Violence in the Education: The Post-Revolutionary Situation in Hungary (1956-1957)

Background: The author attempts to introduce an unusual approach towards schools, universities, and dormitories, including their users (professors, teachers, parents, and students): How can the educational issues be seen through the lenses of special police forces in a specific historical moment? After the 1956 Hungarian revolution, a brutal pacification process took place all over the country, supported by the Soviet troops and special armed forces, police battalions of the restarting communist power. Methods: In this historical study, I used mainly military archive documents to show the perspective of the communist restauration and confront their viewpoints with party reports and some oral histories by eyewitnesses, who suffered several injuries during the repression. The paper is based on narrative analysis, as the official explanation presented various stories to justify their actions, while the reality in the background might be very different from this. Results: Between November 1956 and May 1957, these soldiers or officers became a familiar image in educational institutions. They blamed teachers and professors for misleading their students and thus creating a narrative of the counter-revolution of October 1956, while they identified themselves as parents or teachers (instead of the real ones, who lost their rights to do this, due to the participation in the revolution). Conversely, physical and verbal aggression was a widespread routine of the army officers. Conclusions: In extraordinary situations, during historical crises violence became suddenly real, allowed, and/or supported by many political actors to achieve their goals. After the consolidation of power, these special army and police forces were released and their activities were stopped by the authorities of the Ministry of National Defence because their presence was realized as an uncomfortable situation for the politicians. Such studies may give lessons us to learn, about how these scenes escalate into a point of no return.


Process and historiography of the research
My research questions concentrate on the everyday life experiences of the post-revolutionary situation, interpretations, self-images, and justifications of different affairs in education; the basic corpus will be provided by the narratives of the armed forces (karhatalom, karhatalmisták in Hungarian), supplemented and confronted oral histories of eyewitnesses, and minutes of party meetings from distinct levels.The following tabooed and traumatized stories have been hidden and latent since then; verbal and physical violence, aggression, and various forms of intervention have a multifaceted nature, showing the whole spectrum of student/teacher reactions from resistance to collaboration.This topic is very sensitive and suppressed; it is hard to speak about it even now.There are some other written testimonies, but most of the sources came from the contemporary authentic party and military documents, which may have influenced scholars and theories by their particular language.The communist utopia started with the establishment of an ideological worldview, which transformed the categories and perception of social reality by altering the meaning of everyday words (we will see how the revolutionary days turned into a counter-revolutionary concept within just a few weeks and determined the interpretation of what happened in October-November 1956 for decades). 1en in the 2010s and 2020s, this language, when explaining the communist period, using their key ideas, without reflection, affected Hungarian historiography: it is a very good example of how the last stage of socialization has been depicted in agriculture.Many historians accept the developed discourses of the late 1950s and early 1960s (their fundamental sources), defining this radical change as a cooperative movement, meanwhile, other academics operate with the term collectivization: the former covers the intrinsic pressure and suggests a voluntary-like process, while the latter one underlines and reflects the original Stalinist initiative. 2 This short detour just wants to shed more light on the language of communism and its usage, which is crucial in my interpretation.
The characteristics of the records (and archives) from the 1950s and'60s demonstrate another important aspect when seeing the limitations of the usual 'archive-based research' in the history of education: silences and scattered references influence and form our historical reality, with the need to offer a reasonable explanation for the past. 3The narratives made by the military forces and party representatives conceal some elements and emphasize others: in this case, the research was more like a puzzle solving from dispersed hints and vanished cues, because my main sources tried to erase what really happened in Hungarian education in these months, condemned forgetting the shocking details.After the end of socialism, 1956 became a central point of Hungarian self-identity and one the most important parts of our 20 th -century history.Today, literature on the revolutionary events and the consequences is available in English as well: most of them introduce the geopolitical situation of the Cold War, displaying Hungary as a puffer zone between the two world orders. 4Beside the politically focused works, there have been some studies closer to my approach; oral stories from the children of the executed or imprisoned victims of the retaliation, 5 or the voices of refugee students in a Reception Centre. 6If we additionally consider Hungarian historiography, the appearance of military forces and their roles in the 1956 Hungarian education is a remarkably absent topic.There has been only one exception, which has drawn my attention to the special armed troops visiting schools armed groups and their activities. 7This paper, which started with a lost and found dossier by me in the National Archive in 2016, meets my research interests.

