Disciplinary Changes in Science Education in Hungary in the Era of the Stalinist Dictatorship

: In our paper we intend to summarize the main results of our research about the structural and disciplinary changes in Hungarian higher education in the early part of the 1950s. In the fi rst part of our paper we point out the basic elements of the theoretical background to the research. Stichweh’s notion of disciplines, Bourdieu’s theory of ‘scientifi c fi elds’, and Voegelin’s concept of ‘political religion’ made it possible to describe and analyze the complex phenomena involved in the socialist transformation of Hungarian higher education. Th en, in the second part of the paper, we analyze the main data gained from archival research into the structural changes in higher education institutions by using the theoretical notions mentioned above. As a result of our research, we are able to determine some peculiarities of the socialist higher education policy and socialist educational discipline.

Our paper is based on the results of a signifi cant research study dealing with the period of the Stalinist dictatorship, which ended recently and was fi nanced by the Hungarian Scientifi c Research Fund. 1  We will examine those factors which profoundly transformed the whole structure of universities and academic sciences and the discipline of education as a part of this structure in Hungary in the era of the Rákosi dictatorship (1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953). 2  Our approach is based on a newlyemerging theme which examines the Soviet-type development of science in what are now post-Soviet countries.Researchers recently began to show interest in the 1 Th is paper summarizes the main conclusions of two papers in the fi nal report of the research.In these papers we examined the changes in Hungarian higher education and the transformation of the discipline of education (Garai, 2016;Németh, 2016).
2 Th e name of the era alludes to the supreme rule of Mátyás Rákosi, who was the general secretary of the Hungarian Workers' Party (HWP, the name of the Hungarian Communist Party) between 1945 and 1953 and the prime minister in 1952 and 1953.He was the supreme political leader in this period.pedagogical phenomenon of "existing Socialism".We also intend to examine the pedagogical peculiarities of the communist-socialist dictatorship in Hungary.
Th e core sources of our paper were provided by research into archival sources (university and ministerial materials, reports of scientifi c institutions and scientifi c events) and the relevant secondary literature about the topic (scientifi c book series, textbooks, and journals) between 2010 and 2015.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS OF OUR RESEARCH
Robert Merton's theory about the sociology of science began to establish a new theoretical and methodological approach to research on the sociology of science in the United States in the last decades of the twentieth century.To modify his concept, he also used the empirical 'structural functionalist' sociological theory of Talcott Parsons.One European receptionist trend of the theories of Parsons and Merton emerged in the work of Niklas Luhmann.We used the notion of discipline, which was worked out by Luhmann's follower, Rudolf Stichweh, and became widespread in research on the history of science (Stichweh, 1994).Following these theoretical concepts, some monographs and edited volumes have been published in recent decades which examined the development of the discipline of education from the viewpoint of social history (Drewek & Lüth, 1998;Horn, 2003;Horn et al., 2001).
One of the core elements of our research is based on a macro theoretical viewpoint, Stichweh's notion of scientifi c disciplines.Th is notion is widely used in historical research on science which has an orientation towards the sociology of knowledge, and it is also used in systematic research on the theory of science (Becker, 1989;Stichweh, 1994).Scientifi c works and scholars are also an essential part of science according to Stichweh's notion of disciplines (autonomous scientifi c fi elds).Th e identifi cation of disciplines in this sense has four components: a) an institutional infrastructure background to research, b) a scientifi c communication network, c) cognitive products of the discipline, and d) support for young scientists' socialization.
In order to grasp the micro-patterns of the development of science, we used Bourdieu's 'socio-analytical' concept, which was originally worked out to examine the deeper layer of society, and we also adopted categories and the structure of the notions of his concept about the theory of scientifi c fi elds as a second core element of our research (Bourdieu, 2005).According to Bourdieu, most societies are constructed from functional spaces which can be recognized by diff erent structures of the society.Th ese spaces constitute the actual existing social universe, which can vary in time and space -the distribution structure forms of power or capital types.Because there is constant change, there is a need for a typology which can describe the current form of social positions, and it is also useful in the dynamic examination of the modifi cations of social positions.Bourdieu thought that this criterion may be fulfi lled if social space is interpreted as a dynamic activity fi eld.On the one hand, this fi eld necessarily aff ects the agents as a summary of compelling forces.On the other hand, this fi eld also serves as a battlefi eld where agents can fi ght with each other.Th e enforcement of interests within the fi eld is determined by power relations and the harmony of tools and aims related to this relationship (Bourdieu, 2002, pp. 44-48).
