Pal Maleter was born in Hungary in 1917. He joined the Hungarian Army and during the Second World War was captured by the Soviet Army. Later he fought as a partisan against Nazi Germany.

After the war Maleter served in the Defence Ministry and during the Hungarian Uprising he supported the leadership of Imre Nagy. On 3rd November, 1956, Nagy announced details of his coalition government. It included communists (Janos Kadar, George Lukacs, Geza Lodonczy), three members of the Smallholders Party (Zolton Tildy, Bela Kovacs and Istvan Szabo), three Social Democrats (Anna Kethly, Gyula Keleman, Joseph Fischer), and two Petofi Peasants (Istvan Bibo and Ferenc Farkas). Major-General Maleter was appointed minister of defence.

Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, became increasingly concerned about these developments and on 4th November 1956 he sent the Red Army into Hungary. Soviet tanks immediately captured Hungary's airfields, highway junctions and bridges. Fighting took place all over the country but the Hungarian forces were quickly defeated.

Pal Maleter was imprisoned and executed in 1958.