Ethical considerations
In this case, we face a sensitive and complex socio-historical issueby describing it, I followed two main principles.First, it is crucial to commemorate these tabooed events and prevent to forget them.On the other hand, I do not featured concrete names in the analysis (except of the widely known politicians, as Kádár) to give respect for the people who were affected and follow the actual Hungarian legislation on the right to informational self-determination and on the freedom of information (Act CXII of 2011, see: https://net.jogtar.hu/jogszabaly?docid=a1100112.tv).This study received ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of the University of Pannonia, Hungary.I do not utilize personal stories or interviews that is why I focused only on the archives and the published oral histories, ad perpetuam rei memoriam.

Data sources
Unforeseen documents popped up when I made investigations about denominational instructions in the academic year of 1956-1957: a file, entitled K. A. (likely the capital letters of the then head of Educational Ministry, Albert Kónya), which contained records about teacher beatings, rude interrogations, and threatening incidents. 8This was a lucky coincidence, as this folder has been totally unknown in the Hungarian historiography, which I found accidentally in fragmentary documentationmany files were destroyed during and after the 1956 revolution.In the next step, I gathered the official Party archives on a national level, searching traces of violence in schools after October 1956: more and more details emerged, related to the activities of special armed forces, included in my first paper on the subject. 9Following this logic, I analyzed the historical logs of these regiments and battalions in the Hungarian Military Archive, 10 and contrasted the official discourses with two retrospective personal testimonies from public oral histories. 11There are two main, complete corpora as the basis of my study, the first one is the paper collection of Albert Kónya, who was a deputy minister and provisional head of the Educational Ministry at that time.His documents are stored in the Hungarian National Archive, Section of Culture, Educational Ministry (MNL OL XIX-I-2-j), from our point of view the fourth box (4.d.) is the most important.To start research here, you have to apply, signing for your purpose (private or scientific), topic, and time period.It is open and free for every Hungarian and non-Hungarian citizen, the application form and all possible regulations and restrictions are readable here: https://mnl.gov.hu/uj_kutatoknak. 12Accessing to the second type of sources, a similar process needed (application, including purpose, topic and time) at the Military Archive (https:// militaria.hu/adatb/leveltariuj/).There is a thematical compilation here, called the Hungarian People's Army Special Collection (MN KGy, Magyar Néphadsereg Különgyűjteménye), including papers about the 1956 revolution and restoration of the communist power afterward (F.1956-os gyűjtemény, 1956 collection). 13All other materials used in the paper do not constitute a group like the previous ones, they are separate documents, scattered references, that add official and non-official interpretations of the verbal and physical aggression between 1956 Autumn and the Spring of 1957: meeting of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP) and personal memories about the events.
The co-occurrence of the actors (armed forces and people who were involved in the education) and their activities with a certain degree of aggression and reaction (violence, resistance, collaboration, etc.) are the key features of my paper, which provided the sources to scrutinize my topic.Following the three-step research (see Figure 1), I will answer the following research questions by using this collection of data: (1) How can the connections between armed forces and educational actors (teachers, principals, lecturers, students and parents) be characterized?
(2) What kind of police and special force interventions took place in the educational institutions?
(3) What image of educators, educational roles and the responsibility of the youngsters and adults do the declarative narratives of the power depict?
(4) What face of the enemy emerged from the sources?The text is in Hungarian, but the Information Office at the Archive can help everyone to fill the form. 13To find these sources, there is a guidance here: https://militaria.hu/adatb/leveltariuj/f/08_viii_xiii_fondfocsoport_magyar_nephadsereg_iratainak_segedletei All of these aspects are inseparably intertwined in the search of guiltiness for the heart-breaking and shameful events in October (a euphemistic definition of the 1956 first revolution, then counter-revolution) and finding accountable persons to judge over. 14My analysis is based on the military archives, offering a special point of view, adding other perspectives and alternatives to consider as well (to provide balance).

