Erdei, Ferenc

Born Dec. 24, 1910 in Makó; died May 11, 1971 in Budapest. Hungarian economist, jurist, and state figure. Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1957).

After graduating from the law faculty at Szeged University in 1934, Erdei studied agrarian relations in the countryside. He joined the left wing of the antifascist March Front in 1938 and worked together with Communists. He helped found the National Peasant Party in 1939; he became its vice-chairman in 1945 and was later named its general secretary. In 1944 he was a deputy to the Provisional National Assembly and minister of the interior in the Provisional National Government in Debrecen.

Between 1948 and 1956, Erdei served as minister of state, minister of agriculture, minister of justice, and deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic. In 1964 he was named vice-president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1965 he became a member of the presidium of the People’s Patriotic Front. He was a deputy to the National Assembly. In 1957 he was appointed director of the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics. His main works deal with agricultural economics.

Erdei received the State Prize of the Hungarian People’s Republic in 1948 and 1962.