Political reform and shift of positions: János Kádár, leader of the ruling Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party since 1956, was replaced by Karoly Grósz. Nearly a third of the Politburo members were replaced by advocates of reform. The new members included Imre Pozsgay, leader of the Patriotic People's Front, and Reszö Nyers, a main architect of the 1968 economic liberalization who had been ousted from the Politburo in 1975.
Jánós Kádár lost his positions as party president of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party and member of the Central Committee after Mária Ormos, a historian, delivered a speech to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences denouncing him as a Soviet puppet.
Minister of Culture and Education Ferenc Glatz announced that, as of September, Russian language would no longer be required in Hungarian schools and universities.
