Béla Kun

Béla Kun (February 20, 1886 – August 29, 1938), born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician, who ruled Hungary, as the leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, for a brief period in 1919.

Kun was born in Szilágycseh, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary (today Cehu Silvaniei, Romania). Kun's father, a village notary, was a lapsed Jew, and his mother a lapsed Protestant. Béla Magyarized his birth surname, Kohn, to Kun in 1906. Although Kun was hostile to all forms of religion, his partial Judaic ancestry and his advocacy of revolutionary communism resulted in hatred both for him and for actual members of Hungarian Jewish communities. Despite his parents' secular outlook, he was educated at a famous Reformed kollegium (grammar school) in the city of Kolozsvár (modern Cluj-Napoca, Romania).
At the kollegium Kun won the prize for best essay on Hungarian literature that allowed him to attend a Gymnasium school. Kun's essay was on the poet Sandor Petőfi and his concluding paragraphs were:
The storming rage of Petőfi's soul… turned against the privileged classes, against the people's oppressor… and confronted them with revolutionary abandon. Petőfi felt that the country would not be saved through moderation, but through the use of the most extreme means available. He detested even the thought of cowardice… Petőfi's vision was correct. There is no room for prudence in revolutions whose fate and eventual success is always decided by boldness and raw courage… this is why Petőfi condemned his compatriots for the sin of opportunism and hesitation when faced with the great problems of their age… Petőfi's works must be regarded as the law of the Hungarian soul… and of the… love of the country"[1].
Before the First World War, he was a muck-raking journalist with sympathies for the Hungarian Social Democratic Party in Kolozsvár. In addition, Kun served on the Kolozsvár Social Insurance Board, from which he was later to be accused of embezzling. Kun had a fiery reputation and was several times involved in duels. In May 1913, Kun married a music teacher of middle-class background named Iren Gal.

During his early learning ages at Kolozsvár, Kun became friends with the poet Endre Ady, who introduced Kun to many members of Budapest's left-wing intelligentsia.
Kun fought for Austria-Hungary in World War I, and was captured and made a prisoner of war in 1916 by the Russians. He was sent to a POW camp in the Urals, where he became a Communist. In 1917, Kun was caught up in what he regarded as the romance of the Russian Revolution, the idea of which fulfilled for him certain spiritual needs previously unsatisfied. Paradoxically, he held Russians to a certain degree in contempt, feeling that Communism was much better suited to "civilized" nations such as Hungary rather than "barbaric" Russia. During his time in Russia, Kun became fluent in Russian (he was also fluent in German, and competent at English).
In March 1918, in Moscow, Kun co-founded the Hungarian Group of the Russian Communist Party (the predecessor to the Hungarian Communist Party). He travelled widely, including to Petrograd and to Moscow. He came to know Vladimir Lenin there, but inside the party he formed the ultra-radical left-wing political opposition to Lenin and the mainstream Bolsheviks. Kun and his friends (such as the Italian Umberto Terracini and the Hungarian Mátyás Rákosi), aggregated around Grigory Zinoviev or Karl Radek; instead of Lenin's pragmatism, they espoused and advertised the politics of "revolutionary offensive by any means". Lenin often called them "kunerists".
In the Russian Civil War in 1918, Kun fought for the Bolsheviks. During this time, he first started to make detailed plans for exporting Communism to Hungary. In November 1918, Kun, with at least several hundred other Hungarian Communists, and with a lot of money given to him by the Soviets, returned to Hungary.

In Hungary, the resources of a shattered government were further strained by refugees from lands lost to the Allies during the war and that were due to be lost permanently under the projected Treaty of Trianon. Rampant inflation, housing shortages, mass unemployment, food shortages and coal shortages further weakened the economy and stimulated widespread protests. In October 1918, the so-called "Aster Revolution" established a shaky democratic coalition government. Kun founded the Hungarian Communist Party in Budapest on November 4, 1918.
Kun immediately began a highly energetic propaganda campaign against the government: he and his followers engaged in venomous and slanderous attacks against the President, Count Mihály Károlyi and his Social Democratic allies.
Kun's speeches had a considerable impact on his audiences. One who heard such a speech wrote in his diary:
Yesterday I heard Kun speak… it was an audacious, hateful, enthusiastic oratory. He is a hard-looking man with a head of a bull, thick hair, and moustache, not so much Jewish, but peasant features, would best describe his face… He knows his audience and rules over them… Factory workers long at odds with the Social Democratic Party leaders, young intellectuals, teachers, doctors, lawyers, clerks who came to his room… meet Kun and Marxism.[2]
In addition, the Communists held frequent marches and rallies and organized strikes. Desiring to attempt a Communist revolution, which, lacking mass support, could only be a coup d'état, he communicated by telegraph with Vladimir Lenin[3]. Kun acquired a sizable following, though the Social Democrats, who were Hungary's largest party, continued to dwarf the Communists.
On February 22, 1919, the Communists led a rowdy demonstration outside the Social Democratic newspaper Népszava that ended in a shootout that killed four policemen. After this incident, Kun was arrested and charged with high treason. After his arrest, the Budapest police subjected Kun to insults and gave him a beating in the full view of a tabloid reporter.
The news of the beating and Kun's gestures of forgiveness brought Kun much public sympathy. He remained in prison until March 21, 1919.
On March 19, 1919 the French Colonel Fernand Vyx presented the "Vyx Note", ordering Hungarian forces to be pulled back further from where they were stationed. It was assumed that the military lines would be the new frontiers that would be established by the peace conference between Hungary and the Allies. The Vyx Note created a huge upsurge of nationalist outrage, and the Hungarians resolved to fight the Allies rather than accept the national borders. Károlyi resigned from office in favor of the Social Democrats. For their part, the Social Democrats realized that Hungary needed allies for the coming war and in their view, the only ally on offer was Soviet Russia. As Kun was known to be friendly with Lenin, it was assumed that including him in the government would bring Soviet aid for war against the Allies.
The Social Democrats first approached Kun on the subject of a coalition government. Such was the desperation for the Social Democrats to have Kun receive promised Soviet support that it was Kun, a captive, who dictated the terms to his captors. This was despite the Red Army's full involvement in the Russian Civil War and the unlikelihood that it could be of any direct military assistance.
Kun demanded the merger of the Social Democrat and Communist parties, the proclamation of a Soviet Republic and a host of other radical measures. The Social Democrats agreed to all of his demands. On March 21, 1919, a Soviet Republic was announced; the Social Democrats and Communists were merged under the interim name Hungarian Socialist Party, and Béla Kun was released from prison and sworn into office.
The Social Democrats continued to hold the majority of seats in government. Of the thirty-three People's Commissars of the Revolutionary Governing Council that ruled the Soviet Republic, fourteen were former Communists, seventeen were former Social Democrats, and two had no party affiliation. With the exception of Kun, every Commissar was a former Social Democrat and every Deputy Commissar was a former Communist.

