Lajos Czinege

Born in Karcag, his father was an agricultural worker and he began working as a peasant from childhood, then after graduating from elementary school he studied to be a blacksmith.^[2] In the autumn of 1944 he became a member of the 25th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hunyadi (1st Hungarian).  In 1945 he joined the Hungarian Communist Party and participated in the formation of the Karcag group of the Hungarian Democratic Youth Association, the party's youth organization. In 1946 he served as a volunteer technical soldier, and this is where his soaring political and military career began.

In 1947 he was appointed secretary of the MKP in Karcag. After completing the two-month "quick-start" party school, from 1948 he worked in the Szolnok county organs of the Hungarian Workers' Party. He was the city secretary of the MKP in Karcag, the agitation-propaganda and then organizational secretary of the county party committee. In 1950–51 he was the foreman and then deputy director of the Agricultural Machinery Repair Company. In his highest position he was the department head of the Szolnok County Executive Committee of the MDP. In 1952 he was assigned to Budapest, to the Ministry of Defense, where he became the head of the political department of the artillery units with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He graduated from the three-year Stalin Political Academy.

He actively participated in the suppression of the 1956 revolution. From October 26, 1956, he was a member of the Military Committee of the MDP, which was established to lead the attempts to suppress the armed uprising. He actively participated in the formation of the Workers' Guard.

After 1956, he became a defining political leader of the Kádár era. Between 1957 and 1960, he was the first secretary of the party in Szolnok County. Between 16 November 1958 and 28 January 1967, he was a member of parliament, entering the legislature from the Szolnok County list of the Patriotic People's Front. The Presidential Council appointed him Minister of Defense with effect from 17 May 1960, and at the same time – not unique at that time – he was immediately promoted from reserve lieutenant colonel to lieutenant general. He served in this position until 1984.

In August 1968, the invasion of Czechoslovakia took place during his term in office. He played a decisive role in various Warsaw Pact forums and opposed the planned Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis of 1980–1981.  He also played a prominent role in the political leadership as a member of the Central Committee (1959–88) and a substitute member of the Politburo (1961–70). He was the only Warsaw Pact defense minister who did not become a full member of the Politburo.

The Hungarian People's Army reached its highest level of development under his leadership. He was also responsible for several privileges granted to soldiers, but scandals are also associated with his name. The book titled Little Kings in Uniform by Prof. Dr. Engineer Colonel Imre Bokor was written about the period of Czinege's office and the irregularities of the military leadership at that time. The interesting thing about the book is that a separate OGY resolution was issued to investigate its contents.