Gyula Lányi

Gyula Lányi was born on 29 August 1908 in Vasszentmihály, his father was a teacher in the village. After graduating from the Ludovika Academy, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1931. Afterwards he served with the 101st Mixed Combat Battalion in Piliscsaba. In 1944, he was transferred to the 203rd Special Technical Battalion, which was created to clean up debris, and became its commander on 20 August. He and his unit continued to carry out technical rescue work during the siege, and on 10 February 1945 he was transferred to Soviet troops with 17 officers and 180 crew members in the area of Böszörményi út. They were reorganised into a Hungarian volunteer company in the house at 32 Bernáth Géza (now Hollósy Simon) Street, but only one patrolman from the unit was deployed against the Germans during the siege. He was subsequently taken prisoner of war and was released from the Baja prison camp after five months. In his 1949 autobiography, he wrote that "my circle of friends consists exclusively of comrades, with whom I associate. I take great care to evaluate them [sic!]. Particularly in view of what Comrade Rákosi said, 'now the enemy is for a long time preparing to penetrate his ranks.' Because party membership and the membership book does not at all mean that every party member is a good communist loyal to the working class. That is why we must be vigilant and unchallenged by the enemy."

These words, which were by all accounts just words, proved insufficient. Yet Lányi seemed to have done everything he could to stabilise his situation. He had already joined the MKP on 1 May 1946, had completed a four-week seminar and had subsequently taken on various party jobs. He played an important role in the reconstruction of the country's railway and road bridges, and was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 1947. The suspicion of him, however, appeared in all his characterisations. A 1949 characterisation says: 'Theoretically well educated, constantly training. However, the bourgeois mentality he had picked up at Ludovika is evident. To some extent volatile, relations with the working class and his subordinates not the best." Another document of the same year also recommended his dismissal, citing his "lack of loyalty to the working class, on a visit to a barracks he entered a worker's flat and remarked that he was "stinky, careerist". And a third note, also written in the same handwriting, accused him of being "full of petty bourgeois vestigialities. Not an enemy, probably a good professional." These denunciations led to his retirement that same year. He then took up a position as a technical officer at the former Siemens works (Vilamosgép- und Kabelelgyár Budapst). He was expelled from the party in 1951 and appealed against his expulsion, but this was not upheld and he was even demoted in 1958, despite the fact that he had done nothing during the 1956 revolution.