On March 21, 1919, Kun and the small Communist Party made their move, establishing the Hungarian Soviet Republic, the second Communist government in Europe after Russia itself. In the Soviet Republic, Kun served as Commissar for Foreign Affairs, but he was the dominant personality in the government during its brief existence. As Kun reported to Lenin: "My personal influence in the Revolutionary Governing Council is such that the dictatorship of the proletariat is firmly established, since the masses are backing me"[4].
The first act of the new government was to nationalize virtually all private property in Hungary. Contrary to advice from Lenin and the Bolsheviks, Béla Kun's government refused to redistribute land to the peasantry, thereby alienating the majority of the population. Instead, Kun declared that all land was to be converted into collective farms and, due to a lack of anyone qualified to run them, he kept on the former estate owners, managers and bailiffs as the new collective farm managers.
In an effort to win peasant support, Kun cancelled all taxes in rural areas, which in fact hurt the government as the peasants took the view that any government that would not collect taxes was by definition a weak government. The Soviet Republic exacerbated high inflation by printing more money and it also proved incapable of solving the housing shortage. To provide food for the cities, the Soviet Republic resorted to food requisitioning in the countryside through a red militia known as the Lenin Boys.
Within the Socialist Party, there was a bitter, yet ultimately pointless, dispute over the permanent name of the party. The former Social Democrats preferred "Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party", while former Communists wanted the "Hungarian Socialist Communist Worker's Party". Within the ranks of the former Communists themselves, a split developed between the rural and urban factions.
After a failed anti-communist coup attempt on June 24, Kun organized retribution in the form of the Red Terror via the secret police, revolutionary tribunals and semi-regular detachments like Tibor Szamuely's bodyguards, the Lenin Boys (however, the numbers of victims are estimates ranging from 370 to about 600 persons executed[5]; most sources list 590 proven killings). It has been argued that the major limiting factor on the Red Terror was the former Social Democrats such as József Pogány.
Opposition appeared to be centered on the city of Szeged and around Rear Admiral Miklós Horthy, who formed a National Army to fight the Soviet Republic. However, the National Army never saw action and only marched on Budapest after the withdrawal of the Romanians in November. It is also worth noting that the Horthy regime staged a White Terror in 1919–20.
The Soviet government only lasted for 133 days, falling on August 1, 1919. The Soviet Republic had been formed to resist the Vyx Note, and created the Hungarian Red Army to do so. Given the disparity in power between Hungary and the Allies, Hungarian chances for victory were slim at best. To buy time, Kun tried to negotiate with the Allies, meeting the South African Prime Minister, General Jan Smuts at a summit in Budapest in April. Agreement proved impossible, and Hungary was soon at war later in April with the Kingdom of Romania and Czechoslovakia, both aided by France. The Hungarian Red Army achieved some success against the Czechoslovaks, taking much of Slovakia by June.
However, the Hungarians were repeatedly defeated by the Romanians. By the middle of July 1919, Kun decided to stake everything on an offensive against the Romanians. The Allied Commander in the Balkans, the French Marshal Louis Franchet d'Esperey wrote to Marshal Ferdinand Foch on July 21, 1919: "We are convinced that the Hungarian offensive will collapse of its own accord… When the Hungarian offensive is launched, we shall retreat to the line of demaracation, and launch the counteroffensive from that line. Two Romanian brigades will march from Romania to the front in the coming days, according to General Fertianu's promise. You, see, Marshal, we have nothing to fear from the Hungarian army. I can assure you that the Hungarian Soviets will last no more than two or three weeks. And should our offensive not bring the Kun regime down, its untenable internal situation surely will[6].
The Soviets promised to invade Romania and link up with Kun, and were on verge of doing so. However, military reversals suffered by the Red Army in Ukraine stopped the invasion of Romania before it began. The Romanians then invaded Hungary, took Budapest, crushed the Communists, and on August 1, 1919 forced them to hand over power to a Social Democratic party.

Béla Kun then went into exile in Vienna, then controlled by the Social Democratic Party of Austria. He was captured and interned in Austria, but was released in exchange for Austrian prisoners in Russia in July 1920.
Once in Russia, Kun rejoined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was put in charge of the regional Revolutionary Committee in the Crimea. In this position he is alleged to have given instructions to kill thousands of members of Crimean ethnic minorities. Victor Serge, among others, claims in Memoirs of a Revolutionary that Kun, with Lenin's approval, also killed tens of thousands of White prisoners of war (specifically, detachments of general Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, troops which had been promised amnesty if they would surrender, and were then murdered).[7] It is said that the Crimean massacres created outrage in the Soviet Communist Party and caused Lenin to censure Kun. Adding to the outrage within the Party was the fact that the massacres had been perpetrated against Russians by a Hungarian outsider. However, the sourcing of these claims is problematic [8] and the fact that Kun became member of the highest committee of the Komintern and was shortly afterwards sent to Berlin clearly contradicts Lenin's alleged response.

Kun became a leading figure in the Comintern, as an ally of Grigory Zinoviev. In March 1921, Kun was sent to Germany to advise the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He encouraged the KPD to follow the "Theory of the Offensive" as supported by Zinoviev and other Kunerists.
On March 27 a decision was taken by German Communist Party leaders to launch a revolutionary offensive in support of the miners of central Germany. Kun was the driving force behind the German Communist Marzaktion Putsch (which ended in complete failure).
At the beginning of April, Otto Horsing, the Social Democratic Party of Germany Oberpräsident of Saxony, gave instructions to police and paramilitary forces to occupy the copper mines and chemistry plants around Halle, "to prevent sabotage and attacks on managers". His real motivation was to prevent a Communist takeover and pacify the area, with force if necessary, and purge local unions and local organizations of Communist influence.
Under the leadership of the Anarchist Max Hoelz, an armed opposition to the state began to unfold. The KPD called on the working class throughout Germany to arm itself in solidarity with the armed opposition. But they had completely misjudged the mood of the German people, and the uprising remained mainly isolated to central Germany. Even unified, Hoelz's anarchists and the KPD had no real mass support, and government forces deployed without significant opposition (the strikers were unwilling to participate in armed conflict with the police). There were even instances (like the factory of Krupp Factories or the ship factory of Hamburg) where the workers drove out communist agitators from the workplace with clubs.
The background and organization of the "March Action" is somewhat obscure. There were those (like Ruth Fischer, leader of KDP) that claimed that Lenin and Soviet Communist leaders wanted to deflect public attention from the inner problems and crisis of the Comintern and Communist Party. Others have said that the March Action was a direct result of the overzealousness of Lenin's radical, Kunerist opposition, who were anxious to prove their worth to the Party.
In the end, Lenin blamed himself for appointing Kun and charged him with responsibility for the failure of the German revolution. Lenin was considerably angered by Kun's actions and his failure to secure a general uprising in Germany. In a closed Congress of the Operative Committee - as Victor Serge writes - called his actions idiotic ("les bêtises de Béla Kun"). However, Kun did not lose his membership in the Operative Committee, and the closing document accepted at the end of the sitting formally confessed the "battle spirit" of the German Communists.
Kun was not stripped of his Party offices, but the March Action was the end of the radical opposition and of the theory of "Permanent Offensive":
"The final analysis of things shows that Levin was politically right in many ways. The thesis of Thallheimer and Béla Kun is politically totally false. Phrases and bare attending, playing the radical leftist."[10].
Through the 1920s, Kun was a prominent Comintern operative, serving mostly in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, but ultimately his notoriety made him useless for undercover work.

