Albert Kónya was a 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...

 physicist and politician, who served as Minister of Education between 1956 and 1957. He graduated in the József Attila University of Szeged

Szeged

' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....

. He fought in the Second World War from 1942 until the war's end. He was a prisoner of war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 for a short time in 1945. After the war he taught in the Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

The Budapest University of Technology and Economics , in hungarian abbreviated as BME, English official abbreviation BUTE, is the most significant University of Technology in Hungary and is also one of the oldest Institutes of Technology in the world, having been founded in 1782.-History:BME is...

. From 1950 he served as head of the Physics Department of the University of Miskolc

University of Miskolc

The University of Miskolc is the largest university of Northern Hungary.-Location:...

. After that, in 1951 he became dean of the Faculty of Mechanics.

In 1952 he did his first steps in the politics. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Education in 1952. Kónya hold this position until 1956 to helping the two ministers, József Darvas

József Darvas

József Darvas was a Hungarian writer and politician, who served as Minister of Religion and Education between 1950 and 1951, as Minister of Education between 1951 and 1953 and as Minister of Culture between 1953 and 1956...

 and Tibor Erdey-Grúz

Tibor Erdey-Grúz

Tibor Erdey-Grúz was a Hungarian chemist and politician, who served as Minister of Higher Education between 1952 and 1953 and after that as Minister of Education from 1953 to 1956.-References:*...

's work. In 1954 he was elected as alternate member of the Hungarian Working People's Party's Central Leadership. He became Minister of Education on 30 July 1956. He also hold his position during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Not much before the revolution he supported the students' university autonomy in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

 and Szeged. He did not oblige the students to the learning of the Russian language

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

. After the uprising he was condemned because of his role in the second Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...

cabinet and he had to resigne from all of his political position. Kónya returned to the teaching.