István Rakovszky
Encyclopedia
István Rakovszky de Nagyrákó et Nagyselmecz (18 June 1858 - 12 August 1931) was a legitimist Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 politician. During the Second Royal coup d'état Charles IV returned to Hungary to try unsuccessfully to retake his throne
Charles I of Austria's attempts to retake the throne of Hungary
After Miklós Horthy had been chosen Regent of Hungary on 1 March 1920, Charles I of Austria-Hungary, who had reigned in Hungary as Károly IV, returned to Hungary twice, to try unsuccessfully to retake his throne...

. The king formed a rival government in Sopron
Sopron
In 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...

 and appointed Rakovszky Prime Minister.

Early life

Born in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, his parents were István Rakovszky (1832–1891) and Baroness Ilona Majthényi (1839–1903). He had three siblings: Béla (Adalbert), Ferenc and Marianne. István Rakovszky married to Baroness Mária Majthényi de Kesselőkeő, their children were Egon, Miklós, Mária and Zsófia.

He finished his secondary school studies in Pozsony (now: Bratislava, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

). After the law studies he marched in into the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...

 but he had to demobilize because of his disease. He travelled to Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 to treatment. Returning to Liptó County he settled down in his possession which near to Nagyselmec
Liptovská Štiavnica
Liptovská Štiavnica is a village and municipality in Ružomberok District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 560 metres and covers an area of 32.372km². It has a population of about 905 people....

. Soon he played a significant role in the county's oppositional movements. He had been to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 many times.

Political career

Ar the time of the ecclesiastical political fights he took part in the foundation of the Catholic People's Party in 1895. He served as deputy chairman of the party from 1903. He became known politician after the Catholic Congress of 1896 where he talked about the social objectives of the Christian politics as a lecturer, on an unusual manner. Rakovszky belonged to the Catholic political movements' conservative-feudal wing.

He was member of the House of Representatives from 1896 to 1918 and of the National Assembly of Hungary
National Assembly of Hungary
The National Assembly or Diet is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 386 members elected to 4-year terms. Election of members is based on a complex system involving both area and list election; parties must win at least 5% of the popular vote in order to enter list members...

 from 1918 to 1926. He was one of the plenary session
Plenary session
Plenary session is a term often used in conferences to define the part of the conference when all members of all parties are to attend.These sessions may contain a broad range of content from keynotes to panel discussions and are not necessarily related to a specific style of delivery.The term has...

s' most active representative. He representatived Csorna
Csorna
- People :David Gestetner, inventor of the Gestetner duplicating machine, was born in Csorna on March 20, 1854....

 until 1918 as politician of the Catholic People's Party. He served as parliamentarian clerk between 1896 and 1899. Rakovszky signed in the names of his party the pact between the opposition and Prime Minister Kálmán Széll
Kálmán Széll
Kálmán Széll de Duka et Szentgyörgyvölgy was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1899 to 1903.-Political career:...

 on 23 February 1899. He participated in the reforming of law about the representative incompatibility.

Rakovszky gave many hundred speech in the parliament, he regularly took the floor during the discussion of the budget year and the house rules. Besides these he pronounced his word in foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

, internal political and economic topics.

He supplied the position of deputy speaker of the House of Representatives between 1905 and 1910 (second deputy speaker to 1906; fist to 1910). He was member of the Coalition's leading committee during the Hungarian Constitutional Crisis of 1903-1907. The king Francis Joseph requested his opinion from the evolving situation. He substituted the illness speaker, Gyula Justh on 19 February 1906, when the army occupied the Országgyűlés to dissolve it. He protested in the course of the assembly against the armed occupation and sent the two royal manuscripts back to the king's military commissioner without a resolution.

As deputy speaker he presided more than 130 plenary sessions during the parliamentary term of 1906-1911. He critizied Sándor Wekerle
Sándor Wekerle
Sándor Wekerle was a Hungarian politician who served three times as prime minister.He was born in Mór, in the comitatus of Fejér. His mother was Antónia Szép.After studying law at the University of Budapest he graduated doctor juris...

's government program. Francis Joseph appointed him inner secret councillor in 1907. He served as chairman of the League of Catholic People from 26 January 1908. On the open seance of the National Assembly of 1910-1918 he demanded as the leader of the People's Party, the modification of the ecclesiastical political laws into a conservative direction and the lawful guarantee of the regularity of the elections.

During the First World War he did military service, but he also took part in the House of Representatives' wartime session. The opposition wanted to place a three-membered control commission beside the government, seeing the mistakes which happened in the leading of the foreign affairs and national defences. Gyula Andrássy the Younger
Gyula Andrássy the Younger
Count Gyula Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka the Younger was a Hungarian politician.The second son of Count Gyula Andrássy, the younger Andrássy became under-secretary in the Sándor Wekerle ministry in 1892; in 1893, he became Minister of Education, and, in June 1894, he was appointed...