Kun's final undercover assignment ended in 1928 when he was arrested in Vienna by the local police for travelling on a forged passport. When Kun was in Moscow, he spent much of his time feuding with other Hungarian Communist émigrés, several of whom he denounced to the Soviet secret police, the OGPU, which arrested and imprisoned them in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
During Joseph Stalin's purge of the Communist old guard in the late 1930s, Kun was accused of Trotskyism. He was arrested in June 1937, imprisoned and executed. In fact, Kun was by this time a fanatical Stalinist, who strongly supported Stalin's actions[citation needed]. It is believed that the proximate cause of his elimination was an effort by Stalin to remove any "foreign" figures who had influenced the Comintern.
Over time, accounts have differed over the precise date and manner of Kun's death. It was well-established that Kun had been tortured by the NKVD[citation needed], but accounts differ from that point forward. Some accounts reported that Kun was secretly executed in 1937. Other accounts maintain that Kun was sent to the Gulag and executed there either in 1938 or 1939. Kun's widow was also sent to the Gulag, as were his daughter and son-in-law. When Kun was politically rehabilitated in 1956, as part of the de-Stalinization process, the Soviet party told its Hungarian counterpart that Kun had died in prison on November 30, 1939.
In 1989, the Soviet government announced that Kun had actually been executed by firing squad in the Gulag more than a year earlier than that, on August 29, 1938.

It is difficult to overstate the impact of Kun's brief and failed regime on Hungarian history. Though the executions meted out in the Red Terror were, by contrast to other such upheavals, relatively few, shock and horror at Kun's excesses remained deeply imprinted on the Hungarian consciousness for years to come.
One bitter repercussion was the association of Hungary's Jews with the suffering inflicted by the Communists; as Kun and many of his colleagues were seen as Jewish, it was easy for anti-Semitic activists in Hungary to fuel fears of "Jewish-Bolshevist" conspiracy.
Another was the severe rightward direction of Post-Kun Hungary. The election of admiral Miklós Horthy, the chief of the reactionary National Army, as Hungary's regent was a stark political about-face, and the heat of Horthy's anti-communist feelings was legendary. It was partly to keep the "Asiatic barbarians" of Soviet Communism at bay that Horthy gradually helped steer his country into an alliance with Communism's greatest foe, Adolf Hitler. It was a fatal partnership; Hitler would eventually crush Horthy's regime, invade Hungary, and install a puppet government, which helped the Nazis deport more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers at Auschwitz concentration camp.
Ironically, Hitler's stranglehold on Hungary was finally loosened by the army of the dreaded Soviet Union. After the war, Horthy remained in exile, while the Soviets inaugurated a 50-year Communist regime under the leadership of Mátyás Rákosi, one of Kun's few surviving colleagues from the 1919 coup.Kun Béla (Kohn Béla) (Szilágycseh, 1886. február 20. – Moszkva, 1938. augusztus 29. vagy 1939. november 30.) újságíró, kommunista politikus, a Magyar Tanácsköztársaság vezetője. Kun Béla nevéhez kötődik az őshonos krími törökök elleni etnikai tisztogatás kezdete is, amelynek keretében 1920 és 1921 között hatvanezer krími törököt végeztek ki.

Köztisztviselői zsidó családban született Szilágycsehen 1886-ban. Apja és anyja is vallástalan, apja, a falu jegyzője, kitért izraelita (Galíciából), anyja pedig szintén kitért protestáns. Zilahon és a kolozsvári kálvinista középiskolában végezte középfokú tanulmányait, majd a kolozsvári egyetem joghallgatója lett, ám 1904-ben félbeszakítva tanulmányait, újságíróskodni kezdett Kolozsvárt és Nagyváradon. 1906-ban magyarosította a nevét Kunra.
Cikkei miatt többször állt bíróság előtt. 1907-ben fél éves fogházbüntetésre ítélték, amit a szegedi Csillagbörtönben töltött le. A publikálás helyett a tisztviselőséget választotta: a kolozsvári Munkásbiztosító Pénztár titkáraként alkalmazták.
1913 májusában elvette feleségül Gál Irént, egy középosztálybeli zenetanárnőt.

Még kolozsvári tanulóévei alatt Ady Endre ismertette meg a budapesti baloldali értelmiségi körökkel. 1902-ben, középiskolásként belépett a Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Pártba (MSZDP), 1913-ban már küldött a párt kongresszusán.
Az I. világháború idején besorozták, 1916-ban orosz fogságba esett. Az oroszok egy uráli hadifogolytáborba küldték. Itt végleg kommunista lett, hadifogoly tisztekből csoportot szervezett. 1917-ben, a februári forradalom idején belépett a tomszki szociáldemokrata (később bolsevik) szervezetbe, 1918 márciusában az ő elnökletével alakult meg az Oroszországi Kommunista Párt magyar csoportja. Petrográdra, majd Moszkvába utazott, megismerkedett Leninnel, de a párton belül lényegében a vezér radikális ellenzékéhez tartozott. Lenin pragmatizmusával ellentétben Kun és mások (mint Rákosi vagy az olasz Terracini) a Grigorij Zinovjev és Karl Bernhardovics Radek körül csoportosuló, a „forradalmi offenzíva mindenáron” elvét hirdető kommunisták közé tartozott, akiket Lenin „kuneristák”-nak nevezett.
1918-ban ismét fegyvert ragadott: harcolt a német intervenciósok, majd az eszer lázadók, a Csehszlovák Légió és Kolcsak fehérgárdistái ellen. Közben publikált is: a Pravda és az Izvesztyija munkatársa, illetve más baloldali lapok szerkesztője volt.
1918. november 17-én tért haza Budapestre, november 24-én megalakította a Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártját (KMP), mely központi bizottságának elnöke lesz. A mozgalom intenzív kormányellenes propagandatevékenységt folytatott, lapjában, a Vörös Újságban különösen erősen támadta mind Károlyit, mind a szociáldemokratákat; maga Kun nap mint nap tartotta több szemtanú által „gyújtó hatásúnak” leírt szónoklatait, sztrájkokat és gyűléseket szerveztek. 1919. február 22-én a kommunisták egy felvonulást és demonstrációt szerveztek a Népszava budapesti szerkesztősége elé; ez lövöldözésbe torkollott, melynek során négy rendőr meghalt. Letartóztatták, megkínozták, addigra azonban – az orosz kommunista párt által pénzelt – agitációs munkájának is köszönhetően a KMP ismertté és népszerűvé vált a magyarság különféle rétegeinek (elsősorban a budapesti urbánus értelmiség és a munkásság egy része) körében. A fogságban tovább folytatta a szervezőmunkát, előkészítette a Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párttal (MSZDP) való egyesülést.