Widening the theoretical background of our research towards the theory of fi elds means that in our research we examine how a discipline creates a fi eld constructed from institutional and cognitive elements (Bourdieu, 2005).Its macrostructure is based on the adaption of Stichweh's notion of disciplines and the tight interconnection of the above-mentioned four elements which can be interpreted in historical processes (Schriewer et al., 1993): 1. formation of the institutional basishistorical processes of the professionalization of research: emergence and formation of the preconditions of a given disciplinary fi eld (scientifi c fi eld); 2. historical development processes of communication networks: a discipline (specifi c scientifi c fi eld) that includes its scholars and forms a homogenous community which specializes in solving common issues (scientifi c community); 3. historical processes of forming the different cognitive products of scientifi c recognition: the institutional and communicational infrastructure of the disciplinary fi eld provides for the formation of common scientifi c results, which are subject to scientifi c recognition; 4. historical processes of the training of young scientists and their professional socialization: the institutional function of a given disciplinary fi eld is to transfer the knowledge of the discipline to the next generation of professionals and provide their professional education and socialization.Th is guarantees the selection of professionals from the disciplinary corpus, the clear delineation of the boundaries of the discipline, and the function of selection mechanisms which can maintain scientifi c standards.
During our research, we used Bourdieu's theory and his structure of notions about the functioning of scientifi c fi elds as a part of his theory on the concept of activity in order to be able to analyze the abovementioned four dimensions (Bourdieu, 2005).According to his theory, all scientifi c disciplines create their own scientifi c fi elds, which have their own structures and also function as a space for competition that helps maintain and restructure the fi eld.A scientifi c fi eld is formed and developed by the relationship of the agents who perform within it.Moreover, the scientifi c discipline is a kind of space for competition, a socially constructed fi eld for performing, and a space where agents with diff erent capabilities can confront each other to maintain or transform the current situation of the fi eld.
Th e specifi c habits which relate to a specifi c scientifi c discipline are developed in this fi eld.According to Bourdieu, this is the personalization of the scientifi c fi eld.Scholars who master the peculiarities of the scientifi c fi eld have the same perceptual structures as their fi eld does, and therefore they can constantly comply with its current expectations.Th e habits of scholars can be diff erent according to the peculiarities of each scientifi c fi eld, but they can also be infl uenced by other factors such as their origin or social or professional career.
Disciplines construct fi elds which are separate from each other but are constant and can be clearly identifi ed: a) they have well-known names which have gained prestige in educational, social, and disciplinary spaces; b) they have independent and autonomous departments, laboratories, journals, international forums, processes for certifying professional knowledge, payment methods, and awards; c) they have their own independent scientifi c style; d) prestigious scientifi c disciplines have their own strictly codifi ed boundaries, and e) disciplines' rank in the hierarchy of sciences depends on the commonly accumulated capital and their independence from political, confessional, or economic infl uence (Bourdiueu, 2005).
As a consequence of the political character of the Rákosi era, we used the notion of political religion as a third core element of our research (Baska, 2015).Th e classic work that pointed out and analyzed the signifi cance of political religion was written by Eric Voegelin in the 1930s (Voegelin, 1936).According to his fi nal conclusions, the history of humankind moves forward from transcendental religious beliefs (überweltlich) to inwardly-oriented beliefs (innerweltlich) and ideologies (Balogh, 2011).Th e latter deem themselves to be the only possible option of reality that can be possessed by a certain race, class, or even nation.Th is historic process leads to the emergence of 'modern gods' when using the symbols of religion and fulfi lling its functions would result in the replacement of God with politics or science.As a result of this process, perceptions about the world will appear as unlimited knowledge that has a tight connection with historical processes.Th e very end of these historical processes is the end of history, when there is a possibility of salvation as a result of the emergence of the perfect conditions of humanity.
Th e notion introduced by Voegelin that provides a tool for describing the characteristics of totalitarian regimes in the twentieth century recently became popular (Gentile, 2000(Gentile, , 2003;;Harting, 2008).Gentile, in his work about the sacralization of politics (2000), pointed out that totalitarian regimes always want to take over the country in a legal or illegal way and create a political system in which the new government suppresses the whole society.Th e new rulers try to transform the whole society through an anthropological revolution.Th us the members of the transformed society are willing to fully accept the main aims of the Party by subordinating all aspects of their personalities in order to create and establish a supranational civilization.