From sources to methodology
The files of the deputy minister, Military Archives, and the Party meetings show us the basics of the official understanding of the extreme clashes in education.They had different accents and intentions during these months: the bodies of the state party tried to take pacification under control (more or less successfully) on every level, while the special forces often crossed the legal borders as emissaries of people's power, agents of real communism.The different goals caused friction and conflicts between party secretariats, police captains, and Soviet and Hungarian colonels; the relevant actors during the stabilization period.Committees of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP) had to fight on two parallel fronts, namely, against the extreme, radical leftists, who wanted to get revenge for the revolution (from their point of view counter-revolution), on the other hand, against reformer communists and remaining followers of the failed revolt from the right side of the political palette.The armed/police forces were close to the former side, released by the power in a purposely uncontrolled situation to force discipline and order on society.
The oppressed and occupied country did not have a voice to express their opinion and feelings, which casts a long shadow on the everyday Hungarian perception and remembrance of 1956 and 1957.Invisible violence15 was a substantial element of the existing socialism: experience of suppression and atmosphere of real hard-core communism inherited from generation to generation.In the long years after 1956, the legitimation of the new Kádár-regime was based on a historical compromise: 16 The ruling power wanted every citizen to forget what had happened, and in exchange, it offered a limited opportunity for material prosperity.The only official requisition was remaining as apolitical and neutral as possible, avoiding the dogmas and taboos of the political power, like the unquestionable statement about counter-revolution, and neglecting any other meaning of that October.If you have a discussion with an elderly person from your audience after a conference speech, and he or she shares his or her own memories about going to school in Hungary in late 1956 and early 1957, this was to be shared with you only, privately and nothing else.This can be a long-term consequence either of this previous cultural tradition or of frustrating and hurting emotions from those months.The partly hidden and latent nature of past events and the psychological distress connoted with them made oral histories very difficult, so in my research, I am only adding two testimonies from public collections of eyewitness accounts: Oral History Archive for teachers, and memories from a well-known journalist's webpage, both published on the internet, accessible for everyone. 17These descriptions tell the commonly known events of the revolution and vengeance from a specific perspective: history from below. 18litary archives covering every territory, give a complete overview of the whole country because when the special forces were withdrawn, their commandants had to outline the activities related to law enforcement in the form of historical logs.All of these logs remained and microfilmed, 19 which is a very good starting point to the analysis, while other sources (party documents, meetings, reports, interviews, etc.) are very fragmented and concerned with particular issues.However, the latter data also underpins the whole picture.To set the framework of this undiscovered historical field, using the theoretical background of emotions and violence in history can be fruitful here, 20 in order to present meanings and contexts of abusing power.Every element of this investigation is unique: the chosen topic, the archives, and the nature of the sources, which all pose challenges in the methodology.I focused on the textual appearances of schooling, students, and teachers, including their relations with the armed forces.By doing so, the main topics of these archives could easily be detected, these are the following: interpretation of the revolution and resistance, activities to restore communist power and legitimizing the actions and brutalities during the retaliation.Reconstructing the official argumentations and stories was the last step in the research.
The study is based on narrative analysis, because one obvious characteristic of the examined army logs is narrativity: they told us stories with traditional elements, like conflict, heroes and enemies, problem-solving, happy end, and so on.The writers (military leaders) wrapped up the pacification process as a success, their 'emplotment' produced familiar literary genres, with enough 'explanatory power' 21 to give plausible explanations for the resistance in societyboth they and their political supervisors needed this.Revolution meant collapse and chaos, a time of uncertainty to the Party apparatchiks and loyal soldiers, a kind of tragedy, followed by the triumph of the good (a romance), the victory as a restoration of the communist power.
According to Eileen H. Tamura, 22 to understand historical reality and the human agency within, it is essential to consider individual events, which is logical in an idiographic discipline.The narratives provided by the heads of special armed/ police forces contain two main organizing principles: (1) scapegoat-theories, (2) and the takeover of educational roles from teachers and professors.