1919. március 21-én – az antanthatalmak területi követeléseit tartalmazó Vix-jegyzék átadását követő napon – Károlyi Mihály köztársasági elnök és Berinkey Dénes miniszterelnök lemondását fontolgatta, a KMP és az MSZDP egyesült, Kun Béla és Garbai Sándor kikiáltották a Tanácsköztársaságot, megalakítva a Forradalmi Kormányzótanácsot (FK). Államcsínnyel átvették a hatalmat. Kun Béla a kormányzótanácsban külügyi (március 21. – augusztus 1.), és hadügyi népbiztos is volt (1919. április 3. – 1919. június 24.). Az FK elnöke névleg Garbai Sándor volt, ám a Tanácsköztársaság szinte valamennyi fontos eseménye kapcsolatba hozható Kun Béla nevével. Szava meghatározó az állam- és pártszervezés, a gazdasági és kulturális élet, valamint az ellenforradalom elleni harc kérdéseiben.
Kun megkísérelte exportálni a „proletárdiktatúrát” nemcsak észak, hanem – ami kevésbé ismert – nyugat felé is. Ernst Bettelheim, egy budapesti ügyvéd a Komintern beleegyezésével megalakította az Osztrák Kommunista Pártot, melyet Kun eszmeileg támogatott. Bettelheim és társai 1919. június 14-ére tervezték Ausztria legfontosabb kulcsközpontjait fegyveresen elfoglalni, de az osztrák rendőrség az ezt megelőző éjszakán letartóztatta őket, a kiszabadításukért tüntető négyezer fős csoportot fegyveres erővel verték szét.
Kun eközben az osztrák határra vezényelte a Vörös Hadsereg egyes egységeit, hogy szükség esetén támogatást nyújthasson az osztrák kommunistáknak, de az esedékes beavatkozás előtt az osztrákok már letartóztatták Bettelheiméket. Kun nagyobb összegekkel (harmincezer líra) támogatta az Olasz Kommunista Pártot is (Peter Lamborn: An italian anarchist and his dream [Egy olasz anarchista és álma]). Az európai hatalmak ezeket a próbálkozásokat természetesen nem nézték jó szemmel.A Tanácsköztársaság bukása után Bécsbe emigrált, ottani szociáldemokrata elvtársai egy elmegyógyintézetben bújtatták el; de a hatóságok felfedezték és internálták; 1920 nyarán kiutasították Ausztriából. Szovjet-Oroszországban telepedett le – soha többé nem is tért haza. Leninék szívesen fogadták, és a krími területekre helyezték, hogy azok „re-bolsevizálását” végrehajtsa. Ez elsősorban a „vörösök” által elfogott „fehér” hadifoglyok ezreinek tömeges kivégzésében (forrás például Victor Serge) és a krími törökök elleni etnikai tisztogatásban nyilvánult meg. Két éves működése egyes becslések szerint csak a törökök között 60 000 áldozatot követelt. Működésének nyomán, mint Magyarországon is annak idején, terrorhullám söpör végig a tartományban, melynek törökök, tatárok és oroszok további ezrei estek áldozatul. Módszereit még a bolsevikok köreiben is megkérdőjelezték, s bár pozícióját elvesztette, hitelét nem teljesen. Az oroszoktól új megbízást kapott, a németországi fronton kellett helytállnia.

1921-ben Németországba utazik, az ottani ún. „munkásfelkelések” szervezését segíti. Ezek háttere a következő volt: 1921. március 16-án Szászország kormányfője, Otto Horsing parancsára a rendőrség elfoglalta a mansfeldi rézbányákat és a Halle környéki vegyiüzemeket, a hivatalos indoklás szerint azért, mert ezeken a helyeken szabad rablás és fosztogatás zajlott. A valódi ok az egyre élénkebb kommunista tevékenység volt, melynek alapján Horsing gyanította – helyesen – hogy a kommunisták zavargások kirobbantására készülnek.
Ezen zavargások hátteréről – melyeket a kommunisták összefoglalva „márciusi akció”-nak neveztek – a történészek véleménye megoszlik: egyes feltételezések (Ruth Fischer, a Német Kommunista Párt vezetője) szerint céljuk az volt, hogy az orosz kommunista párt belső válságáról eltereljék a figyelmet, mások szerint Lenin radikális ellenfeleinek túlbuzgóságáról volt szó, ami erőltettett németországi aktivitásban nyilvánult meg. A rendőrség és a kommunisták szembenállása hamarosan fegyveres összecsapásokba torkollott (ezek kirobbantásában elsődleges szerepe volt a Max Holtz anarchista gerillavezér vezette vörös őrségnek, amely akkoriban uralta a mansfeldi térséget). A kommunista fegyveresek forradalmi lendülete hamar megtört, mert a munkásság nem volt hajlandó fegyveres harcba szállni a rendőrséggel és katonasággal. Sőt, sok helyen, mint például a Krupp Művek gyárában, illetve a hamburgi hajógyárban, amikor a fegyveres harc sikertelensége után Kun és társai általános sztrájkra és az állam elleni hadviselésre szólították fel a munkásokat, a munkások husángokkal támadtak a gyárat elfoglaló és a munkát akadályozó kommunista aktivistákra. Amint később a Komintern végrehajtó bizottságának egyik ülésén Lenin is elismerte, a tömegek támogatása lényegében hiányzott, valójában tehát vitatható a márciusi eseményeket munkásfelkelésnek nevezni. A sikertelen akciót megtorlás követte: több ezer kommunista vezetőt bebörtönöztek, a párt tagsága negyedére csökkent. Lenin annyira dühös volt Kunékra a kudarcok és az elhamarkodott akciók miatt, hogy néhány levelében, illetve a már említett végrehajtó bizottsági kongresszuson francia nyelven egymás után többször is „idiótáknak” („les bêtises de Béla Kun”) nevezte őket – bár Kun nem vesztette el végrehajtó bizottsági tagságát, és a zárt ülés végén elfogadott záródokumentum elismerte a német kommunisták „harci szellemét”.

