Born in Szabadka (now: Subotica, Serbia) to a Catholic petty bourgeois family.

His parents were István Ortutay journalist, editor of the Szegedi Napló and Ilona Borsodi.

Soon he was making left-wing friends such as Miklós Radnóti, Gábor Tolnai, Dezső Baróti, Ferenc Erdei, György Buday and Viola Tomori.

He got into contact with the communist intellectuals (László Orbán, Gyula Kállai, Ferenc Hont) in the end of the 1930s.

In the next year he joined the Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party (FKGP).