István Kemény (1925–2008) was a Hungarian sociologist. In 1944 he participated in the resistance against the Germans. In 1947–1948 he was a co-worker at the Teleki Pál Scientific Institute. Between 1948 and 1957, he was taught at a high school. In 1955–1956 he searched the poor children and their families in the schools of Angyalföld (Budapest), he made lectures twice about his experiences in the Petőfi Circle. Under the Revolution of 1956, he was an active member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Intelligentsia. In 1957 he sentenced to four years of imprisonment for participating the 1956 Revolution. Kemény was released from prison in 1959. He worked at the Economical and Juridical Published, then at the National Széchényi Library, and in 1963 he joined to a research project conducted by the Central Statistical Office on the question of “social stratification.” From 1969 to 1971 he worked at the Sociological Institute of the Academy. In his researches, Kemény analyzed the poor, the Gypsy population and the management of state farms which were taboo subject under socialism. Kemény lost his job in 1971, but organized seminars in private places, and continued his researches incognito. In 1977 he emigrated to Paris. He taught at the Maison des Sciences de l’ Homme (1978–1981) and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (1983–1990). He edited the Hungarian Booklets and from 1980 to 1990 he was an outer co-worker of Radio Free Europe. He returned to Hungary in 1990.