1921-1936-ig a Kommunista Internacionálé végrehajtó bizottságának a tagja. 1925-ben és 1930-ban a KMP végrehajtó bizottságának tagjává választják. A KMP-ben végzett munkájával összefüggésben többször jár illegalitásban Ausztriában, Csehszlovákiában és Németországban. 1928-ban Bécsben felismerik és letartóztatják, Magyarország kéri is a kiadatását, de az osztrák és a nemzetközi munkásmozgalmi tiltakozások hatására végül erre nem kerül sor. Visszatér a Szovjetunióba, ahol tovább folytatja Kominternes munkáját: az agitációs-propaganda osztály, a közép-európai, majd a balkáni titkárságot vezeti. 1937. június 29-én Sztálin parancsára letartóztatják (valószínűleg azért, mert egy ideig kapcsolatban állt Trockijjal), és koholt vádak alapján elítélik. Halálával kapcsolatban két verzió is létezik: az egyik szerint 1938-ban kivégzik, a másik szerint egy évvel később egy moszkvai börtönben hal meg.

Szobra, Varga Imre Kossuth-díjas szobrászművész alkotása 1986-tól 1992-ig állt a Budapesti Vérmezőn. Ekkor a Fővárosi Önkormányzat a Szoborparkba szállíttatta, ahol ma is megtekinthető (a szobor talapzatát a helyi önkormányzat pénzhiányra hivatkozva csak 1997-ben távolította el).

Larry King

Larry King (born November 19, 1933) is an American television and radio host. He is widely recognized in the United States as the pre-eminent broadcast interviewer of modern times. King has conducted some 40,000 interviews with politicians, athletes, entertainers and other newsmakers. He has won an Emmy, two Peabody Awards and ten Cable ACE Awards.
King began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 60s. He became prominent as an all-night national radio broadcaster starting in 1978, and then came to dominate the airwaves when he began hosting the nightly interview TV program Larry King Live on CNN, which started in 1985 and continues through today.

Larry King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger to Jennie (née Gitlitz), a garment worker, and Edward Zeiger, a restaurant owner and defense plant worker. Larry's parents, Jews who had emigrated from Belarus (Minsk and Pinsk) to Brooklyn, New York, where Larry was born.[1] He was raised in a "very culturally Jewish" family.[2] His father died at 44 of heart disease when King was nine,[3] and his mother had to go on welfare to support Larry and his younger brother. His father's death affected King greatly, and King lost interest in school, ruining his chances to go to college. After graduating from high school, he worked to help support his mother. From an early age he wanted to go into radio.

A CBS staff announcer, whom King met by chance, told him to go to Florida, a growing media market where openings still existed for inexperienced broadcasters. King rode a bus to Miami. After initial setbacks, King got his first job in radio through persistence. The manager of a small station, WIOD in Miami Beach, hired him to clean up and perform miscellaneous tasks. When one of their announcers quit, they put King on the air. His first broadcast was on May 1, 1957, when he worked as the disc jockey from 9 a.m. to noon. He also did two afternoon newscasts and a sportscast. He was paid $55 a week. He acquired the name Larry King when the general manager said that Zeiger was too ethnic and difficult to remember, and instead suggested the surname King, which he got from an ad in The Miami Herald for King's Wholesale Liquor. He started interviewing on a midmorning show for WIOD, at Pumpernik's Restaurant in Miami Beach. He would interview anyone who walked in. His first interview was with a waiter at the restaurant. Two days later, singer Bobby Darin, in Miami for a concert later that day, walked into Pumpernick's as a result of coming across King's show on his radio; Darin became King's first celebrity interview guest.
His Miami radio show launched him to local stardom. A few years later, in May 1960, he hosted Miami Undercover, airing Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. on WPST-TV channel 10 (now WPLG). On the show he moderated debates on important issues of the time. King credits his success on local TV to the assistance of another showbiz legend: comedian Jackie Gleason, whose national TV variety show was being filmed in Miami Beach during this period. "That show really took off because Gleason came to Miami," King said in a 1996 interview he gave when inducted into the Broadcaster's Hall of Fame. "He did that show and stayed all night with me. We stayed till five in the morning. He didn't like the set, so we broke into the general manager's office and changed the set. Gleason changed the set, he changed the lighting, and he became like a mentor of mine."[5]
WIOD gave King further exposure as the color commentator for the Miami Dolphins broadcasts during the Miami Dolphins' perfect season of 1972. Larry also did color for the old Shreveport Steamer of the World Football League in 1974-75.In the early 1970s, King was entangled in legal and financial troubles. He was arrested on December 20, 1971 and charged with grand larceny. The charges stemmed from a deal he had made with Louis Wolfson, who had been convicted of selling unregistered stock in 1968.

Mugshot of Larry King during his larceny investigation
The circumstances of what occurred between the two are unclear. According to King, he told Wolfson that he could arrange a special investigation by John Mitchell, the incoming US Attorney General, to overturn the conviction. Wolfson agreed, and paid King $48,000. King never delivered, and could not pay back the money. When Wolfson was released from prison, he went after King. According to Wolfson, King served as an intermediary between Wolfson and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. Garrison was investigating the assassination of President Kennedy, but needed to raise funds for the investigation. Wolfson offered to pay $25,000 to help fund the investigation. The arrangement was that Wolfson gave Larry King cash (about $5,000 per visit). King was supposed to give this to Richard Gerstein, the State Attorney for Dade County, Florida. Gerstein was to transfer the money to Garrison. This took place over a year or two. Wolfson eventually found that not all the money he gave to King made it to Garrison. The larceny charge was dropped because the statute of limitations had run out. But King pled no contest to one of 14 charges of passing bad checks. As a result of these troubles, he was off the air for three years. During those three years he worked several jobs. He was the PR director at Louisiana Downs, a race track in Louisiana, and he wrote some articles for Esquire magazine, including a major piece on New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath.

