User:Pkonya/Lajos Erdodi

dr. Lajos Erdődi
dr. Lajos Erdődi was born in Forrai-nagyiratos, (today Iratoșu Romania), on 17 August, 1902 – died in Budapest on 17 September, 1970. Hungarian lawyer and politician from the town of Gyula. He was also known as the "lawyer of the poor".

His Brief Life Story
He was a highly talented, and well-educated Hungarian lawyer. Since he came from a very poor family he remained sensitive to the needs of the poor. He took an active role in creating agrarian regulations, and in the democratic re-distribution of land. He was always ahead of his time. During the Nazi reign he was labelled a communist, and was sentenced to prison. After World War II., when the soviet army "liberated" Hungary a communist dictature was formed. By this time he learned about the flaws of communism, so he did not want to work with the occupying soviet forces. Although he was very popular, he was charged with collaboration with the former Nazi government, and imprisoned again. He stood out for a democratic and independent Hungary. Obviously the soviet controlled government did not share, nor approved his views. He was arrested, tortured, and sentenced for 10 years forced labor in the labor camps of GULAG.

After his release he was not allowed to continue his legal practice any more. His health deteriorated - due to the miserable conditions in the labor camps and the medical experiments he had to go through.

The Hungarian secret service monitored everything he did. He was sent to prison again after he shared his frustration, and criticism of the Hungarian regime in a private letter, written to his friend.

He was rehabilitated by both the Hungarian (in 1994) and by the Russian (in 1996) authorities and was cleared of all charges. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to see all this happen.

One of his sons (Tamas) emigrated to the USA in 1956, changed his name to Tom Erdody and became an American citizen. He died in 1985.

His other son Levente, and daughter Zelma still live in Budapest, Hungary.

The local government of his town, Gyula, will place a marker to commemorate his life, integrity, and work on 25 February, 2010, near the house where he used to live.

Literature

 * Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book The Gulag Archipelago was not the first literary work about labour camps. His previous book on the subject, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", about a typical day of the GULAG inmate, was originally published in the most prestigious Soviet monthly, Novy Mir, (New World), in November 1962, but was soon banned and withdrawn from all libraries. It was the first work to demonstrate the Gulag as an instrument of governmental repression against its own citizens on a massive scale. The First Circle, an account of three days in the lives of prisoners in the Marfino sharashka or special prison was submitted for publication to the Soviet authorities shortly after One Day in the Life but was rejected and later published abroad in 1968.
 * János Rózsás, Hungarian writer, often referred to as the Hungarian Solzhenitsyn, wrote a lot of books and articles on the issue of GULAG.
 * Zoltan Szalkai, Hungarian documentary filmmaker made several films of gulag camps.

Memoirs

 * Ayyub Baghirov (1906-1973), Bitter Days of Kolyma
 * Murtuz Sadikhli (1927-1997), Memory of Blood
 * Ummugulsum Sadigzade (died 1944), Prison Diary: Tears Are My Only Companions
 * Ummugulsum Sadigzade (died 1944), Letters from Prison to her Young Children
 * Remembering Stalin - Azerbaijan International 13.4 (Winter 2005)


 * Alexander Dolgun, Patrick Watson, "Alexander Dolgun's story: An American in the Gulag", NY, Knopf, 1975, 370 pp., ISBN 978-0394494975.
 * Eugenia Ginzburg, Journey into the whirlwind, Harvest/HBJ Book, 2002, 432 pp., ISBN 0156027518.
 * Eugenia Ginzburg, Within the Whirlwind, Harvest/HBJ Book, 1982, 448 pp., ISBN 0156976498.
 * Julius Margolin, ПУТЕШЕСТВИЕ В СТРАНУ ЗЭ-КА A Travel to the Land Ze-Ka, 2005, full text, according to the original manuscript
 * John H. Noble, I Was a Slave in Russia, Broadview, Illinois: Cicero Bible Press, 1961).
 * Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales, Penguin Books, 1995, 528 pp., ISBN 0-14-018695-6.
 * Danylo Shumuk,
 * Life sentence: Memoirs of a Ukrainian political prisoner, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Study, 1984, 401 pp., ISBN 978-0920862179.
 * Za Chidnim Obriyam -(Beyond The Eastern Horizon) ,Paris, Baltimore: Smoloskyp, 1974, 447 pp.
 * Solzhenitsyn's, Shalamov's, Ginzburg's works at Lib.ru (in original Russian)

Fiction

 * Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
 * One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Signet Classic, 158 pp., ISBN 0-451-52310-5.
 * The First Circle, Northwestern University Press, 580 pp., ISBN 978-0810115903.
 * Chabua Amirejibi, Gora Mborgali. Tbilisi, Georgia: Chabua, 2001, 650 pp., ISBN 99940-734-1-9.
 * Mehdi Husein (1905-1965), "Underground Rivers Flow Into the Sea" (Excerpts - First Novel About Exile to the Gulag by an Azerbaijani Writer)
 * Martin Amis, House of Meetings. New York: Vintage Books, 2006, 242 pp., ISBN 978-1-4000-9601-5.
 * Herta Müller
 * Everything I Possess I Carry With Me