Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST MARGINALIZATION- BEFORE AND AFTER WORLD WAR II. - Cultivating the land again - without the regional role
192 THE STRUGGLE AGAINST MARGINALIZATION The state also covered the family allowances for the theological teachers. From the cultural tax collected by the church district, the school received one thousand seven hundred eighty-six pengős and from the Student Association’s collection another three hundred twenty pengős. From various bequests and foundations, an additional twenty-seven thousand pengős accumulated. The College then took over the management of the foundation established by Mr. and Mrs. Ernő Dókus. It consisted of a house in Budapest on Museum Ring Road, a three-story apartment building which generated an estimated six or seven thousand pengős of annual income. According to the stipulation of the founders, this amount was to be used for supporting the education of middle- class secondary school children whose parents were not able to afford the costs of their children’s schooling. The English Residence’s financial deficit from the previous year was brought into balance, but, due to increased food prices during this school year, another small loss was registered. Beginning in the last years of the war, financial chaos visited upon and reigned in Patak. Although independent agricultural production dominated once again, the challenges of repairing damage and, at the same time, operating under the new circumstances presented a nearly impossible task for the school. A deficit of one hundred fifty thousand forints was calculated into the budget for the school year of 1946-47. But even this pre-calculated deficit was outdone by reality as two-thirds of the crop was lost to frost damage. Nonetheless, the delivery obligations in crops remained, something which, even with the best yields, were met with difficulty. In this trying time, when there was not enough feed for the College’s seventy-six sheep, most of them were slaughtered. The lack of heating fuel was a serious problem, much like the replacement of broken panes of glass for the school buildings. Damages incurred from the war were more-or-less restored by then but the repair costs of the most valuable item of real estate, the Dókus house in Budapest, were yet to be budgeted. In the next school year, a report made mention of the deficit of ‘only’ one hundred thousand forints and how to further reduce it. The surprisingly short financial report - only half a page long - sounded very optimistic, but upon careful reading, the lack of a concrete mode of how the plan was to be realized induced only doubt. In reality, the institution was fighting for its very survival. The massive efforts extended to this end became visible only during the following academic year: rebuilt and renovated were the heating and plumbing systems of the English Residence and of the entire College as well as the old gymnasium and the teachers’ accommodations, and students’ reading corners were also established in the Great Library. The dormitories for the theology students and for the other students were modernized. The difficult struggle of nearly two decades was about to bear some fruit when the Communist-inspired forced nationalization of schools eradicated all invested effort with one all-sweeping blow.