King managed to get back into radio by becoming the color commentator for broadcasts of the Shreveport Steamer of the World Football League on KWKH. Eventually, King was rehired by WIOD in Miami. In 1978, he went national, inheriting the nightly talk show slot on the Mutual Radio Network, broadcast coast-to-coast, that had been "Long John" Nebel's until his death, and had been pioneered by Herb Jepko. One reason King got the Mutual job is because he had once been an announcer at WGMA-AM in Hollywood, Florida, which was then owned by C. Edward Little. Little went on to become president of Mutual and was the one who hired King when Nebel died. King's Mutual show developed a devoted audience.
It was broadcast live Monday through Friday from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Larry would interview a guest for the first 90 minutes, allowing callers to continue the interview for another 90. At 3 a.m., Larry would allow the callers to discuss any topic they pleased with him, until the end of the program, where he expressed his own political opinions. They called that segment "Open Phone America". Some of the regular callers included "The Portland Laugher", "The Miami Derelict", "The Todd Cruz Caller", "The Scandal Scooper","Mr. Radio", and "The Water Is Warm Caller". "Mr Radio had over 200 calls to Larry during Open Phone America. The show was wildly successful as a loss leader, starting with relatively few affiliates and eventually growing to more than 500. It ran until 1994.
For its final year, the show was moved to afternoons, but, because most talk radio stations at the time had an established policy of local origination at the time (3 to 6 p.m. Eastern Time) that Mutual offered the show, a very low percentage of King's overnight affiliates agreed to carry his daytime show and it was unable to generate the same audience size. The afternoon show was eventually given to David Brenner and radio affiliates were given the option of carrying the audio of King's CNN evening program. He started his CNN show in June 1985, and the Westwood One radio simulcast of the CNN show continues at the time of this writing.
On the Larry King Live show, King hosts guests from a broad range of topics. This includes controversial figures of UFO conspiracy theories and alleged psychics. One notable guest is Sylvia Browne, who in 2005 told the Newsweek magazine that Larry King, a believer in the paranormal, asks her to do private psychic readings.[6]
Unlike many interviewers, Larry King has a direct, non-confrontational approach. His interview style is characteristically frank and no-nonsense, but with occasional bursts of irreverence and humor. His approach attracts some guests who would not otherwise appear. King, who is known for his lack of pre-interview preparation, once bragged that he never pre-reads the books of authors who appear on his show. In a show dedicated to the surviving Beatles, for example, Larry asked George Harrison's widow about the song "Something", which was written about George Harrison's first wife. He seemed surprised when she did not know very much about the song.
Throughout his career he has interviewed many of the leading figures of his time. In all, CNN claims that he conducted more than 40,000 interviews over the course of his career.

On February 24, 1987, King suffered a major heart attack and then had quintuple-bypass surgery. Coincidentally, this occurred the day after Larry King made an appearance on the Don and Mike Show. It was a life-altering event. Previously, smoking was one of his trademarks and he was not apologetic about this habit. King was a three-pack-a-day smoker and kept a lit cigarette during his interview so he would not have to take time to light up during breaks.[citation needed] He now encourages curbing smoking to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
King has written two books about living with heart disease. Mr. King, You're Having a Heart Attack: How a Heart Attack and Bypass Surgery Changed My Life (1989, ISBN 0-440-50039-7) was written with New York's Newsday science editor, B. D. Colen. Taking On Heart Disease: Famous Personalities Recall How They Triumphed over the Nation's #1 Killer and How You Can, Too (2004, ISBN 1-57954-820-2) features the experience of various celebrities with cardiovascular disease including Peggy Fleming and Regis Philbin.

As result of heart attacks, he established the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, an organization to which David Letterman, through his American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming, has also contributed. King gave $1 million to George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs for scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
On September 3, 2005, King aired "How You Can Help", a three-hour special designed to provide a forum and information clearinghouse for viewers to understand and join nationwide and global relief efforts. This was following the devastation to the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. Guest Richard Simmons, a native of New Orleans, told him, "Larry, you don't even know how much money you raised tonight. When we rebuild the city of New Orleans, we're going to name something big after you."

On September 10, 1990, while on The Joan Rivers Show, Rivers asked King which contestant in the pageant was "the ugliest". King responded, "Miss Pennsylvania. She was one of the 10 finalists and she did a great ventriloquist bit [...] The dummy was prettier."[8] King was a judge for the September 8, 1990 pageant. King later sent Miss Pennsylvania, Marla Wynne, a dozen long-stemmed roses and a telegram apologizing for saying she was the ugliest contestant in the Miss America Pageant that year.[9]
On September 23, 2004, John Clark sued King and CNN after an interview with his ex-wife, Lynn Redgrave, aired. Clark argued that he was defamed by the banner statements scrolling at the bottom of the screen, and that the taped show did not allow him to appear to defend himself. The court would not allow the suit to proceed ruling that he was not defamed. Two years later, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, dismissed his appeal.

King has received many broadcasting awards. He won the Peabody Award for Excellence in broadcasting for both his radio (1982) and television (1992) shows. He has also won 10 CableACE awards for Best Interviewer and for Best Talk Show Series.
In 1989, King was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, in 1996 to the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame.[4] In 2002, the industry magazine Talkers named King both the fourth-greatest radio talk show host of all time and the top television talk show host of all time.[11] King was the only person to place in the top ten on both lists. After 50 years of broadcasting, a highlight of his career was getting interviewed by Katie Couric, showcasing his success as a broadcaster. [12]
King is an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Beverly Hills. He is also a recipient of the President's Award honoring his impact on media from the Los Angeles Press Club in 2006.
King is the first recipient of the Arizona State University Hugh Downs Award for Communication Excellence,[13] presented April 11, 2007, via satellite by Downs himself.[14] Downs, the highly respected broadcaster and TV host, sported red suspenders for the event and turned the tables on King by asking "very tough questions" about King's best, worst, most emotional and most influential interviews during King's 50 years in broadcasting.
Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, elterjedt nevén Larry King (New York, Brooklyn, 1933. november 19. – ) amerikai műsorvezető. Több mint 40 000 beszélgetést vezetett már le 1957 óta, a többségét az amerikai hírcsatorna, a CNN alkalmazásában.

King egy osztrák származású, zsidó bevándorlócsalád gyermekeként született. Apját 9 éves korában vesztette el. Az anyja ezután egy new york-i "sweatshop"-ban dolgozott varrónőként. A család szociális támogatásra volt utalva. King soha nem járt egyetemre, miután leérettségizett alkalmi munkákat vállalt. 22 évesen Brooklynból Floridába költözött. 1971-ben egy pénzügyi visszaélés miatt összetűzésbe került a hatóságokkal.
1957-ben DJ-ként helyezkedett el egy miami beach-i rádióadónál, a WAHR-nál. Itt vette fel a Larry King nevet. Mivel népszerűsége nőtt 1960-tól már televíziós műsort is vezetett a WLBW-nél, a miami-i 10-es csatornánál. Jól ismert műsora, a Larry King Live 1985 júniusa óta látható a CNN hírcsatornán.
A hetvenedik születésnapja alkalmából egy újság azt írta róla: „a vendéglátó inkább ápolja és simogatja vendégeit, ahelyett, hogy a falhoz szegezné őket”.
King jelenleg hetedik feleségével, a színész- és énekesnő Shawn Southwick-King-gel él együtt. Korábbi házasságaiból 5 gyereke született.
Jellegzetes öltözködési stílusa segíti hozzá ahhoz, hogy mindig elegánsnak hat, és a nézők könnyen felismerik. Ez a keretes szemüvegből, az ingből, a nyakkendőből, és az elmaradhatatlan nadrágtartóból áll.