Consequently, political religions transform a totalitarian political ideology into a sacral phenomenon that behaves intolerantly towards rival political movements.Th us they make attempts to eliminate these competing 'prophecies'.Private interest-led activities are replaced by pressure with the aim of fulfi lling the goals of the political elite without any hesitation.New sacral rituals provide a behavioural scheme and ethical codex for the community.By the use of violence, the political elite can force the population to comply with these socialization schemes.Representatives of the political system who comply perfectly with the political regulations are admired as 'saints'.All the subsystems of the society are eager to reach the Messianic aim of the party, which is to create a utopian communist society.Th e education system, as an important element of the social subsystems, has a signifi cantly important responsibility in this process.

NATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION, PECULIARITIES OF THE COMMUNIST DISCIPLINE OF EDUCATION
As a result of political and economic transformation, a new era began in the history of Hungarian higher education that prepared the profound changes in this sphere in the 1950s.Th e communist perception of science, which rejected the principles of Western-type scientifi c norms, paradigmatically transformed the institutions and infrastructures of the Scientifi c Academy and universities.It managed to alter the socialization scheme of the scientists, communication structures, and the meaning of scientifi c work.
Th ese changes together created the communist-socialist discipline model, which was profoundly diff erent from the specifi c features of the Western-type perception of science.Th is socialist model neglected meritocratic standards and its indoctrination functions and quasi-religious attitude almost wiped out the traditional forms of creating scientifi c products.Disciplines' social acceptance and their recruitment processes also changed signifi cantly.
Scientifi c development in the discipline of education also changed after the new phase that began after 1945.Its function was determined by the basic dichotomy of the communist ideology, which divided the world into two diff erent parts.According to this quasi-theologicallyoriented rhetoric, the faith of the world is determined by the struggle between heavenly and evil forces.Th e Communist Party, which represented the good side in this struggle, made the scientifi c disciplines serve the purpose of the peace of humankind and it founded new scientifi c institutions which made the economic process more predictable and purposeful.Representatives of the other, evil side were aggressors and profi t-hunting capitalists who wanted to deter science from further development.Th e basic character of the Stalinist-type dictatorship's rhetoric was provided by epic cultural indoctrination which displaced abstraction and the cognitive approach.
Th e process of the nationalization of higher education began in the fi rst half of 1949 with the announcement of Ministerial Decree 260/1949 (12 th January).After the announcement of this decree, reforms of universities and the Scientifi c Academy were declared in the sessions of the Secretariat of the Hungarian Workers' Party (HWP) every half-year.
Th e Party only let the public know that there were some important reforms in the sphere of higher education.Communist politicians highlighted the fact that more students were allowed to attend academies and universities than before,3 and the financial support provided to these spheres also increased in a way that had never been expected. 4On the level of higher education policy, the party restructured the scientifi c fi eld because the governing and authorizing role of the Ministry of Religion and Public Education changed profoundly.In parallel with the criticism of each department of the Ministry, the party separated a few areas from it and set up new institutes to authorize these separated fi elds (Kalmár, 2014, p. 58). 5 As a result of the criticism that reached the Department of Universities and Academies of the Ministry, this organization was also transformed and its authority concerning the supervision of the aff airs of universities and academies was limited.
Th e other direction of the transformation of the scientifi c institute was achieved by the 27 th Act of Parliament in 1949, which resulted in the integration of the Hungarian Scientifi c Committee and the Hungarian Scientifi c Academy.By announcing this act, the Communist Party was able to achieve the transformation of the Scientifi c Academy by supporting an organization which was comprised of communist scholars.Before the proclamation of the unifi cation, the party had carefully selected those scholars who were considered fi t to be members of the reformed Academy in political and scientifi c terms. 6 By implementing this process, the party had to reach the conclusion that there were only a few scholars who were really committed to its political aims.Th erefore, it accepted the natural political behaviour of all scholars except those scientists in the humanities and social disciplines. 7Th e transformation of the boundaries of the scientifi c fi eld was not over at the end of 1949 because the HWP made the Scientific Academy responsible for the recruitment of young generations of scholars by setting up the Committee of Training Scientists (CTS).By implementing the training of aspiring scholars with the announcement of the 44 th decree in 1950 (26 th September), the controlling of Bourdeiu's notion of an 'entrance fee' became the task of the Academy.Th us, the Scientifi c Academy became the most important institute for authorizing Hungarian scientifi c institutions and their scholars. 8Besides the Academy, the scientifi c community was also transformed by the 26 th decree in 1951 (11 th November).By setting up the Committee of Scientifi c Ranking (CSR),9 the party appointed those scholars who were picked as Doctors of Sciences or Candidates of Sciences and thus they were given further 'permission to operate' in their own scientifi c fi eld.
