István Kossa 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...

 politician, who served as Minister of Finance twice: between 1949-1950 and between 1956-1957. After the secondary grammar school's accomplishment he worked 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...

 as a tram

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

 conductor

Conductor (transportation)

A conductor is a member of a railway train's crew that is responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve the actual operation of the train. The title of conductor is most associated with railway operations in North America, but the role of conductor is common to railways...

. He joined to the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (Hungary)

The Social Democratic Party often known as the "Historical" Social Democratic Party is a Hungarian political party that emerged following a split within the Hungarian Social Democratic Party in 1989...

 in 1923. He took a part in the trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 opposition's fights actively as member of the left-wing Tram Alliance. He was elected to the position of the general secretary of the alliance in 1933. In this same year he was arrested along with other members of the leadership. Kossa was taken to the Eastern Front

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

 in 1942, where he and many other prisoners joined to the Soviet troops

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

.

On November 1944 he returned to home to make a connection with the Hungarian Communist Party

Hungarian Communist Party

The Communist Party of Hungary , renamed Hungarian Communist Party in 1945, was founded on November 24, 1918, and was in power in Hungary briefly from March to August 1919 under Béla Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The communist government was overthrown by the Romanian Army and driven...

 and the Hungarian front. After the war Kossa led many offices (for example Council of the Trade Union). From 1945 he worked as a member of the Hungarian Working People's Party's Central Leadership and the National Assembly of Hungary

National Assembly of Hungary

The National Assembly or Diet is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 386 members elected to 4-year terms. Election of members is based on a complex system involving both area and list election; parties must win at least 5% of the popular vote in order to enter list members...

. Kossa was appointed Minister of Industry on 5 August 1948, later served as Minister of Finance until 24 February 1950. From 5 January 1952 to 2 July 1953 he was the Minister of Metallurgical and Machine Industry. In 1955 he worked for the National Planning Board as first deputy chairman. From 24 October 1956 he served as Minister of Finance again. Until his retirement (1963) he was the Minister of Transport and Post. He was also member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party

Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party

The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party was the ruling Marxist–Leninist party of Hungary between 1956 and 1989. It was organised from elements of the Hungarian Working People's Party during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution...

's Central Committee until his death.