From their point of view, it was a rational and logical decision: many educators were involved in (counter-) revolutionary activities; they became responsible for every later opposition, and thus, lost their rights to instruct the younger generations.The battalion commanders, lieutenant colonels, and officers started acting as quasi-educators in three dimensions, laid down and transmitted in the reports to the superior bodies of the HSWP.They: (1) are the ones to guide misled students, instead of original teachers, ).This fascinating book underscores the role of communities and the importance of participation in such researches: the everyday perception of communism very much differs from what we have known from the usual sources.For example, one of my projects aims to reveal the schooling experience of the so-called ʻclass-alienate' children, who were not allowed to enter secondary and higher education in the 1950s because of their social class (former aristocrats, sons and daughters of the members of gendarmerie, etc.), to shed a light on the situation.We are not able to find these stories in the archives, only in oral sources.(2) regulate principles, leaders and faculty staff, (3) threaten parents to hold down their children.
There might have been many psychological factors in the background of verbal and physical aggression (individual motives, fear and hate, the feasibility of a new rebel, group pressure, anti-intellectualism, etc.), but I will not examine these, as they are not my focus, and they can be found in the sources.The next chapters will detail the developing relationships between armed forces and educational actors through diverse interventions in the everyday life of schooling.

Arrest and interrogation
On 12 December 1956, at 4 a.m., a secondary high school teacher was arrested in Eger, a small Hungarian city, in his home. 23There were two soldiers, one detective, one driver, and an authority-appointed witness; the scene must have been very similar to how Solzhenitsyn illustrated a typical arrest during Stalinism; "The sharp night-time ring or the rude knock at the door.The insolent entrance of the unwiped jackboots of the unsleeping State Security operatives.The frightened and cowed civilian witness at their backs." 24The teacher was accused of hiding weapons by an anonymous denunciation.The armed forces unit did not find anything, yet the arrest and imprisonment of the teacher was inevitable.Weeks later, his wife still had no answers because of the demand for 'military dictatorship' no information was distributed; but according to the appendix of the document, 25 he was released in early 1957.The whole faculty staff stood up for him; they wrote a letter of solidarity, stating his innocenceall of them signed the statement, which testified to extraordinary courage at that time.
Sometimes teachers were called to the municipality during worktime, as in an elementary teacher's case, in a village near the Romanian border in February 1957. 26When he entered the official room, his ID card was expropriated, then (without any question) the police officers began to beat him; he got slapped, and his hands and other body parts punched with a stick.It was accompanied by hateful comments (verbal and physical aggression usually went hand in hand): "Did you want to demolish the power of people?We will give you power!(…) So far, there has been no dictatorship, now there will be the dictatorship of the proletariat!" 27After some hours standing in a dark cell, he was let go, but banned from every school in Hungary, because "a counter-revolutionary teacher doesn't have the right to teach". 28His only crime was finalizing the minutes of the local revolutionary committee in October 1956.There are several other documents proving the ubiquity of such incidents: teachers feared removal, arrest, and beating; 29 the Party apparatchiks and workers condemned them as a whole. 30Furthermore, principals were frequently subjected to extreme physical abuse, without any hearing. 31 there was a hearing, it often had a very intimidating atmosphere.For example, the police captain in Szeged said the following sentences to university students after they had been taken into custody: "The university buildings will be shot up, from the basement to attic! (…) All professors are fascists; they only joined the Party to hide their medals as former members of the Order of Vitéz". 32A universal topos appeared here: teachers and lecturers are the successors of the Horthy era (this Order was a creation of that regime), an emblematic period of fascism before 1945, which was a misleading simplification of communism.Other officers defined the "bloody" professors as "pimps", the armed forces would "take care of them"these expressions were deeply emotional, and full of negative attitudes. 