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Pal Maleter

Pal Maleter (4 September 1917-16 June 1958) was a national hero of Hungary who was famous for his height of at least 6'8 and his resistance to the Soviet Union in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Biography[]

Pal Maleter was born on 4 September 1917 in Eperjes, Saros County, in Austria-Hungary (present-day Presov, Slovakia). Originally a student of medicine in Czechoslovakia, he was drafted into the Hungarian Army and was captured by the Red Army during World War II. Maleter became a colonel of the Hungarian Army, and in 1956 he was sent with an armored division to put down the Hungarian Revolution. However, he decided to join his countrymen. After the new Hungarian government took power, he was promoted to General and Minister of Defense. On 3 November 1956 he negotiated with Soviet Union troops, but at the meeting, he was arrested. Along with Imre Nagy, he was executed in Budapest in 1958 for trying to overthrow the Hungarian People's Republic in a breach of international law. 

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