, Albert Apponyi
Albert Apponyi
Count Albert Apponyi de Nagyappony was a distinguished Hungarian nobleman and politician from an ancient noble family dating back to the 13th century. He was born on 29 May 1846, in Vienna, where his father, Count György Apponyi, was the resident Hungarian Chancellor at the time...

 and István Rakovszky were appointed the so-known confidential council's member. However their work failed because of the Minister besides the King István Burián
István Burián
Stephan Burián von Rajecz , commonly called: "Baron von Burian" or "Count Burian" in English language press reports was an Austro-Hungarian politician, diplomat and statesman of Hungarian origin and served as Imperial Foreign Minister during World War I.- Career :Stephan...

's passive resistance, so their profession was given back. Many of his interpellations were over in this cycle to the Prime Minister and ministers. He recommended to making easier to the travels of the wartime woundeds' relatives (etc. cheaper fare). He joined the discussion about the public servants' newer wartime aid and to the debates of a wartime foreign policy. He proposed firstly the yielding of the world war heroes's franchise
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....

 on 25 April 1915. In this sense the franchise would have been all of older than twenty years men due, who fought in the front. The moderate opposition espoused his proposal but Prime Minister István Tisza
István Tisza
Count István Tisza de Borosjenő et Szeged was a Hungarian politician, prime minister, and member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences....

 and the governing party rejected the bill.

After the fall of the Tisza cabinet the people's party politics also bankrupted. On 29 October 1918 Archduke Joseph August
Archduke Joseph August of Austria
Archduke Joseph August Viktor Klemens Maria of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia was for a short period head of state of Hungary, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and the eldest son of Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria and his wife Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...

 appointed Count János Hadik
János Hadik
János Count Hadik de Futak was a Hungarian politician who served as prime minister for 17 hours starting 30 October 1918, at the end of World War I....

 Prime Minister. Rakovszky was elected to the position of Minister besides the King. However the Aster Revolution
Aster Revolution
The Aster Revolution or Chrysanthemum Revolution was a revolution in Hungary led by leftist liberal count Mihály Károlyi, who founded the Hungarian Democratic Republic....

 broke out on 31 October 1918. Mihály Károlyi
Mihály Károlyi
Count Mihály Ádám György Miklós Károlyi de Nagykároly was briefly Hungary's leader in 1918-19 during a short-lived democracy...

 and the National Council took over the power.

During the transition period he lived retiredly. At the time of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....

 he was arrested for a brief time. His political documents were confiscated. From Autumn 1919 he represented the Christian national direction. From September he served as member of the Catholic Economical and Social Party's Presidential Council. This party merged with the Christian National Party, the KNEP established. Rakovszky became member of the National Assembly in 1920 as KNEP representative.

Rakovszky was appointed Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary on 18 February 1920. He was one of the signers of the temporary direction of the sovereign power's practice in this quality. He observed the house rules watchfully, forcefully and impartially. He gave his most memorable speech on 4 June 1920, at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...

: "The treaty will be signed today, which causes cutting up our millennial country. It is called peace treaty
Peace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a state of war between the parties...

, which does not promise eternal peace, but eternal unrest, constant agitation, not affectionate cooperation in the interest of achievement of the human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

ity's great and noble aims, but this suitable to create discord and dislike between the folk
Folk
The English word Folk is derived from a Germanic noun, *fulka meaning "people" or "army"...

 and forms new and discords lasting long artificially." He also served as chairman of the Committee Economics and Committee of Library and finally the three-membered commission for the investigation of the bills. Rakovszky had lot of conflicts with the István Bethlen
István Bethlen
Count István Bethlen de Bethlen was a Hungarian aristocrat and statesman and served as Prime Minister from 1921 to 1931....

 cabinet and the Independent Smallholders' Party
Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party
The Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party is a political party in Hungary...

 which led by István Szabó de Nagyatád
István Szabó de Nagyatád
István Szabó de Nagyatád was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Agriculture three times: in 1919, between 1920 and 1921 and from 1922 to 1924....

 because of his treatment method of the house rules, as a result of he resigned on 30 July 1921.

After his resignation he became offensive opposition of the government with the sharpest key. He proposed many times the cheque of the parliament's quorum. His number immunity and personal case got in front of the parliament. During the plenary session of Autumn 1921 Ibrahim György Kövér tried to kill him, a detachment officer
Detachment (military)
A detachment is a military unit. It can either be detached from a larger unit for a specific function or be a permanent unit smaller than a battalion. The term is often used to refer to a unit that is assigned to a different base from the parent unit...

 fired at him many times, but Rakovszky survived the assassination soundly.

