History by GenerationsGenerational Dynamics

in Modern History

Edited byHartmut Berghoff, Uffa Jensen,

Christina Lubinski, andBernd Weisbrod

Offprint

WALLSTEIN VERLAG

Judith Szapor

The Generation of “Bright Winds”:

A Generation Denied

NEKOSZ, the network of”people’s colleges”, was established in Hungary in theso-called years of transition following World War II and preceding the Communist takeover. A unique phenomenon in post-war East and East-CentralEurope. the movement was unparalleled in its scope and, unlike other cases ofenforced social mobility, propelled by a genuine social movement. Despite itssignificance for Hungary’s post-war history, NEKOSZ is virtually unknownoutside Hungary and a small circle of Hungarian specialists,z The followingglossary entry Born t.he web site of the Institute of the i96 R.evoiution of Bu

dapest provides a brief description:

National Association of People’s Colleges (NhKOS/.): Formed on june 8,1946, this was the central organization of the people’s colleges, which from

1939 to 1949 provided resident secondary and higher education for talentedyoung members of the peasantry and the working class. The first was BólyaiCollege, established by lstván Gydrffy to give higher education to youngpeasants. The people’s colleges followed the traditions of the Protestant colleges in their methods of operation, drawing on the “populist” writers’ movement and the labour movement for inspiration ... They were educatedto respect the principles of collective self-government, along with consciousself-instruction, critical thinking, and efforts to propagate culture andknowledge of the country. Their freedom of thinking attracted several criticisms from the communist side after an MDP [Hungarian Workers Party]resolution on September 19, 1948. Thereafter, the system lost impetus and

Research for this paper was facilitated by an Internal SSHRC Grant awarded by the Faculty of Arts of McGill University SSHRC and a SSHRC Standard Research Grant, I amalso grateful to György Földes, the [)irector of the Institute of Political History Budapest, for granting me access to the collections of the Archives, and my thanks as we11 tothe dedicated staff of the Archives for their help.

2 There is no doubt that comparative studies of the region would greatly benefit from theinclusion of NEKOSZ. John Connelly’s sratemem, in Uaptive University: ‘The Sovietization ofEast German, Czech and Polish Higher Education, 1945-1956 (Chapel Hill, 2000), 2,

that “the institutions and programs created in these years in Eastern European highereducation were nearly identicai”, fails to take NEKOSZ into consideration.

240 JUDITH SZAPOR

prepirations began for a merger with the system of state colleges. [NfKOS!]

was cited during the Rajk show trial and dissolved itself at a central meetingon July 10, 1949

In3tztute of the 1956 Revolution ofBudapest, 2011

During its brief existence and its afterlife, Nf KOSL has rarely been judged onits own terms. The following quotes provide an insight into the conrroersiesand debates that had surrounded “if KOS! during and following its brief existence and continue to color the historical assessment of its merits and pitfalls tothis day.

Tile plans of the Rajk gang confirm how an independent student organization, such as “if KOS7’, provided ready and fertile ground to imperialismand its agents.

The Youth Secretariat ofthe central committee ofthe Hungarian Workers’Party, 6 Ottobe, 1949

we cannot identify the whole of N F KOS! with the whole of StalinistConnlunistn, cven if many of thc collegians, thosc nom familiat with theStalinist practice, adhered to the periods Communist catechism. 1 he difference is -le mrly demonstrated b the lives of the t-wo of the most signific mtleaders of NF KOSZ. As Imre Nagy’s minister of agricultural requiration,Antal Gyenes abolished the compulsory delivery system, and László Kardoswas meted out a life sentence in 1958 by the same court that condemnedme — and for more or less the same crimes.

A’rpdd Gbncz, former President ofthe Hungarian Republic, iim

After 1949 we cannot in any sense speak of a cohort of people’s collegians as wecan find them on sides of the political scene. True, there were collegians jailedafter the [1956] revolution but that can only be subscribed to individuals’ lifechoices, not to any movement’s history. That the collegians represented somekind of disobedient group or any real danger to the regime is a stubborn myth,with no grounds in reality ... The messianistic ideas of the “era of bright winds”

3 http://wwwrev,hu/history_ofZ4s/oraa/index.htm, <accessed on Sept m. 2011>.

NfKOS/ s the abbmeviation of Nkpi Kollegiumok Országos SZovetsége, in English:National Association of People’s Colleges.Megfbrgatott vmldgmegforgatók A magyar nepi kollegiumi mozgalom ismeretlen dokumentumm, ed. Lasalo ‘wed (Budapest, 1994), 3o’, All translations from Hungarian to Englishare by the author, unless otherwise indicated.

6 Ibid.,

F It EEP2TI0ii ‘F IRS Hi .241

had by then [after 19’l] been Forgotten, md the majority of peopIe illegians

adjusted to life within the limits of the regime.

There is no doubt that the nékosz generation played a decisive role on Hun

gary’s intellectual scene during those decades ... it is especialls’ interesting

that wherever life took them to prison or to in academic institute thenékosz people felt they belonged together and would have common ground.The collective experience knitted them together for a lifetime.

Jn.titute oft/ic 1956 Revolution ofBudapeit, 2OJJ

Flie high profile of former NEKOSZ members in the run-up to the Uprising of1956 led to the renewed vilification of the college movement dtiring the reprisalsthat followed, despite the fact that the political position of former collegiansduring and after 1956 was far from unanimous. in the early 1970s, NI KOS/

finally allowed to become the subject of public debate, but, at the sametime, its legacy was sanitiaed, and the movement celebrated onls as a uniqueped Igogleal expurlilnetit Since 1989, efforts bs st tet ins of the iioscmcnt to isc

it its due and provide a more nuanced historical assessment have been largelfiustiatcd, Jodas. ii Ni kt t/ j ieiitiottcd i. ill, it is as th un din,ndcii of tL

Stalinist dictatorship.Osci Ilic decades, th politic.lllS claaigcd discoursc about th pcreci’. ed ui

real values and vices cIa youth movement and pedagogical experiment embodied in NfKOSt left the rich and unique experience of its participants largelyunexplored. Memoirs and document collections published beginning in 1969

confirmed the persistence of’ shared values and sense of communits’ among theformer collegians. What permeated the memoirs, froin the earliest writings tothe more outspoken recollections published around and after 1989, was the conviction that N EK( )SZ was not merely an important part of the post-war periodof new beginnings, a Hungarian version of the German Stunde Null, hut emblematic of it and representative of its best aspirations. It is nor difficult to detect in these writings the birth of the NI KOSL legend, fuelled b irs formermembers’ nostalgia for their youth and unfulfilled, youthful ideals.

— Istvan Papp. A Nekosi legend/ia es ‘.alósga”. in ignac Ronisi,.s. ed Mitoswk Iegeiu/ak.ter’Intek a 2o.szaaai/i inagvar tortenelemro/(Buda pest. zoos). ii8.

S No author, F uglish summary of ih N F KOs! legend”. dir. Eva Pataki. oii the wehsite of rh Institute of the ic6 Resolution. hrtp://wwxv res hu/portal/pageiportalJrcv!filrneklnekosi.. <.rceessed i September 2011>.

9 (yuia Sipos. .‘lkkor va/junk /iata/nk; frm/ekezés a (,rór kol/egistakia t”Xhemr We \X’ere‘hiring: Remembering the (yörffv Collegians) I Budapest. 1981) and Bela ‘lóth, j1i jann’—ca;ok tWe lanissaries Budapest. mq6), stand out among the earlier memoirs, with Thtlm’,title playing on tile accusamioil used by contemporary political rdvers,iries. Andras liegedims. Jijrte,ji’Ieui Cr Imta/am igezeteben (Enchanted Es F listors uad Power) I Budapest. m8S9

242 JUDITH IZAPOR

some point during Jdnos Kd&Ir’s political consolidation in the early 196os,

the expression “the generation of bright winds” entered common parlance. Itsoriginal connotation, designating Nf KOSZ collegians, was gradually diluted toinclude all young people who came of age in the post-war period and, eventuaIls, the entire time period came to be designated as the “era of bright winds”.’Yet, despite the popular use of the term “generation” in reference to NfKOSZ,no scholarly study has considered the movement from a purely generationalperspectise. The exception is the monumental, meandering sttidy of FerencPataki that combines over 500 pages of political and socio-psychological analysis with the deeply personal genre of the confessional — at once an account ofNf KOSZ’s history by one of its former leaders and a study by one of the leading Hungarian social scientists. It is in a league of its own and I will return toPataki’s arguments in my conclusion.”

This chapter will explore three distinct periods in the history and legacy ofNfKO1’, First, it will examine its brief existence between 1946 and 1949 withi focus on the etc itiOn, content and persistence of the N I KOS! ethos Next,it will consider the period leading up to and following the 1956 revolutionh ii ekn dld ih solidaliiZ of fot mci N C K( )S! nicinbci s only ,o dris

them into diametrically opposing political directions in the aftermath. Lastly,tIle chapici will look at Miklos jancsos film Bizght Wznd, its reception by thcollegians, and the period between 1968 and 1980. These years represented thehigh point of NEKOSZ’s afterlife, resulting in a publicly celebrated thirtiethanniversary a slew of publications, a sociological survey, and the taping of interviews with former collegians.

Each of these junctures in the history and afterlife of NEKOSZ tested thestrength of the collegians’ shared values and the resilience of their — imagined orreal — community in the face of such highly polarizing circumstances as theevents of 1956, the aftermath of the revolution, and the ‘consolidation’ of thelater Kádár years. These junctures also represented crucial turning points in thepost-war history of Hungary. [‘heir exploration from the perspective of theNC KOS7-cohort raises the question about the extent to which the experience

was published at the end of the period. Dini Metro-Roland’s oral history study focuseson the pedagogical merits of NEKOSZ but makes this point emphatically. Dini Metro-Roland, “Recollections of a Movement I he History and Memory of the National Organization of People’s Colleges”, in: hungarian Studies, Vol. 15. no. i (July aooi). 49-91.

10 “Hey winds, bright winds blow, blow; we will overturn the whole wide world tomorrow!” were the lines of the NEKOSZ anthem, written by l-erencJankovich in the styleof old Hungarian folk songs, suns to an old folk melody.

n Pataki, A Nekosz-iegenda (The NF KOSZ legend) (Budapest, 2005). A companion docuinentary film by the same title, directed by Fva Pataki (Budapest, 1956-os Intezet, 2005,

68 mm.) is based on intersiews with Ferenc Pataki and others.

THE GLHERAI N EP[CHT V. tJQs” 243

of the “generation of the bright winds” can be called as the comnionls usedexpression “the era of bright winds” would seem to suggest the representativeexperience of all young people of the period.

The answer to these questions is a qualified confirmation of the existence ofa genuine NgKOSL generational identity: of a generation that had all themarkings of becoming the greatest”. The Nb KOSL mission, to right the pervasive social inequalities of old—regime Hungary. and its experience with activistdemocracy did indeed embody the best hopes of the period. Overwhelmingevidence also ,eems to confirm the success of the pedagogical model ofNEKOSt: it imbued the voting collegians with a deep sense of common values,and sustained a distinct identity even during the highly duvisise det,ides thatfollowed Nf KOS1’s actual existence.

Yet, members of this generation were not allowed to represent this commonidentity in public life, with a possible exception during the 19”Os. Denied ofplaying a role as a group. former members of N f kOs/ had remattwd infotmalls on ne td h5 the shi.itd memot v of clici i enLiincls demnr lie 111(1

lutionjrv communities nd sallies. Did their cohesion, the eornnaonalitics of

soja] h.iekgrouitd. th t,rmatis c. deinen.u aui. expet iulcc. Ut the ohiegeand political democrac, rIte lost illusions dttring rise Sr.ilinist period, define

a gcntattoui Oi, eotusersely, did thi dilteicuices, ihicil d1 Ligetti political careers, degree of co—optation by the Stalinist regime, rheir support of, oropposition to, the reforms of Imre Nagv prove to be stronger? The divisionswithin the group were highlighted most dramatically during the 1956 uprisingwhen former collegians were found, quite literally, on opposite sides of thebarricades; but no less testing were their divisions during the rerributtons following 1956. The Kdár consolidation after t963 represented an undeniable miprovement over the preceding Stalinist dictatorship and, yet, it may have beenmore corrosive in its effect on the ideals that constituted the backbone of theSf KOS’/. ethos.

As for the success of the original agenda behind the people’s colleges, rhcreation of’ a new elite, many of the collegians rose to leading positions in political and cultural life during both the Stalinist and the Kádár periods butonly at the price of grave compromises and only as individLuals, nexer as representatives of their generation. Nf KOSZ may have been envisioned and designed to produce a thoroughly new, plebeian. and progressive Hungarian elite,btit was not allowed to become one. The Communist takeover, the Sralinistyears, the events of 1956, the retaliation in its aftermath, and, finally, rite K,idârdecades, all combined to create personal and political ruptures among irs members, eroded their sense of shared identity, and eradicated the vision of democratic socialism the’ had cherished.

244 JUDITH ZAPUR

A sober assessment of the NfKOSZ legend also brings into question the

notion that the roughly to,ooo collegians represented the typical experience of

young people in the transitional years between 1945 and 1949. Former members

of competing student organizations would beg to differ: their institutions were

ruthlessly eliminated or taken over with the help of collegians who were mobi

lized as the vanguard of the Communist Parry preparing for hegemonic rule.

NEKOSZ members were instrumental in the calnpaigns against civic organiza

tions deemed clerico-fascist or reactionary, which was defined as any organization

associated with churches during the post-war Ku/turkarnpf Thv svent further,

though, and did not spare such progressive left-wing student organizations a.s the

youth organization nt the National Peasant Party, the Communist Party’s partner

in the ruling left coalition, or the venerable, progressive Edtvds College.’

The History of Gydrify and NEKOSZ

I IJ( tu5t peupic .olicgc ss as5i,iblilìd In i U.) tinder th rtltel.ipe (t /010/. 1

right—wing nationalist student organization. lhc inspiration for the mission and

piogram ol Bolyai College came from the ctlinoglapllcr lstvan Csoiff and the

interwar period’s populist writers.t3The project also enjoyed the support of con

servative prime niinisicr and geographer Count Pal iclcki, who sass it as insll ii

mental for transfusing the ossified Hungarian elite wirh Fresh blood. The first

collegians were selected from mostly smallholding peasant stock. In 1942, Bólyai

College, renamed Györffi,r after its first mentor, shed its association with Turul,

established its financial independence with the help of private benefactors, and

under the guidance of its 23-year-old-principal, LSszló Kardos, developed what

he would later term “the pedagogy of real life”. The GydrfR’ model had a highly

mixed lineage: it traced its roots to the centuries-old, stubbornly independent

tradition of Hungarian Calvinist colleges, but was also modelled on the École

IVormale Supérieure and its Hungarian counterpart, Eötvös College, a hotbed of

the Francophile elite, attached to the Faculty of Arts of Budapest University.

12 1 cc Congdon. “Possessed: lmre I akatos’ Road to 1956, in: (.onte;nporarv European His-

tort, vol. 6. no. 3 Nov 1997), 279-294, especially 284-28’. Congdon provides a vividdescription of the liquidation of EötvUs College, spearheaded by Lakatos. In his juxtaposition of Eotvos and Gy6rffy/NEKOSZ, the latter group clearly comes across as thefoot soldier of Communist policy. See also the interview with Sándor Fekete, Institute

of Political History Archives (PITA), Budapest, fond 302/3/12.

ii Populist is used here in the sense of the intcrwar literary and ethnography movement of

so—called populist svrirers who exposed the appalling living conditions of the poor peas—

,lntrv and advocated democratic land reform. For the pre-1941 history of GvôrfG’ Col

lege, see Papp Istuin, A nepi kollegiurni rnozga/om története 1944-ig (Budapest, 2008) and

Pataki, A Nekosz-legenda, eh ,113-12.

THE GENER000N OF ‘BR 0 0 vVD ‘ 245

L’nlikc these predcces.ors, Kardos’s viSIon placed a ness emphasis onnal lifestyle. Collegians shared their sparse resources — parcels from home, books.occasionally even their Sunday best and, above all, contributed to the creationof a community. In addition to their individual studies. collegians were to partake in the mandatory colleie curriculum ranging from political philosophx toliterature, which was designed to hone their commitment to social and, mostimportantly, agrarian reform, Their personal betterment through education andpolitical engagement was designed to prepare them for futrtre public service,while their dcdicauon to hungarian folklore Was tO ensure that they took continuing pride iii their social background. The college’s legendary, ‘,vceklv sing-along and folk dance sessions ssele made more authentic by the tact that participants ss crc the sons of the very people th etlinograplteis set our to stiid.

Following their break with Turul, the collegians shifted theu allegiance to theleft and by the time Htingaty entered the Second World \Xar on the Axis side,a small bitt vocal group of cullegians had become invol’s cd in th lieLal (urninhimsi Pirts, ‘I lies psrtisipated in ,inti-ss,ir psihlie dernsjnsr s’i’ns 1,ok .iparm’, in the underground anti-Fascist mo’s ement, In 5vlarch 1944. folIos’s ing theCci man occupation of 1 lungat, the College ‘a as shuttered, but the closurelasted only until the first days f’ollow ing the liberation of Bridape.s. In l’ehruar’s1945, Kaidos and others re—opened it in a treshly tepossessed building.’

In the summer of t’4. Gvôrffv collegians spearheaded the land distribution.one of the first decrees of the new coalition government, often acting as ministerial emissaries, It was a task for which, coming from smallholdet of landlessagrarian stock, the’ were singularly qualified. Gvdrffv’s reconvened membersalso sent out letters recru ring candidates for the first summer camp of admissions. A three-day conference of old collegians, attended by almost the fullspectrum of political leadership in June 1945, demonstrated politicians’ awareness of Gyôrffy’s potential. The summer camp of admissions in August resultedin the acceptalice of ‘2 new collegians, including, for the first time, to oungwomen; a quarrer of the new recruits would be “screened out” during the firstsemester,’’ During the first year of the new Györffy, Kardos and his colleaguesre-formulated the principles, governance, and practical f’unctioning of theirgreat experiment that took place in the context of a currency inflation of historical proportions, two elecrions, interisifr’tng parts’ and coalition struggles.

14 1 he widow ott ,is,lo Kardos relates the story of her list date with ho husband at a catswhere Kardos examined her on the extent of her repertoire of Hungarian folk songsMaria Pogany, A ‘fenyes czelekjennehen o drnyekahzin; Aardo Jasz/o IchIS-1980 Jn thelight and ‘h.irlou aft/v “hug/v a’zn,/’ Krri/ij Lee/n 1118- ia8ns TBud.ipesr t’jçi, lit.

is Pataki, A .\kas,’-/egenda. “4-r’H.

n(’ [hid,, :nu-:oi

246 JUDITH SZAPOR

and the everyday problems of ‘upply ing a modicum of food and clothing tocollegians. Preceded by the spontaneous founding of a handful of other col

leges and followed by the opening of 45 new colleges, in July 1946 Kardos and

his fellow Gydrffy collegians, with the blessing of the political leaders of thegoverning coalition, officially launched Nf KOSZ, a countrywide movement ofpeople’s colleges.

Nf KOSL may have represented the logical conclusion of the pre-war project, but it was realized against the complex backdrop of ongoing political andsocial transformation, Even if it ended in a Stalinist dictatorship, this transformation, especially during the 1945-1947 period, had elements of a genuinelydemocratic process of political and social mobilization. This radical mobilization coincided with, and also drove, the formation of people’s colleges, lendingNI KOSL its uniqueness in Central and Eastern Europe.’ Part of this democratization process was the opening of Hungary’s universities and high schools tostudents from previously vastly underrepresented social strata. As before, theHess collegians were iecrtnted from i pool of talented students from tinderptivileged backgrounds with the aim of helping them gain access to, and success-

Lilly complete, university education. Ihe original, refot mist agenda of Gy orff

the transfusion of the Hungarian elite with fresh blood, as it were, was rearticulaicd in a revolutionary key. I here can be no doubt that the long-IcIm objectiseof the NEKOSZ project, enthusiastically supported from the start by the Hungarian Communist Party, went beyond the reformist rectification of a historicalwrong and aimed at the creation of a new elite that would owe loyalty to thenew regime.

During the next three years, the network of people’s colleges grew at a spectacular rate, from the initial one, Gyhrffy, with its projected 100 members to 45colleges by September 1946 and by 1949, the movement’s final year, 210 collegeswith an estimated 9,500 members.’8Gyhrffy collegians effectively became thevanguard of the movement, using their experience and authority to shape thenew colleges in their own image. Admissions to the colleges continued to takeplace in weeklong summer camps, led by current or former Gyhrffy collegians,testing the applicants’ political and personal suitability by carefully designedquestionnaires and activities.’

This continuity between the pre-war college and Nf KOSZ was further highlighted by the person of Kardos, who remained the principal of Gyhrffy and

i Ibid. 229-230 and Ivan ‘L Berend, (Jentral and Eastern Purope 1944-1993: Detourfrom thePeriphery to the Perzahery (Cambridge, UK, 1996), 16-17.

t8 Pataki, A Nekosz-legcnda, 281-282,

19 Documents of the summer camps, preserved in the personal papers of Kardos, testify tothe sincerity and thoroughness of the process. P I’JA, fond 301/1, 31 35.

H E PaNt ii P!HT ,,ao,” 24

later served as general secretary of NE KOSZ. 1 he directors of N K/ Antal

Gvenes and Ferenc Pataki, were both members of Gydrffy, the former from thepre-war cohort. Similar continuits was observed by the introduction of the

pedagogical model, tested by the pre-war Gy6rffy in each or th colleges. Set.despite the direct political mission of NI- KOSL, the creation of a new elite, it

would be a gross simplification to characterize the movement as merely the

youth brigade of the Communist takeover. for all the marked political and

ideological differences between Hungary under Miklds Horthv and the imme

diate post ssar years, not to mention the difference in scale betsseen Corf[v

and Nf KOSZ, the autonomy of the college movement and the internal democracy of the colleges remained the fundamental organizing principle. The tenetsof’ the Gyorffy model, designed to provide the collegians with not only an education but also an ethos of civic engagement, were to be applied to each andevery college. While these principles were at times sacrificed to the tendency ofthe(3yorfy leaderslnp to intervene in the internal conflicts of the individualcolleges, tile models inheteni sri engrh ‘a as still icient to uai antec high ics

of autonomy and pros ide the collegians with the experience, md lasting memot y, of pat icipaiui y de moerict.

In its ideal form, the model of NF KOS! pedagogy combined leftist politicalactis urn disti hons the Lornulunism icpicscntcd by the Pai tt it is t outliful idealism and strong ties to the progressive, pre-war detnocratic-nationalisttradition — with the broader project of creating a new, plebeian, merit-basedelite. “ This was, in a nutshell, the program that drove the great extension of thepeople’s colleges and was ideally’ suited to Larry out a long overdue program oh

social mobility. Incidentally’, it also perfectly’ fit the political objectives of theCommunist Party. It is hardly a surprise that, despite rhc collegians’ Jose ties to,and natural home in, the National Peasant Parry, by’ t94’ the Communist Parryhad become the most enthusiastic patron of NEKOSL and the charismaticMinister of the Interior, l,szló Rajk, its mentor.

The degree of its communist engagement— or, less charitably put, the degreeto which it was co-opted by the Communist Party has been a point of contention in the historical assessments of NbKOSZ. While there can be no doubt of

:o iindor 1—ekete. later a member of mm Nagy’s citrIc articulated this sensI ot mission:

“It was part of this education that we belonged to rh u’untrvs leading cohort and werepredestined to continue the work begun by our great, noble ancestors. P1 IA. fond02/Ii2. 26.

21 Purged of its nationalist members, the National Peasant Parts first became a nwmher of

the I .eft—\5.ing l3lor coalition, then an obedient junior partner durimmg the C omnnmunisrrakeoser. Ralk mad a special relationship ith the col1eians, and h,id been a illuntor andsopporte r ot tile peoples colleges from the first da)s.

248 JUD TH SZAPOR

the overwhelmingly communist loyalties of the collegians, it is important tonote that it was a loyalty shared with a large segment of young Hungarians. Itwas arrived at not by command but the logic of their lived experience, theirossn, seemingly unlimited, potential, and the promise of a communist-led, butdemocratic, Hungary. The communist leanings of a large number of collegianscreated an uneas’ fit with their colleges’ carefully guarded internal autonomy, abalance increasingly difficult to maintain after the spring of 194’. For if theperiod of transitional years can be described as a genuine political and socialrevolution in the framework of a democratic political system, from early I947

on political democracy increasingly became a charade, a prelude to themunist takeover.

In intersiews taped in 1970, some of most clear-sighted former collegiansGibor Tánczos, Tibor Liska, Sindor Fekete pointed out the almost imperceptible (to contemporaries transition from collegial autonomy to Stalinist hegemony. They articulated the inherent paradox between the ideals of N f KOS!

md the iou the collci ins were made to plas it once s ictims and pcrpetratorsof manipulation on a predetermined path to Stalinist hegemony, at oncc puppcts and puppet masteis. ‘set, then. can bc no doubt about tic success of theGyorffy model of “revolutionary pedagogy” whose life-altering, transformationaleileen vn.rc confirmed in all the pelsonal accounts. And, if needed, scholailylegitimization of its success was granted by Ferenc Mérei, the eminent Marxistpsychoanalyst, in his collective Experience, a study based on Mérci’s survey of thecollegians whom he declared to be an example of the ideal community23

The high point of NEKOSZ was March 15, 1948, the centennial celebrationof the 1848 Hungarian revolution. The Communist Party, in its quest for a suitably progressive historical lineage, presented the collegians as the reincarnationof the youthful revolutionaries of 1848, and decorated Kardos with the Republic’s newly established, highest award, the Kossuth Prize, for his leadership ofGydrffy College and NEKOSZ. At the same time, the internal autonomy,popular front tradition, and, above all, the rich and liberating internal life of thecolleges made the communist leaders highly suspicious of the college movement. Here was the source of another paradox: touted as the heirs of 1848 andthe future, plebeian, progressive elite, collegians were much too independentand democratic for the Party’s liking. In the words of Tinczos, “NEKOSZ wascondemned not because of its failings but because of its best qualities”.4

22 “. we see only in retrospect the masterful manipulation, the pulling of marionettestrings.” Interview with Gábor Fánczos, PTIA, fond 312/3/50, 8.

23 berenc Merei, Az egyiittes élmeny (Collective Ixpericnce), (Budapest,24 Intersiew with 1inezos, P’IIA, fond 203/3/50, 5. An identical point was made by libor

I iska, intersiew, P1 IA, fond 203/3/31, 40.

HE GENERAl CII ,,E “ BR ,,ll A [NE) 249

A week after the anniversary celebrations leaders of N f KOS/ were summoned to a meeting with the communist brass to discuss their ideological errors, including their sectarianism, nationalism, narodnkism, peasant romanticism, anti-ssorking class and anti-party tendencies, and the like, Thus began themosement’s final year, amounting to no more than prolonged agony. Repeatedattacks from Communist Party officials and bodies included a Central Committee directt’.e in September that accused NI- KOS! of all the above and ordered the subordination of forthcoming college party organizations to localparty branches.

The ritual self—criticism of N F K( )St leaders, by then an accepted part ofpublic life, along with their voluntary disbanding ofGvörfC in March 1948 andthe sacrificial removal of Kardos, the uncontested leader of the movement, failedto appease the wrath of the party leadcrship,26 In September. barely a lessmonths after his public celebration, Kardos was fired as the general secretary ofN I K( )S/ and subjected to a Party disciplinary hearing: he was also stripped ofhis e,tr .1’ .1 tctnhct H pit ltamenr,r \\ ltil t)Ot)1)fl.tllt tltc pcople collcgCsssotild cist for another year, Ni KOS7 was nationaliied and plavcd tinder directPait ittttrol. In the conting mouths ilic colleges autonuttly 55 a’, drasttcails curtailed anti in the summer of 1949 the colleges were ofliciallv reorganized as ordi—nai siudeill tcsidcitccs. All these itios es Were xuicd ssi iii the co-opel ationof leading Gyôrffy collegians; in orher words, the collegians were madeplicit in their own movement’s demise. “NIKOSZ was the victim of the verysame manipulative process in which itself participated”, commented T’4nczos!5

The inevitable end of the people’s colleges mirrored the changes in Htmgarian political life at large: the transformation of a genuine if limited — democracy through General Secretary Mthvs Rikosi’s infamous “salami tactics” ofslicing tip the political opposition, to rite merger of the remaining left—wing patties with the Communist Parry’, to one-party rule, to the first sure sign of Stalin—ist dictatorship, the show trial of I iszló Rajk that opened in September 1949.

a I ime relevant documents of the Communist Party, hy then the I lungarian Workers’Part). are published in I 3szh) Sved (ed), Megforgatott vi1agmegforgaeok; A mavar nepikollegiumi rnozgalom ismeretlen dokumentwnai (Budapest. 1994), 242 2)5.

26 Kardos, at this point still the principal of Gyôrffy, might have tried to pre—empt the attacks by declaring Gyorffy’s mandate fulfilled and the college dispersed. A new academy,under the direct control of the Party, was to take oser Gyôrfb,’s role. Fhe transcript ofhis speech at the last GA if Gvorffy is in Ibid., 59-6;.After careful deliberation. th (entral (omumittce decided nut to expel Kardos hut gavehim a serious warning. [)ocumcnts in Ibid.. 244—246.

28 ‘l’he (locuitiunts of this transformation are published in Svéd (ed). Slegtoigatorr. 242—

305.

29 Intervie’a will) (,abor I aiios. P ii, fond 20G/5O. 8.

250JUDITH SZAPOR

The arrest of Rajk, NIKOSZ’s chief Communist mentor, in May 1949 omi

nouslY coincided with the nationalization of N f KO Si. and when the trial

opened. with the colleges implicated in the charges against Rajk. their fare had

already been sealed.

The Afterhfe of NEKOSZ. 1949-1969

Victims of tile show trials, including Rajk, ss crc fully rehabilitated in the years

Following Stalins death; and in the months leading up to the October 1956 Up

rising, the Party partially lifted the anathema on NFK(3S!: By then many

Cvôrffv collegians had already joined the reformist Communist circle forming

around irnre Nagy between 1953 and 1956. Collegians also played a prominent

role in the Petdfi Circle, organized by the former Gvdrffy collegian Gdbor

T.inczos within the Union of Working uth. The unscripted, tremendously

\SelI ole ndccl public debates of the Petofi (ire Ic. organi7ed henecen Match and

October of 1956, touched on the most burning issuCs of tile post Stalinist re

form period md plived an important role in preparing the ground for the 19c6

Uprising. Pataki cites a significant statistic that speaks for itself: 14 out of the 20

OigalliLcls of tlc Pct/SFi debates ssere former collegians”

Collegians were also heavily represented in the trials and heavy sentences

meted out in the reprisals following 1956)2 The truth, however, is that they

were amply represented on both sides. There is no better illustration of this am

biguity than the respective life paths of Andrds flegedils and Cabot Tdnczos.

Both prominent Gydrffy members (although Hegedhs of older, pre-war vin

tage), they were both seduced by political activism. Hegedüs became the last

Stalinist prime minister before the 1956 Uprising on a frequently shown news

reel he is seen holding up a freshly signed copy of the Warsaw Pact in the Hun

garian parliament. Tánczos, in contrast, became a member of the reformist

group forming around Nagy and was the secretary of the Ptofi Circle in 1956:

he received his reward, a 4-year jail term, in the aftermath of the revolution. It

is no small irony — and a strong argument for a prevailing Nf’KOS7. ethos —

that by the lcros both had joined the democratic opposition. Hegedus atoned

30 Ssed (cdi, Megfargaeott, 3’o. 380. 384. 389-340.

3’ An overview of the role played by the Perôfi Circle is gisell in Charles Gati. Faded f/lu

non’: Jt’lesrow, U1ohingeon, f3udapect. and the r96J-lungarian Revolt (Washington. D.C.,

2006). 131—135. Note that Can’s point about the preponderance of Jews in the Nagy circle.

if accepted. would cancel our thc argument about the dominant role of the collegians

among the reform Communists.: Proposal of the Ministry of the interior, Section 11/8 for groups of counter revolution

aries to he tried. to Augun 193 in .lefo,gatott. ed. Sved. 43D-44o.

THE GENERATIC N OF “BRIGHT WINO” 25J

for his Stalinist past as the reform-minded director of the Institute of Sociology,supporting pathbrcaking social research and publicly opposing the invasion ofCzechoslovakia in 1968. Tánczos, one of the most talented, natural-born politicians of his generation, never recovered from the broken illusions of his youth.Unable to make the compromises necessary for life in the KSdIr period, he

ended his ossn life in 1979.

The Kddár regime entered the years of so-called consolidation ssith allpolitical prisoners of 1956 amnestied by 1963 —yet Nf KOSZ ssas still not mentioned publicly until 1968. Made in that momentous year, its final scenes shotas the tanks of the ‘Xtarsaw Pact rolled into Czechoslovakia, the film BrightWinda by Miklós Jancso (himself a former collegian) premiered early 1969 andsparked unprecedented public debate.3t Shown in the West as confrontation,

the film was set in mid-1947. Inspired by Jancsd’s ossn experience as a collegianduring the Stalinist terror, the plot focused on the collegians’ takeover of aCatholic high school md highlighted their complicity in ending pluralistic de—moLt mes

Both the film and the subsequent debate need to be located within the constantly shti ting bound,u ics of the cultul ,ml lihcralization’ durtnf, Ilic Kadat cia.

The decision to allow the premiere of the film in the highly sensitive post-1968pciiod may hasc been giantcd by the authotitics as a way to ptovidc a safetyvalve”, to let out steam. Permission to make the film was also granted as a resultof relentless lobbying by the head of one of the state-run film studios, PeterBacsó, himself a former collegian and director of the brilliant satire Witness,3

Jancsó’s exalted stature in the West granted him special status in Hungary, and,after all, his interpretation that presented the “generation of bright winds” as amisguided and manipulated group, a Red Guard of sorts, may have pleased themore conservative members of the Kddár regime. Predictably, former collegianswere not pleased with Jancsó’s interpretation. Few of them recognized, despitethe directors insistence, that NgKOSL was not, or not the only, subject of thefilm. Rather, it fit into Jancsó’s oeuvre, probing abstract questions of politicalpower, revolution, and the way these forces turn people into victims and perpetrators.

33 Gyotgy Litván, lanezos Gábor hiánya”, in: idnczos Gdbor ern/ekkonyv, ed. Maria Ember and András B. Hegedtis (Budapest, 1997). 294. The high number of suicides amongthe collegians would merit a study on its own.

3 See Pataki, 48-7-488. A good selection of thc related press is accessible at http:Ilwww.jancso.film.hu/object. 6f7df3oi-8cbz-4a7c btor-3e2afdlbaict.ivy, <accessed on 5 September zolt>.“The film was made here, in studio no. of which I’m the director and I was the onewho fought for it “ Interview with Peter Bacsó. P1 IA, fond 302/3/1, —6.

252 JUDITH SLAPOR

The debacle around the film demonstrated the deep reach of formerNfKOS/ members in the Hungarian cultural elite but also the depth of frustration held by former collegians and the unfinished, undigested business of therecent past. The debate’s complexity was aggravated by the fact that its participants argued on multiple levels: about the way the film represented Nb KOSt,

about the way it presented the distortions of posser, or both.’6 In the end, thefilm’s public debate produced mixed results. It may have helped to restore thepositive, democratic legacy of the “generation of bright ‘ainds” and re-establisha sense of community among former collegians by highlighting their achiese—ments, particularly in the arts. Yet it also reinforced the self-serving, nostalgicelements in the myth of NbKOS! by claiming its participants’ political innocence or yictimhood.

The High Point of NEKOSTs Afterlife 1970 1980

StiJJ nncxpc ted out btnst ol public Interest could not be casils extinguished;the debate around the I ilm was undoubtedly manipulated but also widely re—pot ted in the pi ets K,udos, )ncc again d inonn ating his politic ii genius didnot miss a beat. he embarked on a campaign focussing on the powerful culturalse..rctary ol the Rut> C> Orgy Aciél, ‘a hich tesulted in i number ot publicationsand the establishment of significant document collections. In 1970-1971 an adhoc committee of former collegians and historians conducted a large survey andcollected 905 interviews, subsequently transcribed and placed in the Archives ofthe Institute for Party History.8At the same time, a collection of documents,donated by former collegians, was deposited in the aichives. In 1974 FerencPataki edited and published a documentary collection, The Pedagogy ofReal Ltfr:Community Lducation in the People’s f’olleges.4° The crowning achievement ofKardos’s campaign was a monumental, two-volume edition of documents andpreviously published studies. Its publication, first issued in a “closed” edition,distributed in 500 copies to a select few in 1978 (reprinted in a limited editionin 1980), was the result of Kardos’s protracted negotiations with Aczél.’ Finally,in 1977 a “short version” of this documentary collection was published and

36 Pataki. A Nekosz-/egenda, 48-’

37 Ibid., 487-488.38 It is held in the same building, today housing the Institute of Political History Archive,

in fond 302/3.

9 P ilA, fond 302/I.

o A vaiosagpedagogiaja, ed, Ferenc Pataki (Budapest, 1974).

41 A fenye.c szelek nernzedeke, Nepi kol/egiurnok 1939 1949, ed, I 3silO Kardos (Budapest,1978), reprinted in 1980), vol. 1-2 For the negotiations, down to the number of glossyillustrations (in the event, 226) set Pogany. A fenyn sze/ek, 85,

THE OENERAHON OF “BRuNT fuNDS” 253

made accessible to the general public. The friendship of rite two men hadoriginated in the canT’ 19405 when both were members of the illegal Communist Party, and Aczél’s support of the NhK()St publication projects provedcrucial. Beiond his personal sympathies to Kardos and NEKOSZ, it reflectedthe attempt of the Kiduir regime to extend its intellectual base:’ The t9

time turned out to be Kardos’s last achievement: he died in 1980 at the age of6z, providing a tragic bookend to a decade that became, in Pataki’s words, thehigh point of Nf KOSL’s afterlife. It is in the introductory essay to the two—olume collection that Kardos made the strongest claim to be acknowledged

as a generation:

The reader of this solume holds in his hands the confessional of a generation, the confessional of the generation of the bright winds, I lere are thecontemporary oral and written testimonies reflecting on th history, life sW

ries, education, work, battles, and historical and social achievements of themost characteristic, Soung generation of the er of bright winds

Kardos emphasized the colleges’ internal autonomy, their significance as a ped—aoogkal expel iincn to create a cletuoc atic cotumu ill ix, and, in an attempt

to clear N f KOS! of the stigma of its association with the Communist Party,liiglllili[ed their 1,iS5fU0tS utigilts and potential fr the eicauoi: 0f a tics.

merit-based elite. Yet, even he could not claim this potential was ftilfilled, andconcluded with the wistful question: “How far would have this and a futuregeneration of people’s collegians gone, were the walls of the colleges not destroyed around them?”’

The camaraderie of the t976 anniversary celebrations represented a rare highpoint and the hope that the previous cleavages, berween those on opposite sidesof the barricade in 1956, between the successes and failures of the Kiduir era,could be mended. The anniversary celebrations were attended by high-rankingofficials, and included a symposium at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences andan exhibition at the Hungarian National Gallery. The reunion was to be the lastsuch public event. No more official celebrations took place. perhaps becausewith Kardos’ death, NEKOSZ’s soul was gone or perhaps because the formercollegians were approaching retirement. Most likely, they may have been content with this official, sanitized, and mythologized version ofNf KOSZ’s legacyand were reluctant to open a painful re-investigation of the past.

42.ej, a mi lobogonkatfenyec szelek fi3j/rlk Ne’pi kollegiumok 1939-1949. ed. I Kardos (Budapest. 197”).

41 Pataki. A Nekosz legenda, 489.44 Afi9ite sze/tk nemeedeke, rd. Kdrdos ti.

4S Ibid.. ci.

254 JUDITH ,LAF-et’

A full post mortem of the moscment could not be carried out until 1989, but

in the post-Communist period the inevitable re-assessment of Hungary’s recent

history swung wildly to the right and in the public view the legacy of N EKt)SL

became tainted once more, this time because of its Communist associations,’

The last word on the painful re-assessment of NEKOsL belong.s to Ferenc Pa

raki’s book, F/k’ JVéLO3Z Legend. Pataki. a prominent social psychologist and

former Cvôrffs’ member, ssas also head of the committee that executed the self-

immolation of NE KOS/ ordered by the Parry leadership tn 1949. Part historical

account, part political study, part psychological analysis, Pataki’s book is scath

inglv honest and insightful on all these counts. Most of all, it is a deeply per

sonal account, driven by the need to come to terms with his own past role. In

what is sirrually the only’ reference to a generational s iew in his book, Pataki

cites the address of Gvula lllyés, the poet laureate of the late KAdar period, at

the 196 anniversary celebrations. Illvés titled his address “From Generation to

(;ertr,ttiod, and. comparing Ni KOS! to previous Flungarian literary and In

tellcctu,tl generatIons. onludcd tlt it the soun people guhcm1nE’ undm the Itie

of the people’s colleges Giled to leave a mark as a generation.

A —‘ r n Den d

I know that, obecrively’, we made mistakes, we alienated a lot of decent

people with our radicalism, but we have to say’ that these were the years rltat

had given me the experience of community, a very good collective identity,

the sense that I belong to a group of people who create wonderful things,

who want to become the most honest. most principled people in the Hun

garian artistic life.Peter Baesó j7

had NfKOSZ been allowed to continue to exist, there would be fewer

people with broken spines in this 4o-iSh generation ...The work ofNf KOSL

was akin to a magniFying glass, ofall the historical potential and energy’ liber

ated by 1945, liberated from Hungarian society and especially of its deeper

segments.Läszld B, iVagylb

46 lstv,in Papp. “A Nekosz legend,ij,i es vaIOsiga”, in: IIIlto,zok, /evndak, ed, Romsies. 311—

5 t.“ Inter’, iess v ith Peter Bacsó, P FL’\, fond 203/3/1,

8 Interview with 1 asrló B. Nagy, P[IA, fond 203/3/37, 34.

THE GENERAHON OF “BR OHT 55 NOB” 255

That is a fairly complex thing, this NIKOSZ ethos ... When the NEKOSLceased to exist and they brought down the decree against NEKOSZ, that didnot mean the end of our Nf KOSZ identitys

Tibor Liika is

In detail and insight, Pataki’s book will be difficuh to surpass and yet, as the lastwitnesses and participants disappear from the scene, a younger cohort of historians will have to take up the challenge. If they will engage with the topic, theywill base to consider two classics of Hungarian historiography, both dealingwith earlier political generations. In 1920, Gyula Szekf’si, the interwar period’sleading historian, published his Three Generations, a swecping attempt to cometo terms stith the disaster ofTrianon.° His exaltation of the 1848 and 1867 reform generations gentry in origin, European in outlook, but always moderate

was contrasted with the decadence and radicalism of the revolutionary poetryof Endre Ads’. The poet, gentry by origin, md his urban, mostly Jewish, radicalallies, were responsible in thE emcrgJng. right wing discourse for usheringin the Bolshevik levolunon, in tutu leading to I lungary’s humiliation at [rianon.Szekfii helped cement the reputation of the 1918—1919 revolutions as ilien tomainstream Hungarian politiLal development. He legitimized Horthy’s counicr rcs olutionars 4overnment is a return to genuinely Iltingirian sallies md hisstudy became the foundational, and bestselling, book of the interwar period.

Published in 1961. Zoltán Horviith’s Hungarian Fin tie Siècle: The Histoiy ofthe Second Reform Generation (1896-1914) was the first comprehensive study ofthe Hungarian modernist political, intellectual, and artistic movements.5’Horvdth wrote the book in part as a polemic against Szekfi’i’s influential study, torestore the reputation of the third generation in Szekfi’i’s model. The achievements of modernist artists and writers, democratic socialists, and liberal socialscientists of the Hungarian fin de siècle were to be re-discovered in the 197osand 19805 and held up by the emerging opposition as a model for a democraticI lungary. Mary Gluck’s Georg I ukdcs and his Generation, 1900-1918 representeda valuable addition to these efforts by an American scholar, introducing theEnglish-speaking readership to a brilliant group, one of the streams within ademocratic countercnlture.

49 Interview with ilbor I iska, 203/3/31, 23.

o Gyula Szekf(i, Hi/ram nemzede’k (Budapest, 1920). Frianon was the peace treaty signedfollowing the First World War that signified the end of Greater Hungary.

51 Horvãth Zoltán, Magar izazadfordu/o: A ma’sodik reformnemzedék törtenete (1896-1914.)

(Budapest, 1961).52 Mary Gluck, Georg lukacs and His Generation (Cambridge, 1985)

26 JUDITH S2,Fp

Despite their obvious differences, common to all these studies was theiridentification of a generation of political and intellectual elite with distinct cohorts. These previous elites had either come from privilege (of birth and tide,ssealth and educationt, or their rise to the elite, as in the case of Lukics and hisSunday Circle, was made possible by the eras liberalism and Jexs isli assimilation. This also explains the limited influence and fate — exile or inner exile ofthe Siinda Circle after i9i9. ( )n this point. th comparison with \kKOSLseems apt, whose rise and fall was similark grounded in, and limited b, broaderpolitical changes.

If Cydrffy College ssas a small cohort and played the role of a vanguard,Nf Kt)SL, the movement, had a11 the markings of a generation. In the traditionof previotis intellectual generations in European history, members of Nf KOS/had come of age during or immediately following ‘‘WlI.” Moreover, the collegians were destined to become the new elite as most of them came from theprevioislv underrepresented but majority segment of the population. th peas—itltri. 1 li idni5ott ptOLcss pliitls tat not mci clv th best and brightest, but also the politically and socialls most engaged young men and womenof [lie COIJOI t lti .idditio to thcii common sociO economic b.ickgiound, thecollegians were all shaped by their singularly intense experience, reinforced by

ii ntis and corn in unji us ing. flicy also eiig.iged fl rite heightened political activism nf the period, taking part in the anti—religious and land distribution campaigns, among others. As a result, they acqtured the NEKOSZ ethos, a headycombination of revolutionary radicalism, an engagement with the ideals ofegalitarian socialism, the experience of revolutionary activism, and loyalty tothe internal, democratic values of their college community.

Further studies will be needed to define the content of the NEKOSZ ethos,54Personal recollections, examples of which svere cited at the beginning of thisconclusion, all point to this ethos’ strength and its ability to transcend the spectrum of political and life choices undertaken in the decades that followed theshort existence of NfKOSL. A strong argument svas articulated by Pataki aswell, who, after describing the extreme polarization of former collegians in thewake of 5956, insisted: “Despite the marked differentiation ... the connectiveforce of the element of the people’s collegians identity remained unchanged; it

st Robert \cohl, i/v (,eornitu?,l 0/1914 iCambridge. MA. 19Q) and Marri shore. (aziarand tither: A tC,raw (,eneratth,ii life and Death in lilarxisin, 1918-1968 (New Haven.Conu.. zoo6l are two notable examples of generational histories that use ‘“iPI and\\‘cl I a’ markers of European intelleerual generations.

)ne possible avenue would be the exploration of the dominant intelle. tnt] inthiences

on die collegians, well documented in the admissions

THE OENER1IOI1 OF “HR OH 0 NDS” 257

had been and perhaps it is to this day — able to bridge the personal tensionsborn of disparate life paths and at times fundamental differences of opinion”0

No one is more qualified than Pataki to pronounce final judgment: as victim, perpetrator, defence lawyer, judge, and as a socio-psvchologist expertwitness, all rolled into one. Yet, he is a witness with vested interests and his insistence on the cohesion of NfKOS/ identity may be coloured by a nostalgicreading of history and b his share in the mm ement’s untimely death. Perhapseven more pronounced. boss ever, is his regret over missing a unique historicalopportunit\. \s Pataki coneludcs, “ Ratc is the generation in history that is givensuch entrance But we have just follossed in detail where and through whatii inerarv the path of this generation, destined for greatness. ended”.°

Dcspire these lingering questions. there can be no doubt that NfKOS/ represented a unique case in the post-war transformation of East Central Europe.It was an autonomous pedagogical experiment, designed to create a new, merit-based and polincallv and personally invested new elite The collegians’ tmpeccahlr soda h icfgrotmd sod coot too lost ld,1t5ins sr c md s hr ( c nmitnist Parr. offering all the prerequisites for the making of a ness elite. ‘tet.girds colt of os c pohis Jttoges. tic ‘togosiJs -Sos ic baL, h hgissning of Stalinization of Hungarian political life, and partly due to Ilungar—tan as n lcadrs mIsti List f this gennincis dcnsor.itn 0ho 0 1 kt )St SSas

quashed before its mission could be fulfilled.In subsequent decades, the generation of “bright winds” was denied its birth

right to become the ness elite. Their personal achievements, of which there weremany, would be divorced from their collectively held ethos, while every newtwist of Hungary’s recent history would confront them with acute political andpersonal dilemmas. \Vhile the collegians were not allowed to publicly definethemselves as a generation. they still maintained their sense of community,overcame seemingly insurmountable political divisions, and, during the 1976

celebrations, briefly came together to reclaim Else values and illusions of theiryouth. In todays Hungary where these values of democratic socialism seemmore obsolete than ever before, \fKOSZ is a decidedly unfashionable subject,and continues to represent an uncomfortable legacy.

cs Pataki. A .‘vkocz-Igeiida, 4tti56 I/nd, cci