All in all, 340 applications were submitted to the CSR to decide about awarding higher scientifi c ranks to candidates.Only 81 scientists had memberships of the Communist Party.10Th erefore, the party wanted to have direct infl uence over certain scientifi c fi elds.In the case of scholars in the technical and natural sciences, they tried to persuade them or at least prove their natural political behaviour by means of the awarding of scholarships and promoting leading fi gures in these scientifi c fi elds to high administrative positions.Th e excessive support provided to these sciences can be perceived by examining the number of Soviet scholarships these scien-tists received11 and the appointment of institute directors in the case of the establishment of new universities from technical faculties.12Furthermore, the asymmetric relationship between the natural sciences and human sciences can be explained by their diff erent roles in fulfi lling the aims of the fi rst Five-Year Plan and the emergence of challenges in the Soviet sphere of infl uence in Europe which were results of the scientifi c-technical revolution (Kalmár, 2014, p. 73).
Th e Scientifi c Academy already authorized the scientifi c research and careers of scholars; moreover, the party hoped that it could achieve the direct government of all the universities by setting up a new governmental institute.Th e contours of the concept of the Higher Education Committee had become sharp by the second half of 1950.Th e Party wanted to make the Committee a central authority of the higher education system near or instead of the Department of Universities and Academies of the Ministry of Religion and Public Education.Prominent politicians thought that the ministerial department could not cope with the operational governing task of the whole higher education system on its own.According to the inner logic of the Party, it just had to fi nd the proper scholars for leading positions to gain total control over the whole of higher education because it had already transformed the structure of the university system and set up new governing authorities.Th e drawbacks of these methods became clear when the Party wanted to appoint vice-rectors and vice-deans.Th e HWP treated the nationalization of Hungarian higher education as a kind of governing question.Th ey wanted to create total authorization by establishing narrow-profi le universities for certain disciplines and picking politically loyal scholars to be the leaders of scientifi c institutes.However, the socialization of the new generation of scholars went extremely slowly in each discipline, and thus the scholars who were appointed as vicerectors turned out to be disloyal or hostile towards the general policy of the Party or could not support the changes in higher education. 13Consequently, the Secretariat had to remove the proposal from its agenda by concluding that the Party could not fi nd enough trustworthy scholars to occupy leading positions. 14Th ey postponed this question at the session of 5 th April 1951.Th e realization that the goal of total control over the sphere of higher education could not be fully achieved encouraged policymakers to change their methods.
Th e failure in appointing vice-rectors of universities forced the politicians involved in the sphere of higher education to seek a new method for continuing the process of nationalization.By this time, the Party had strengthened its organizations again in order to keep a tight rein on universities and the Scientifi c Academy.Nevertheless, it was not satisfi ed with implementing governing reforms.Th erefore, it took additional political measures to improve its control over higher education.By transforming the structure of examinations and eliminating the remaining elements of bourgeois pedagogy, the Party wanted to change the governing system.Th e concept of setting up an independent Higher Education Ministry following the Soviet pattern came from the idea that the new institute should combine the Academy's theoretical scientifi c governing role with universities' tasks of conducting research and training young scholars by means of tight control by the new ministry. 15 In fact, setting up the independent Higher Education Ministry served not just as a tool for improving governmental authority over universities.It provided the government with an opportunity to manage and infl uence directly the teaching methods of universities and research projects in the case of all sciences.It was also expected to be the fi nal step of trans-13 "He made snide remarks about the people's democracy.He is not developed enough in the ideological aspect, he had clerical sentiments."Cadre description of Dr József Varó.Budapest, 9 th March 1951.HNA f. 276, b. 54,  u. 134, p. 80.  14 Record about proposals of vice-rectors and vice-deans.Budapest, 9 th March 1951.HNA f. 276, b. 54, u. 134, p. 89.  15 Horváth, Márton: Th e current situation of our higher education system and its governing system.Budapest, 21 st  April 1952.HNA f. 276, b. 54, u. 190, pp.14-19.forming the whole scientifi c fi eld because in the previous phases of the nationalization process, the Party had already regulated and authorized the 'entrance fee'; the function of scientifi c societies had been restructured and the infl uence of the methods of certain scientifi c fi elds had also been determined since the previous stages of the nationalization process. 