) was a Hungarian writer and revolutionary. His real name was Béla Frankl. He attended Polgári Iskola (high school) in Mátészalka

Mátészalka

Mátészalka is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary.-Geography:It covers an area of and has a population of 18,084 people .Mátészalka is a sistertown of Zevenaar ....

, which was later renamed in his honor. (The name was later rechanged after the fall of the Communist regime). When he was 18, Zalka lied about his age in order to volunteer in the Hungarian Army.

Officer of hussars Zalka fought in Italy which later became the subject of his novel "Doberdó". He went to battle on the Russian front in 1917 and ended up in a Russian prisoner of war camp, where he was influenced by Communism.

In February 1918, during the Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

, Zalka formed an international group of Red Guards in Khabarovsk which mainly comprised ex-prisoner Hungarians, and participated in the punitive operations in Siberia against the White

White Russian

White Russian may refer to:* White Russian , an alcoholic beverage* White movement members during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1923* A White émigré from the Russian Civil War...

 formations; with posse heated from Zalka extraordinary brutality. His squadron atrocities does not confront them inferior that of Ataman Semionov). At the end of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Zalka chose to stay in Russia instead of returning to Hungary. Zalka met his Russian future wife Vera. They had one daughter, who later died due to complications from the accident at Chernobyl

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...

.

In 1920, Zalka fought against Poland in the Battle of Kiev. From 1921-23, he was commander of a regiment of cavalry of the VCK GPU, the Soviet Communist Party Secret Service, that fought in Crimea and Ukraine, and was involved in the elimination of teams NI Makhno and other Atamanov Ukraine. And the fact that this moviment enjoys widespread support of local people, many of the actions risulted in the punitive operations against civilians. At some point, he fought in a war of liberation for Turkey under the assumed name of Lukács Tábornok (General Lukács), and for his efforts was honored with a statue of his likeness in Istanbul.

While he was in the prisoner of war camp, he organized the prisoners´ theatre. He was director of the famous "Theatre of Revolution" (now called "Mayakovsky Theatre") in Moscow (1925–1928).

In 1936, he moved to Spain, where in November 1936 he joined the International Brigades

International Brigades

The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....

 to fight in the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

. Under the assumed name of Pavol Lukács and with the rank of General, he commanded initially the XII International Brigade

XII International Brigade

The XII International Brigade was mustered on 7 November 1936 at Albacete, Spain. It was formally named the Garibaldi Brigade, after the most famous and inspiring leader in the Italian Independence Wars, General Giuseppe Garibaldi. Its first commanding officer was a soviet advisor of Hungarian...

 and then the 45th Division. In 1937, his car was hit by artillery fire and he was killed near Huesca

Huesca

Huesca is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the comarca of Hoya de Huesca....

. Zalka is mentioned in a number of works of Hemingway.

His remains were originally buried in the south of Spain but decades after his death, Zalka's nephew (who also fought in the Spanish war) was invited by the Spanish royal family to a ceremony celebrating the end of the civil war. At this point, he was able to carry Zalka's remains to Hungary where they were buried in a military cemetery 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...

along with other high-ranking Hungarian military heroes.