Molnár Ferenc

Ferenc Molnár (originally Ferenc Neumann 12 January 1878 in Budapest — 1 April 1952 in New York City) was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar. He emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazi persecution of Hungarian Jews during World War II.
As a novelist, Molnár is remembered principally for The Paul Street Boys, the story of two rival gangs of youths in Budapest. The novel is a classic of youth literature, beloved in Hungary and abroad for its treatment of the themes of solidarity and self-sacrifice. It was ranked second in a poll of favorite books as part of the Hungarian version of Big Read in 2005 and has also been made into a film on several occasions. The most notable production was a Hungarian-U.S. collaboration released in 1969.
Molnár's most popular plays are Liliom (1909, tr. 1921), later adapted into the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play Carousel (1945); The Guardsman (1910, tr. 1924), which served as the basis of the film of the same name (1931); and The Swan (1920, tr. 1922). The 1956 film version of The Swan (which had been filmed twice before) is famous for being Grace Kelly's last movie, and for being released the same year that she herself became a princess, as the wife of Prince Rainier.
Two of Molnar's other plays have been adapted for other media: The Good Fairy, was adapted by Preston Sturges and filmed in 1935 with Margaret Sullavan, and subsequently turned into the 1947 Deanna Durbin vehicle, I'll Be Yours. (It also served as the basis for the 1951 Broadway musical Make a Wish, with book by Sturges.) The film version of the operetta The Chocolate Soldier used the plot of Molnar's The Guardsman rather than the plot of its original stage version. (The stage version of The Chocolate Soldier was an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's antiwar satire, Arms and the Man, and Shaw had disapproved strongly that the operetta had stripped the play of its message.)
Molnar's play Olympia was adapted for the movies twice - as His Glorious Night (1929 - the notorious talkie which allegedly ruined John Gilbert's career), and as A Breath of Scandal (1960), starring Sophia Loren. In 1961 Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond turned Molnar's one-act play Egy, kettö, három into the film One, Two, Three starring James Cagney and Horst Buchholz.
Finally, Molnar's play The Play at the Castle has twice been adapted into English by writers of note: by P. G. Wodehouse as The Play's the Thing and by Tom Stoppard as Rough Crossing.
Molnár Ferenc (Budapest, 1878. január 12. – New York, 1952. április 1.) író, újságíró.
Molnár Ferenc 1878. január 12-én született egy német eredetű zsidó polgárcsaládba. Édesapja, Neumann Mór (1848–1907) sebész volt, de sokáig üzemorvosként dolgozott: előbb a Margit híd építésénél, majd a Ganz Gyárban. Édesanyja Wallfisch Jozefa volt.
Középiskolai tanulmányait 1887 és 1895 között a Lónyai utcai Református Gimnáziumban végezte. Ekkor már aktívan újságírónak készült, de szülei nyomására 1896-tól egy évig a genfi egyetemen, később Budapesten jogot tanult. Ebben az időszakban már cikkei jelentek meg budapesti napilapokban, többek közt a Pesti Hírlapban, hazatérte után a Budapesti Naplóban. Ezzel párhuzamosan irodalmi műveken és idegen nyelvű színdarabok fordításán is dolgozott. Ekkoriban magyarosította nevét, azzal az indokkal, hogy felmenői közt akadt molnár.
Első nagy feltűnést keltő írása az 1901-ben megjelent szatirikus regénye, Az éhes város volt. Ugyanebből az esztendőből származik az Egy gazdátlan csónak története című lírai kisregénye, melyben egy 15 éves lány tragikus szerelmi történetét beszéli el. Első önálló színpadi műve A doktor úr volt, amely nagy sikert aratott az 1902. novemberi Vígszínházbeli bemutatón.
1906-ban feleségül vette Vészi Margit festő-írónőt, főszerkesztője, Vészi József leányát, ez a házasság azonban nem volt tartós. Fél év után különköltöztek, bár a válásra csak négy év múlva került sor. Egy lányuk született, Molnár Márta aki később Sárközi György író felesége lett. Első külföldi színpadi sikerét 1907-ben aratta Az ördög című színdarabjával. 1908-tól már több városban is játszották színpadi műveit (Bécs és Berlin mellett Olaszországban és az Egyesült Államokban is), de a polgári társadalom kritikája miatt az előadások nem mindig találtak kedvező fogadtatásra. Legnagyobb sikerét a Liliommal aratta. Az 1909-es budapesti bemutató után 1912-ben a bécsi előadás következett. 1934-ben Fritz Lang megfilmesítette, és alapjául szolgált az 1945-ben a Broadwayen bemutatott Carousel (Körhinta) című musicalnek. Molnár Ferenc 1907-ben írta meg mindmáig népszerű A Pál utcai fiúk című regényét.
Az első világháború alatt Galíciában volt haditudósító; erről írta 1916-ban az Egy haditudósító emlékiratai című könyvét. 1922-ben feleségül vette Fedák Sárit, de ez a házasság is hamarosan válással végződött. Az 1920-as és 30-as években sok könnyed színdarabot írt, amelyek korának legnépszerűbb színpadi szerzőjévé tették.
A fenyegető nemzetiszocializmus elől 1937-ben Svájcba, majd 1939-ben New Yorkba menekült. Amerikában súlyos depressziója ellenére forgatókönyveket és színdarabokat írt. 1949-ben mutatták be a Broadway-en Panoptikum című darabját. Harmadik felesége Darvas Lili színésznő volt. 1952. április 1-jén New Yorkban halt meg.

Unokái Horváth Ádám Kossuth-díjas filmrendező és Sárközi Mátyás író.

Walter Matthau

Walter John Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American award-winning actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with fellow Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon.

Matthau was born in New York City's Lower East Side on October 1, 1920, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Rose (née Berolsky) and Milton Matthau, an electrician.[1] His original surname is often shown as Matuschanskayasky, but this is not true (see Matuschanskayasky below for a detailed discussion). As a young boy, Walter attended a Jewish non-profit sleepaway camp, Tranquility Camp where he first began acting on stage for the shows the camp would put in stage every Saturday night.

