A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 8. 1981 (Debrecen, 1981)

Közlemények - Tóth Pál Péter: A debreceni egyetemi hallgatók mozgalmai, ideológiai-politikai nézeteinek alakulása (1930-1936)

Activity and formation of the ideological and political views of the students at the University of Debrecen between 1930-1936

by Pál P. Tóth

The general economic depression revealed the ideological crisis of Horthy-Regime. The progressive movements were affected by the strengthening of the worker’s activity and besides this the popular movements, too. The activity of students of Debrecen University—like other universities of this country—were firstly determined by the ’Turul Union’. However, in the changing conditions the Turul could not fulfill its activity, so the distance had grown between the required activity and the claims of the members of the Union more and more. This changed situation had been reflected by accepted as the programme of László Német’s ’Káté’ (catechism).

The accumulated tension resulted in further student disturbances in the autumn of 1933, which was no more directed by the Turul Union, but by the representatives of the ’Christian Youth’, the so called Committee of Thirty. The aimlessness of a way out searched by the right-wing and extreme right-wing became soon evident. It was as early as on the first Debrecen Diet, but especially on the second Debrecen Diet held in March 1936.

The progressive young people gathered round Sándor Zöld were already preparing for this meeting consciously and they formed at last a left-sided intellectual group by the end of 1936. The group developed connections with the communist intellectual youth in Budapest and they played together a determining role in the movement of the so called ’March Front’.

154