Imre Pozsgay  Imre András Pozsgay ("Pozsgay Imre", ; 26 November 1933 – 25 March 2016) was a Hungarian Communist politician who played a key role in Hungary's transition to democracy after 1988. He served as Minister of Culture (1976–1980), Minister of Education (1980–1982) and Minister of State (1988–1990). He was also a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 1994. Pozsgay was born in Kóny on 26 November 1933 as the son of tailor Imre Pozsgay, Sr. (died 1938) and housewife Rozália Lénárt. After finishing elementary and secondary studies in Enying and Fertőd, respectively, he joined the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP) in 1950 which had established a Communist one-party system by then. In 1951, he became head of the Balatonbozsok (today part of Enying) party branch. Following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Pozsgay became a member of the reorganized state party, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP). After that he graduated with an English degree from the Lenin Institute in Budapest, which belonged to the Eötvös Loránd University. During that time he published an article for "Petőfi Népe" on 15 December 1957 about the 1956 uprising under the title ""Revolution or Counter-revolution?"". Therein he called the 1956 events as a "pure counter-revolution", which tried to restore the "capitalist conditions and the bourgeois rule". Imre Nagy was characterized by Pozsgay as an "unprincipled" person who became Prime Minister "in the days of the raging White Terror". Between 1957 and 1965, he functioned as Director of the MSZMP Bács-Kiskun County Committee's Marxist–Leninist Evening University. Between 1965 and 1968, he was Head of the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the local county branch. Until 1969, he served as Secretary of the party's Bács-Kiskun County branch. After that he was appointed Head of the Central Committee's Press Department. From 1971 to 1975, he was Deputy Editor in Chief of "Társadalmi Szemle". He defended his C.Sc. thesis in philosophy in 1970. In 1975, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Culture under László Orbán in the cabinet of Prime Minister György Lázár.