born Feb. 20, 1886, Szilágycseh, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary
died Nov. 30, 1939?, U.S.S.R.
Hungarian communist leader.
He fought in the Austrian army in World War I, was captured by the Russians, and became a Bolshevik . After returning to Hungary in 1918, he founded the Hungarian Communist Party. When Count Károlyi Mihály resigned in March 1919, Kun headed the new Hungarian Soviet Republic. He created a Red Army that reconquered much of the territory lost to Czechoslovaks and Romanians and eliminated moderate elements in the government. In August the regime collapsed, and Kun fled to Vienna and then Russia. As a leader of the Comintern , he tried to foment revolution in Germany and Austria in the 1920s. Eventually accused of "Trotskyism," he fell victim to Joseph Stalin 's purge trials .
Béla Kun, drawing by Béla Uitz, 1930; in the Legújabbkori ...
By courtesy of the Legujabbkori Torteneti Muzeum, Budapest