Ki volt Ráth István, és mi volt a szerepe Szent-Györgyi Albert emigrációjában?
Who was István Ráth, and what was his role in the emigration of Albert Szent-Györgyi?

Summary/Abstract: The general knowledge on the identity of István Ráth (formerly known as István Róth) is considerably scarce. According to R. W. Moss, who has been the main bibliographer on the life of Albert Szent-Györgyi, there are many unresolved mysteries around Ráth’s figure. In the present work, our primary aim is to reveal specific features in the life of the Romanian dentist focusing on his relationship with the Nobel-prize winner scientist. Up till now, it is still not entirely clear that Szent-Györgyi had actually an entrepreneur friend, with whom he kept a close contact since 1945 and, who also happened to provide financial support not just for his scientific work but for the Hungarian Academy of Natural Sciences as well. Besides the latter activities they also co-founded the Servita Pharmaceutical and Chemical Co., which took the very first steps in producing new drugs following methods developed by Hungarian scientists. Over the years, this company has overgrown the needs of Hungary in terms of its vitamin production and also started to import penicillin for the first time via U.S.-based, foreign sources. For the acknowledgement of his remarkable achievements, István Ráth was elected in December 1945 as the honorary doctor of the Nádor József University of Technology and Economics. Within this work, our intension is to unfold the procedure that led to the drastically cut-down of Albert Szent-Györgyi’s scientific activities forced by the gradually increasing influence of the left-wing oriented post-war politics. Original, primary sources, e.g. mail conversations are set to attest the struggle of Szent-Györgyi and Ráth against the sanctions of the given ministries. Formerly two sparate assumptions were put in discussion as the potential reasons for the emigration of Albert Szent-Györgyi to the United States. Some believe that the imprisonment of his writer friend, Lajos Zilahy can be accounted for his actions, whilst others say that the final event triggering him to leave the country was the torture and death of István Ráth shortly after being kidnapped by the communists. In our previous studies it was shown, that this latter opinion is the correct one and the theory of the imprisonment of Lajos Zilahy is a serious mistake made by researchers due to the misuse of the literature. Following the unfinished story-line, further evidences from the media provide testimony on the tragic circumstances around the disappearance of István Ráth. These series of events together with the moderately successful fights of Albert Szent-Györgyi towards the rescue and freedom of his beloved friends are winded up directly from the columns of the “Kis Újság” newspaper owned by former yeomen of Hungary. With our study, we would like to provide a vivid example on how the communist “destruction machine” operated already in the spring of 1947 and managed to discredit the life of the Nobel-prize winner’s friend who was also simultaneously much respected by the Soviets.

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