33ooking after guns and leaflets House searches, framed as inspections, meant another important interventional form of the special forces as a following symptom of arrest, or as independent activities.The most well-detailed incident happened at Miskolc University on 20 February 1957: we have four sources that day, from different perspectives, 34 which gives us an exceptional opportunity to dig deeper.In the report of the notorious 'Tizeshonvéd' zászlóalj (Battalion no.10.) 35 self-justification, legitimacy of action, and euphemism amalgamated: 300 officers were involved in the attack, which was caused by a scandal.According to the rapporteur, the students humiliated the flag of the international working class by hanging out red rags, and women's underwear on it from the windows of their hostel, answering the official flag of the main building.The armed forces made a blockade around the student hostel, and started the search: they found guns, leaflets, and confidential papers of the State Security (ÁVH); while the youngsters mocked the officials ("bloody Kádár-soldiers", whistled the Soviet hymn ironically), and behaved so "arrogantly and shamelessly", that they were scolded like misbehaving children. 36There is no explanation as to what is meant by the last comment.The rector's memorandum provides more information: 60 students and 10 lecturers were arrested; many were beaten during the search, including the vice-rector, a dean, and some students "were very sick" 37 because of the thrashing.The leader criticized both the provocation by the students (the red rags) and the violation of law by the armed forces. 38The scandal reached the highest levels of the party bodies.In a meeting of the HSWP Organisational Committee, the party secretary of Borsod briefly recapped the events: the soldiers tried "to correct the thinking [of students] with some slaps (…) Professors are offended because they were beaten too …". 39An oral narration from a former student remembered this way: "… we had to stand by the wall, with our hands behind us.And from then on, they started beating and beating us.(…) they took the nightsticks and banged.Then other officers came, asked our names and occupations of our fathers, and depending on the answer, they began to hit again.Most of us were from the working class in Miskolc (…) which aroused wild rage in the soldiers because they could have been the same (…) laborers; when they heard "engine fitter", they said "You m … f … er", and began to beat." 40 The quotation reflects to a very important factor of the communist systems: the determining class, 41 the social background that determines everything from schooling to employment; and the whole identity of a citizen in Hungary.From the official point of view, every (counter-) revolutionary person had a bourgeois, aristocratic, and fascist heritage, which connects the rebels with the previous Horthy Period (1920-1944), but reality always refuted this preconception, because the majority of the freedom fighters were from the working class.This schizophrenic situation (insisting on the ideology, as opposed to people's own experiences and made-up interpretations) caused a lot of stress and frustration among the loyal members of the new power and resulted in a spiral of violent acts.
A slogan was spreading very fast in early 1957: 'We will start again in March' (in Hungarian: Márciusban Újra Kezdjük, in short: M.Ú.K.).It referred to the national commemoration of the 1848 Revolution (March 15) with the oppressed revolt and suggested a new uprising.More and more affairs refer to the probability of such an event, but we do not know much about the real background of such a movement (there are studies that stated that issuing this idea was the initiative of the power, in order to strengthen its position). 42For instance, in Kecskemét downtown, shop windows were inundated with handmade leaflets and posters before 15 th March, with the mysterious signatures KEFI and TBSz.The secret police made a covert action to unveil delinquents, and a fewdays later, they uncovered a 'conspiracy' at the Piarista Gimnázium  (Piarist Secondary School), a denominational institution, which was a lucky coincidence for the authorities, as a good illustration of the entwined clerical-fascist assault against people's democracy. 43The fliers and placards were produced by 11 students.The detectives diagnosed that only one of them was of laborer origin, the others were sons of lawyers and previously leading functionaries, which confirmed the bourgeois character of their propaganda activities.They constituted the Revolutionary Youngsters of Kecskemét (Kecskeméti Forradalmi Ifjúság, KEFI), also known as Turul Brotherhood (Turul Bajtársi Szövetség, TBSz) 44 the latter one invoked a radical interwar right-wing organization, but we do not have more information as to whether a real continuity existed between them.
