Achim, Andras

Born in 1871 in Békéscsaba; died May 14, 1911, in Békéscsaba. Hungarian politician; leader of the Alfôld Independent Socialist Party (founded in 1906), which led the peasant movement in Hungary from 1906 to 1911.

Achim was elected to parliament in 1905, deprived of his mandate in 1906, and elected once again in 1910. He put forward a critique of the antipopular policies of the ruling classes and demanded that the lands of the large landlords and the church be nationalized and subsequently transferred to the peasants and that the peasants be freed from the oppression of usurers. The activity of the party led by Achim (numerous meetings and gatherings in the cities of Alföld) played an important role in awakening the political consciousness of the Hungarian peasantry. He was killed by landlords (the Zhilinskii brothers).