was a member of the narrower party leadership. On November 1, 1938, he lost his party functions, and in March 1939, when the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia were established, he fled to the Soviet Union. He found employment in his original profession in the Soviet Union, first in Voroshilovgrad (now Luhansk, eastern Ukraine), where he qualified as an iron turner, and then, following the German invasion in 1941, he was relocated to Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan along with the factory. It was not until September 1944 that he received a political assignment: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union summoned him to Moscow, where he was informed of his further duties: in consultation with Hungarian communist kingpin Matyas Rakosi, who was also in the Soviet Union, it was decided that he would continue his party work in Hungary. In December 1944, he arrived in Debrecen, which was under Soviet occupation, where he performed party organizational tasks. It should be noted that the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) did not have significant support at the time, and Moscow's policies and patronage played a major role in its popularity. He served as secretary of the MKP's Eastern Hungarian Regional Committee and its Debrecen organization. In April 1945, he was elected to the Provisional National Assembly. His political career began to rise rapidly in 1946, when he was elected secretary of the Hajdú County Party Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP). Following the violent party merger, he joined the Central Leadership of the Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP) and, two years later, the smaller decision-making body, the Political Committee (PB). He only had to resign from the PB after Imre Nagy's first government took office. In 1948, when the Hungarian Workers' Party was formed, he became a member of the Central Executive Committee and was appointed deputy minister of defense under Mihaly Farkas, receiving the rank of colonel in the Hungarian Army even though he did not have any military training. He was in charge of the personnel department of the ministry. He played an active role in the creation of the Hungarian People's Army, modeled on the Stalinist Soviet army, and in the extension of communist control over the armed forces. It should be noted that Mihaly Farkas, also from Upper Hungary, helped him in his political career. Farkas was a member of the Defense Committee, which was secretly established within the party's top leadership, and was also in charge of the show trials involving military officers and the purging of pre-war officers. In 1949, he became a member of the Military Subcommittee of the MDP State Defense Committee. He retained his membership in the Central Committee and his position as deputy minister until the 1956 revolution, during which time he was chief of personnel for the People's Army and rose to the rank of lieutenant general. Matyas Rakosi's trust in him is indicated by the fact that from 1950 until the beginning of the "new phase" represented by Imre Nagy in June 1953, he also had a seat in the highest body of the state party, the Political Committee. In 1950, he was one of the experts for the prosecution in the show trial of the generals. He provided expert testimony to Sandor Revesz, who worked for military counterintelligence, which was later used in the trial to prove the guilt of the defendants. He lost his leading party positions during the 1956 anti communist uprising and did not hold any significant positions after that. In November 1956, the counterrevolutionary Kadar government appointed him commissioner of Hajdú-Bihar County. He was questioned as a witness in the Farkas trial in the spring of 1957, at which time he attempted to absolve himself and Revesz of responsibility. From July 1957 until his retirement in 1962, he served as national president of the Hungarian Defense Sports Association, retaining his rank of lieutenant general throughout. He then lived in Budapest until his death. He died in the Hungarian capital in 1974. Career, positions: Member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1928, the Hungarian Communist Party from 1944, the Hungarian Workers' Party from June 1948, and the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from November 1956. 1931?1934: Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CSKP) in the districts of Dunajska Streda, Levice, and Lu?enec. 1934?November 1, 1938: Secretary of the CSKP district committee in Ersekújvar. December 1944 ? April 1945: Secretary of the Eastern Hungarian Regional Committee and Debrecen organization of the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP). April 2, 1945 ? November 4, 1945: Member of the Provisional National Assembly. November 4, 1945 ? 1958: Member of the National Assembly (from 1947, member of the National Parliament). February 1946 ? November 30, 1948: Secretary of the Hajdú County Party Committee of the MKP. December 1, 1948 ? October 30, 1956: Chief of Personnel at the Ministry of Defense. December 1, 1948: Promoted to the rank of colonel. June 14, 1948 ? October 30, 1956: Member of the Central Leadership of the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP). April 4, 1949: Promoted to Major General. May 31, 1950 ? June 28, 1953: Member of the Political Committee of the MDP. November 7, 1950: Promoted to lieutenant general. January 24, 1951 ? October 30, 1956: Deputy Minister of Defense. July 1, 1957 ? 1962: President of the Hungarian Defense Sports Association. Awards Hungarian Order of Liberty, Silver Class (1947) Kossuth Order of Merit, Class II (1948) Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic (1948) Order of Merit of the Hungarian People's Republic, Classes III, IV, and V (1955) Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1955) Order of Merit for the Socialist Homeland (1967) Liberation Jubilee Commemorative Medal (1970) Order of Merit for Labor, gold class (1970) The Soviet type Stalinist dictatorship of Rakosi Matyas, 1948-1953, was arguably the darkest era of Hungarian history in recent centuries. From 1948 to 1956, 350,000 officials and intellectuals as well as Horthy era military officers were purged by Rakosi's regime, and Rakosi claimed that he was Joseph Stalin's best pupil. In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pressured Rakosi to resign from leading the communists in Hungary, as Khrushchev sought to eradicate the extreme Stalinist ideology. Rakosi was then forced into exile in the USSR, ostensibly for medical care, and he was forced to live in the Kyrgyz SSR of the Russian SFSR until his death in 1971.