During World War II Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in England as a B-24 Liberator radioman-gunner, in the same bomb group as Jimmy Stewart. He reached the rank of Staff Sergeant and became interested in acting. He often joked that his best early review came in a play where he posed as a derelict. One reviewer said, "The others just looked like actors in make-up, Walter Matthau really looks like a skid row bum!" Matthau was a respected stage actor for years in such fare as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and A Shot in the Dark. He won the 1962 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a play.
In 1952, Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mr. Peepers with Wally Cox. For reasons unknown he used the name Leonard Elliot. His role was of the gym teacher Mr. Wall. In 1955, he made his motion picture debut as a whip-wielding bad guy in The Kentuckian opposite Burt Lancaster. He appeared in many movies after this as a villain such as the 1958 King Creole (where he is beaten up by Elvis Presley). That same year, he made a western called Ride a Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy and the notorious flop Onionhead starring Andy Griffith and Erin O'Brien. Matthau also directed a low budget 1960 movie called The Gangster Story. In 1962, he won acclaim as a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely are the Brave. He also played a villainous war veteran in Charade, which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
In addition to his busy movie and stage schedule, Matthau made many television appearances in live TV plays. Although he was constantly working, it seemed that the fact that he was not handsome in the traditional sense would keep him from being a top star.
Success came late for Matthau. In 1965, aged 44, Neil Simon cast him in the hit play The Odd Couple opposite Art Carney. He would later star along with Jack Lemmon in a movie version of the play. In 1966, he again achieved success as a shady lawyer opposite future friend and frequent co-star, actor Jack Lemmon, in The Fortune Cookie. During filming, the film had to be placed on a five month hiatus after he suffered a heart attack.
He won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for that movie, and also made a memorable acceptance speech. He was visibly banged up, having been involved in a bicycle accident shortly before the awards show. He scolded nominated actors who were perfectly healthy and had not bothered to come to the ceremony, especially three of the other four major award winners: Elizabeth Taylor, Sandy Dennis and Paul Scofield.
Matthau also received Oscar nominations for 1972's Kotch, (directed by Lemmon) and 1975's The Sunshine Boys. For the latter role he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
Matthau and Lemmon became lifelong friends after making The Fortune Cookie and made a total of ten movies together (eleven including Kotch, in which Lemmon has a cameo as a sleeping bus passenger), including the movie version of The Odd Couple (with Lemmon playing the Art Carney role) and the popular 1993 hit Grumpy Old Men and its sequel Grumpier Old Men with Sophia Loren.
Matthau hummed the same tune in most of his movies, The Fortune Cookie, Grumpy Old Men, Grumpier Old Men etc.

There is a persistent rumor that his birth name was Matuschanskayasky, which is false, as are the rumors that his name was Matashansky or Matansky, or any of the other reported names. In truth - as reported by the authors of Matthau: A Life by Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg (along with Walter's son, Charlie Matthau), Walter was a teller of tall tales. In his youth, he found that the joy of embellishment lifted a story (and the listener) to such enjoyable heights that he could not resist trying to pass off the most bogus of information, just to see who was gullible enough to believe it. Matthau told many stories to many reputable people – including the Social Security Administration.
When he registered for a number, he was amazed that they only wanted him to write his name, and offer no proof of his identity. So, as another of his traditional goofs, he wrote that his true name was "Walter Foghorn Matthau".
The "Matuschanskayasky" name rumor culminated with the release of 1974's Earthquake. The executive producer, Jennings Lang, had worked with Matthau the previous year on the film Charley Varrick, and persuaded him to take a small cameo role in Earthquake - the small part scripted only as a "drunk at the end of the bar." On a whim, Matthau agreed to take the part, without compensation, on the condition that he not be credited under his real name. After Matthau agreed, the part of the "drunk" was expanded to provide comic relief for the film, the character offering toasts to various people (Spiro Agnew, Bobby Riggs, and Peter Fonda), as well as delivering the punchline "Hey, who do you have to know to get a drink around here?" in the midst of a bar devastated by a major earthquake.
As requested, when it came time to insert the credits for Earthquake, the long name "Matuschanskayasky" was used, as agreed, by Jennings Lang and Matthau.
Despite the facts, this fake name continued to appear in the World Almanac section on "Original Names of Selected Entertainers" as recently as the 2008 edition (p.228).

Matthau was married twice; first to Grace Geraldine Johnson (1948 – 1958), and from 1959 until his death in 2000 to Carol Marcus. He had two children, Jenny Matthau and David Matthau, with his first wife, and a son, Charlie Matthau, with his second. He also helped raise Carol's children Aram Saroyan and Lucy Saroyan. His grandchildren include William Matthau and Emily Roman. His son, Charlie, directed Matthau in the movie The Grass Harp (1995).

Matthau died of full cardiac arrest on July 1, 2000 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 79. After heart surgery, doctors discovered that he had colon cancer, which had spread to his liver, lungs and brain. However, on his death certificate the causes of death are listed as cardiac arrest and atherosclerotic heart disease, with ESRD and atrial fibrillation added as "other significant conditions contributing to death but not related to [primary] cause..." He is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.
Just under one year later, Jack Lemmon was also buried at the cemetery next to his friend, after dying from colon cancer and bladder cancer. After Matthau's death, Lemmon as well as other friends and relatives appeared on Larry King Live in an hour of tribute and remembrance; poignantly, many of those same people appeared on the show one year later, reminiscing about Lemmon. Entertainment Weekly's article in memory of Matthau was titled "Grumpy Old Mensch".
His widow, Carol, died of a brain aneurysm in 2003.

Walter Matthau (New York, 1920. október 1. – Santa Monica, Kalifornia, 2000. július 1.) Oscar-díjas amerikai színész, aki főleg vígjátékokban játszott. Egyik legismertebb szerepét a Furcsa pár című filmben játszotta, Jack Lemmonnal az oldalán.

1920. október elsején született, New Yorkban, Manhattan, Lower East Side részén bevándorló orosz zsidó szülők gyermekeként. Középiskolai tanulmányait a Seward Park High School-ban folytatta. Eredeti vezetékneveként gyakran a Matuschansky-t jelölik meg, ezzel ellentétben igazi neve Walter John Matthow volt. Mivel gyakran szólították Jake-nek, ezért alkalmanként önmaga is Walter Jake Matthow-ként írta nevét. Amikor fiatalként elkezdett színészkedni A New York-i Zsidó Színházban (New York Yiddish Theater) akkor határozta el, hogy megváltoztatja nevének betűzését, úgy gondolta a Matthow túl durva és kellemetlen és választása a Matthau-ra esett és ezt meg is tartotta élete végéig.
Matthau a II. világháború alatt az Amerikai Egyesült Államok Légierejénél szolgált az Eighth Air Force-ban Angliában ugyanabban a bombázó szakaszban mint James Stewart. Törzsőrmesteri (Staff Sergeant) rangot kapott és ez időtájt kezdett el komoly érdeklődni a színészet iránt.
A várva várt siker későn érkezett Matthau számára. 1965-ben, 44 évesen, Neil Simon beválogatta a Furcsa pár című filmbe.