Second royal coup d'état

In June, the legitimists, sensing that the government was taking no real action to bring Charles back, launched a major offensive against Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...

 and Bethlen (a legitimist at heart but one who understood that there was no chance for a restored monarchy at the time). They aimed to undermine Horthy’s prestige, weaken his power and create favourable conditions for Charles’ return. In response, Horthy and Bethlen began secret discussions with legitimist leaders in early August (preferring to deal with them rather than with the pro-democracy Smallholder faction of István Szabó de Nagyatád). In principle, as early as August, the government began to prepare Charles’ return: for instance, at the end of that month the Hungarian minister in Paris informed leaders at the French Foreign Ministry that his return was unavoidable due to public opinion.

Although Rakovszky belonged to the moderate wing of the legitimists after all he played a deciding role in the preparation of the second coup after the first recurrence experiment together with Antal Lehár, Gusztáv Gratz
Gusztáv Gratz
Gusztáv Gratz was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1921. He was a correspondent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Gratz published in the Huszadik Század and the Társadalomtudományi Társaság newspapers. He was a representative in the National Assembly...

 and Ödön Beniczky
Ödön Beniczky
Ödön Beniczky de Benice et Micsinye was a Hungarian legitimist politician, who served as Interior Minister between 1919 and 1920. He was a resolute adversary of Governor Miklós Horthy. He supported the king Charles IV in the king's attempts to retake the throne of Hungary. That is why Beniczky was...

. They kept a discussion with Schager, the king's chief of staff on Rakovszky's flat on 8 October. Rakovszky sketched the internal political conditions of the royal coup on this negotiation, since he would have been the prospective government's leader. He wanted to avoid the appearance of a military coup that is why he traveled as a prospective prime minister in front of the king to the western border. Rakovszky joined to the king who arrived in Sopron on 21 October 1921. Here Charles IV formed a rival government which led by Rakovszky. The legitimists withdrew onto Tata
Tata, Hungary
Tata is a town in north-western Hungary, Komárom-Esztergom county, northwest from county seat Tatabánya.-Location:Tata is located in the valley between the Gerecse and Vértes Mountains, some from the Budapest, the capital. By the virtue of its location, the city is a railway and road junction...

 because of the disorganisation, the indecisive measures and the Battle of Budaörs
Budaörs
Budaörs is a city in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. The town has a large German-speaking minority who call it Wudersch...

. They were arrested here on 25 October 1921, and Rakovszky was interned to Tihany
Tihany
Tihany is a village on the northern shore of Lake Balaton on the Tihany Peninsula . The whole peninsula is a historical district....

 along with the royal couple. He was involved of arrestment together with Count Gyula Andrássy, Count Antal Sigray and Gusztáv Gratz.

Later life

After the dethronement of the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

s Andrássy left the KNEP with his supporters on 4 January 1922. Rakovszky was a founding member of the National Farmer and Civic Party (better known as Andrássy Party). He critizied the government heavily: he had a duel with Minister of the Interior Vilmos Pál Tomcsányi
Vilmos Pál Tomcsányi
Vilmos Pál Tomcsányi was a Hungarian politician, who served as Interior Minister in 1921. He was the governor of the annexed Zakarpattia Oblast between 1942 and 1944.-References:*...

 and had lot of conflicts with Minister of Religion and Education József Vass
József Vass
József Vass was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Religion and Education between 1920 and 1922. He finished his theological studies in Rome. After his ordination he became chaplain in Adony. He was transferred to Székesfehérvár, where he devised a religious daily. Vass became...

.

On 5 October 1922 a group formed against the organizations of the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

 forces. Their aims were the elimination of the Gyula Gömbös
Gyula Gömbös
Gyula Gömbös de Jákfa was the conservative prime minister of Hungary from 1932 to 1936.-Background:Gömbös was born in the Tolna County village of Murga, Hungary, which had a mixed Hungarian and ethnic German population. His father was the village schoolmaster. The family belonged to the ...

 bloc and the promotion of the real political consolidation
Consolidation
Consolidation may refer to:* Consolidation , the mergers or acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones* Consolidation , a geological process whereby a soil decreases in volume...

. The leaders were Vilmos Vázsonyi, Károly Rassay, Károly Peyer
Károly Peyer
Károly Peyer was a Hungarian politician who served as Interior Minister for six days during the end of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. He was later Minister of Works in the cabinets of István Friedrich and Károly Huszár...

, István Farkas and István Rakovszky, who could mobilize his liberal connections. Bethlen attacked this association, but he made use of this group to the accepting of the measuers which abolished Gömbös' organization. On 14 November 1922 the parliamentarian opposition accepted a common decision, in which the racists' program was condemned and required their forbidding. Rakovszky's signature was also appeared on the list.

He retired from the politics in 1926. He was a member of the National Assembly for almost 30 years. Rakovszky died on 12 August 1931 at the age of 73.

External links

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