in military sectors after the outbreak of the Korean War further reduced the supply of consumer goods. Due to shortages, forced savings (state bond sales to the population) and below-inflation wage increases were introduced. Forced retirement Rákosi was then removed as General Secretary of the Party under pressure from the Soviet Politburo in June 1956 (shortly after Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech), and was replaced by his former second-in-command, Ernő Gerő. To remove him from the Hungarian political scene, the Soviet Politburo exiled Rákosi to the Soviet Union later in 1956, with the official story being that he was "seeking medical attention". From 1964 to 1968 he lived in the town of Tokmok in Soviet Kirghizia and later he was sent to Arzamas and further to Gorky. In 1970, Rákosi was finally granted permission to return to Hungary if he promised not to engage in political activities. He refused the deal and remained in the USSR where he died in Gorky in 1971. After his death, his ashes were privately returned to Hungary for burial in the Farkasréti Cemetery in Budapest. Only his initials are visible on his gravestone to avoid vandalism. Footnotes External links 1892 births 1971 deaths People from Ada, Serbia People from the Kingdom of Hungary Jewish Hungarian politicians Hungarian Communist Party politicians Members of the Hungarian Working People's Party Members of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Prime Ministers of Hungary Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1945–1947) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1947–1949) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1949–1953) Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1953–1958) Communist rulers Hungarian Comintern people Stalinism Anti-revisionists 20th-century atheists Hungarian atheism activists Jewish atheists Jewish socialists Hungarian People's Republic Jewish prime ministers Hungarian prisoners of war Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in World War I World War I prisoners of war held by Russia Hungarian people of the Hungarian–Romanian War Hungarian expatriates in the Soviet Union People of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery