The Political Turn and the Elite of Agricultural Science (Autumn 1946-1948)

N. Szabó, József

Keywords: university reform, transformation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, habilitations, professor appointments, R5, R50

Out of several elite groups, the agricultural scientists’ elite was affected least by the political turn of 1945-1946. In times of punishment lists and background checks, interventions into this very elite group were the slightest ones.
A radical political change was brought about by the Hungarian Communist Party (HCP), striving for supremacy. In 1948, the HCP drafted a comprehensive university reform, including the most well-crafted among them, the re-organisation plan of agricultural education. Due to the demand of a new personnel in the beginning socialist agriculture and its planned collectivization, the Communists needed a radical change of the agricultural education. However, a great deal of requirements was missing, especially, the personnel of academics and lecturers was hard to set up. Since requirements for personnel were not given, the political stipulations regarding academics and lecturers were omitted from the concept. An attempt was made to remove old professors who came under professional criticism. This was one of the most severe mistakes of the reform.

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