Editing Imre Nagy (section)

==Early political career==
In captivity in Camp Berezovka near [[Lake Baikal]] in Siberia he participated in a [[Marxist]] discussion group until 1917.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=8}} In 1918, he joined the Communist (Social Democratic) Party of the Foreign Workers of Siberia, a sub-group of the Russian [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]].{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=8}}{{sfn|Granville|2004|p=21}} He fought in the ranks of the [[Red Army]] from February to September 1918 during the [[Russian Civil War]].{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=8}} Some sources, including the so-called "Yurovsky Document" allege Nagy and his unit were tasked with guarding the former Russian [[House of Romanov|Imperial Family]] in [[Yekaterinburg]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Yurovsky_Document.jpg|accessdate=Dec 19, 2018|title=Yurovsky Document}}</ref> Though some historians have speculated Nagy himself was among the men in the firing squad that [[Execution of the Romanov family|executed]] the Romanovs, Ivan Plotnikov, history professor at the [[Ural State University]], stated per his research that the executioners were [[Yakov Yurovsky]], [[Grigory Petrovich Nikulin|Grigory Nikulin]], [[Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin|Mikhail Medvedev (Kudrin)]], [[Peter Ermakov]], [[Stepan Vaganov]], [[Alexey Georgievich Kabanov|Alexey Kabanov]], [[Pavel Spiridonovich Medvedev|Pavel Medvedev]], V. N. Netrebin, and Y. M. Tselms. The White Army investigator Nikolai Sokolov claimed that the execution of the Imperial Family was carried out by a group of "[[Latvians]] led by a Jew".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sokolov|first=N. A|title=Chapter XV: Surrounding the royal family by security officers // Murder of the royal family}}</ref> However, in light of Plotnikov's research, the group that carried out the execution consisted almost entirely of [[Russians|ethnic Russians]] (Nikulin, Kudrin, Ermakov, Vaganov, Kabanov, Medvedev and Netrebin) with the participation of one Jew (Yurovsky) and possibly, one Latvian (Tselms).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Plotnikov|first=I|date=2003|title=About the team of the executioners of the royal family and its ethnic composition|url=http://magazines.russ.ru/ural/2003/9/plotnik-pr.html|journal=Ural Magazine}}</ref> Allegations of Nagy's presence at the [[Ipatiev House]] remains a controversial matter among biographers, and has contributed to his divisive legacy in modern Hungary.

Nagy and his unit were later encircled and he was ultimately taken prisoner by the [[Czechoslovak Legion]] in early September 1918.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=8}} He escaped captivity and spent the period until February 1920 holding odd jobs in [[White movement|White]]-controlled territory near Lake Baikal.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=8}} The Red Army reached [[Irkutsk]] on 7 February 1920, ending Nagy's participation in the Civil War.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=8}} On 12 February 1920 he became a candidate member of the Russian Communist Party and a full-time member on 10 May.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=9}} He served the rest of 1920 as a clerk for the communist [[Cheka]] secret police on matters related to prisoners of war.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=9}}

After a month of training by the Cheka in subversive activities, the [[Hungarian Communist Party]] (KMP) sent Nagy along with 277 other Hungarian communists to [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]] in April 1921 to build up an underground conspiratorial network in a country where the Communist Party had been banned since 1919.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=10}}{{sfn|Granville|2004|p=21}} Nagy reached Kaposvár in late May 1921.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=10}} Upon arrival, he joined the [[Social Democratic Party of Hungary]] (MSZDP).{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=12}} After working temporary jobs in the rest of 1921 and early 1922, he joined the First Hungarian Insurance Company and became an office worker in Kaposvár.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|pp=12–13}} He became severely overweight around this time.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=13}} He helped to build up the socialist movement in his hometown, to his parents' disapproval.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=13}} He became secretary of the MSZDP's local branch in 1924.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=14}} He was expelled from the party for advocating revolution and was placed under police surveillance.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=14}} He married Mária Égető on November 28, 1925.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=14}}

[[File:Nagy Imre későbbi miniszterelnök feleségével és kislányuk Erzsébet. Fortepan 74217.jpg|thumb|left|Nagy with his wife Mária and daughter [[Erzsébet Nagy|Erzsébet]] in 1929.]]
In January 1926, Nagy and István Sinkovics established the Kaposvár office of the [[Socialist Workers’ Party of Hungary]] (MSZMP), a semi-communist left-wing splinter group from the MSZDP.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=15}} Nagy was successful in gaining 700 voters for the MSZMP Kaposvár parliamentary candidate, one of the party's few successes in the countryside west of [[Budapest]].{{sfn|Rainer|2009|pp=15–16}} By this time Nagy had begun to prioritize his interest in agriculture over political leadership and rejected an offer from communist cadres from Vienna to build up the illegal KMP in western Hungary.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=16}} The MSZMP in Kaposvár was prohibited and Nagy was fired from his insurance job in February 1927 and arrested on 27 February.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=16}} He was released after two months in prison.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=16}} While under police surveillance, Nagy found a job as an agent for the Phoenix Insurance Company.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=17}} He was arrested again in December 1927 for three days and was called to [[Vienna]] by the KMP, arriving in March 1928.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=17}} He became head of the KMP's agrarian section and was sent back to Hungary in September 1928 under a false identity to build up underground communist networks.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=18}} His efforts were largely a failure, his largest successes being the publishing of three issues of a small journal and his avoidance of arrest.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=18}} His advocacy of legal political activity over the party's preference for largely impotent clandestine work in villages was dismissed as "right-deviancy" by the ultra-left KMP leadership.{{sfn|Rainer|2009|p=20}}