Gyula Obersovszky ( b. 1927)
He was born in Pécs into a family of Polish origin. His father worked in the family business, but founded dramatic societies, and after 1945, continued to be a leading cultural figure in Beremend, while a clerk in the cement works there. Unable to complete secondary school for financial reasons, Obersovszky went to work at the age of 15 as a trainee notary in Ibrány and later Püspökladány. He joined the Hungarian Communist Party in 1944. In 1945, he became the administrator to the chairman of the local land-redistribution board. Obersovszky attended the Budapest Drama College in 1945-9. In 1946, he joined the staff of Nékosz. He was a founder of the Dezső Szabó People's College and of the Árpád Horváth Actors' College. Obersovszky moved to Debrecen in 1949, where he was arts editor of the weekly paper Dongó (Bumblebee). He became a column editor on the daily Hajdú Megyei Néplap (Hajdú County People's Paper) in 1950 and deputy head of the education department at the county council. He founded the Stanislavsky Workers' Studio, for which he received the state decoration For Socialist Culture. He also helped to found the paper Építők (Builders) and the Hajdú-Bihar County group of the Writers' Union. In 1954, he joined the board of the cultural department at the Journalists' Association (Muosz), but in the same year, he was dismissed from all his jobs and expelled from the HWP. Moving to Budapest, he organized drama courses all over the country for the Institute of Popular Art. In the summer of 1956, he became a column editor on the paper Hétfői Hírek (Monday News), edited by Iván Boldizsár. Obersovszky took part in the siege of the Hungarian Radio building on October 23, 1956, and on the following day, founded and edited the first newspaper born of the revolution, Igazság (Justice). After November 4, he established the illegal paper Élünk (We Are Alive). He helped to organize the silent demonstration on November 23 and the women' s demonstration on December 4. However, he was arrested in early December. After being sentenced to four years' imprisonment as an accused in the trial of Ilona Tóth and associates, he was convicted by the Supreme Court on June 20, 1957 of conspiracy against the state and sentenced to death. After international protests, the case was re-examined and the sentence commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in the 1963 amnesty. He edited the betting paper Sportfogadás from 1967 to 1989. His literary works under the pseudonym Gyula Oby could only be published freely after the change of system. He was a founder member of the Committee for Historical Justice (TIB) in 1988. In 1990, he became editor-in-chief of the relaunched Igazság and later Élünk. He continues to write literary works.
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