16y 1952, very few elements of the structure of the universities were reminiscent of the Humboldt-type university model that had been formed by following the neohumanist scientifi c philosophy in Central-Eastern Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century.Th e structure of Hungarian higher education began to resemble the Soviet and French pattern of universities by creating narrow-profi le universities.Th e French system of higher education mainly comprised special lyceums and academies (grandes écoles) which were authorized by an administrative organization (the Imperial University) in the 19 th century.Th ese patterns had some common features with the Russian and later Soviet higher education system (Tóth, 2001, pp. 99-101).Th e political elite began to realize these changes and therefore, they considered changing the names of universities and academies.Paradoxically, the newly-founded narrow-profi le universities tended to be the most vehement opponents of this idea by referring to traditions.17Th us, the Party had to abandon this idea and the politicians declared that the transformation of higher education would be completed by separating teacher training from vocational training at universities.After the death of Stalin, political changes in Central-Eastern European countries, including Hungary, made it impossible to implement this idea, which was realized only in the second half of the 1950s.
By restricting the autonomy of elite scholars at universities and in the Scientifi c Academy, the characteristic features of the Soviet-type university model became even more dominant.Th e institutionalized form of this phenomenon is the 'nomenklatura' system.Th e members of the nomenklatura were those individuals who were appointed to be offi cials by diff erent levels of the Party.Th e socialist-communist scholarly elite became an ideology-producing elite instead of examining natural and social phenomena by using traditional and strictly controlled scientifi c methods.Th eir most important task was to serve the interests of the expanding political fi eld.

SUMMARY -PECULIARITIES OF THE COMMUNIST SCIENTIFIC POLICY AND DISCIPLINE
By examining the changes in the discipline of education, we can conclude that it was strongly characterized by the profound transformation of the autonomy/ heteronomy relations of the previously autonomous scientifi c fi eld.Th e formation of the basic elements of the one-party state created the political conditions for changing the whole spectrum of the scientifi c fi eld.Institutional frameworks for providing autonomy and standards of scientifi c work ceased to exist and were replaced by collective governing boards.Th is resulted in the elimination of the autonomy of Hungarian disciplinary spaces which had been relatively free from direct political infl uence.
Eliminating the autonomy of the scientifi c fi eld, which also determined the function of the discipline of education in the fi rst half of the century, resulted in serious consequences for all the components of the discipline of education.By following the norms of the nomenklatura, it became part of the political-ideological fi eld, and this was authorized by the totalitarian measures of the new political system.Hungarian scholars with professional and scientifi c autonomy became members of the "priestly order" and they approached public and higher education with missionary zeal.Th ey also created the "atheist theology" of the communist "state religion" and thus they also became part of the political fi eld (Bourdieu, 2005).
Th eir new status as communicators of educational aims and measures declared by the state was amplifi ed by two facts.First, at the very beginning of the transformation process the Hungarian Scientifi c Council declared that in the case of social sciences the usage of a Marxist-Leninist approach was unavoidable.Philosophers, historians, and scholars of education should use this approach in order to be able to form the ideological background of the working class.Consequently, these scientifi c fi elds played an enormous role in creating a socialist society. 18Second, the professional framework of the discipline of education was transformed by eliminating professional organizations and limiting the operation of professors.As scientifi c academia was transformed, the members of the institute were also revised."Bourgeois" professors of education were not allowed to obtain the newly-established scientifi c ranks.A new generation of scientists was promoted to new scientifi c ranks acknowledged by the state after the mid-1950s as a reward for their willingness to internalize the political declarations of the party and use them in their scientifi c papers (Golnhofer, 2006).As McClelland pointed out, specialist knowledge was what made professions so important in modern societies.Th is knowledge was institutionalized and became the source of their special position in society (McClelland, 1991, p. 11).Th rough the transformation of the professional knowledge of scientists of education, they became dependent upon political and ideological shifts.Th e only criterion by which their work was judged was the eff ectiveness of their adoption of the political intentions of the 1950s.