Béla Szántó (born as Béla Schreiber, 1 February 1881 – 1 June 1951) was a Hungarian communist politician active participant of the putsch and creation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, who later became a critic of the Communist party as led by Béla Kun. Szántó joined the Communist Party of Hungary at age 19, and was elected to the Central Committee in 1919. In the Hungarian Soviet Republic, he served as People's Commissar for Defence. After the revolution collapsed, Szántó fled first to Vienna and then to Moscow. He played an active role in the ECCI, VKP and Profintern.