There was a symbolic fight in these months about ruling the streets and public opinion: these propaganda messages occupied the public sphere, which originally fell within the scope of the party and its ideology after 1945, and operated in short impressive slogans. 45The longstanding social resistance borrowed this instrument from communists in order to score the victory over them (at least) symbolically when the making and distribution of posters and leaflets remained the last battlefield.Teacher trainees majoring in art created posters in Szeged, but they were caught in the act while gluing; after that, 30 police officers in civil clothes, the armed forces, and the Party Committee made joint raids on Fridays and Saturdays for three weeks. 46In Borsod County, anti-Soviet poems and handbills spread in all schools: "We do not learn for Kádár", "Russians go away", "We will not learn the Russian language", and "Our leader is Mindszenty". 47

Administrative actions and information work
The title includes two key phrases from the vocabulary of armed forces: administrative actions meant removals from schools, under the term 'information work' including political debates, meetings, and briefings arranged to give parents, students, teachers, and principals a kind of ideological indoctrination.Schools were evaluated as centers of the counterrevolution in the papers of the 1 st Regiment of Revolutionary Armed Forces, 48 and they set the goal to purify the institutions of the negative spirit: for example, a girls' schoolteacher was arrested, because she had educated children in an anti-democratic spirit. 49A compelling dichotomy 50 defined the school perception of army/police officers: some teachers and students personified the face of the enemy as agitators of the counter-revolution, warmongers who risked peace.On the other hand, there were loyal socialist citizens, supporters of the workers' state, and many hesitating people.There was no mercy on the first group; meanwhile the latter ones had to be strengthened further: thus school-visiting groups were formed, who involved parents and teachers with communist confidence, principals, and school departments in the work.These groups used intimidation and persuasion as their tools: teaching staff was made responsible for every conflict in schools; so out of fear or conviction, they reported everything to the battalions.The armed forces participated in the discussions between form teachers and students, as in parent-teacher association (PTA) meetings, they warned parents to protect their children from the risks of counter-revolutionary activities (according to the accounts, 51 they did so in an objective, rational manner, which is doubtful).Principals did not allow these gunmen to work in every school (a clear sign of a living struggle), as the troop leader of the 7 th platoon faced this issue and answered in agreement with the Party: "We have to get into the schools and classrooms". 52The units made lesson plans to analyze topics with children, with titles like "What is the meaning of Kossuth-crest?" [an old traditional Hungarian symbol and a chosen crest of the 1956 Revolution], "The significance of the red flag and red star", and "What are the pieces of evidence that happenings in October were counter-revolutionary?".Soldiers and police officers taking the role of teachers by giving lectures and instructions declared that every educator is obliged to act adopting the official standpoint of the government, "even if they had political concerns". 53lping to build pioneer patrols, establishing Communist Youth League (Kommunista Ifjúsági Szövetség, KISZ) and Youth Guard (Ifjú Gárda), restarting Party in teaching staffs, planning trips, and leading cultural centersthese are just some activities associated with the armed forces.The operative, secret police work was more hidden, the only certain point is that every battalion had to assign liaison officers to do this in Budapest (no information outside the capital city).The sources mentioned such activities two times: "The use of children of communist parents in exploring counter-revolutionary elements proved to be a very good method.These children told us what some teachers had incited them to do, which classmates had boasted that they or their parents possessed guns illegally." 54 young, 17-year-old boy offered us to help catch a person who was actively engaged [in the events of October], and advertised to others that he was working for the secret police …" 55 The functioning system followed the ancient political phrase of 'Divide et impera' (divide and rule): thus they separated different groups and confronted them with each other; the pure form of educational micropolitics 56 intertwined every situation and context.Another 17-year-old student was arrested in Veszprém on 29 April 1957, with the charge of conspiracy against the people's democracy.The beatings lasted for days; his eardrum broke in, and the interrogators wanted him to speak about the 'Young Hungarian Alliance', a naïve local teenager movement, which was planned to start again in March (not successfully) and distribute leaflets.He refused to make a confession.Six days later, they let him go, but one week later, arrested him again. 57The forms of punishment applied were diverse: slaps, beaten by a baton, and gymnastics (squats and pushups) repeatedly on a circular basis, and they also threatened him by being banned from every secondary school in Hungary (that was a real punishment at the time).The only way out was if he signed a statement about future cooperation with the police.After two days of punishment, he signed the paper, admitted the counter-revolutionary propaganda, and offered his services to state security to avoid punishment.After his release, he never went to the meetings with officers, and the connection was disrupted when he moved to Budapest. 58very different narrative speaks about officials and students' relationship in the case of the university dormitory in Buda, District I. 59 The historical log of the 3 rd Regiment provides a whole story, with a plot of how misled students got directed in the right direction by the officers.The start is a confusing period when the resistance was alive in January 1957.The site was the Buda Castle District, where several underground basements provided ways to hide and store illegal materials, and to transport them from one place to another.The armed forces raided there many times, putting students under pressure by threatening them with issuing a shooting order, without relevant results, so new methods were necessary.The 1 st Battalion arranged a dance event for the university students, under strict control: another typical educational activity turned into a bizarre scene, where gunmen surrounded the dancing pairs.On 23 February 1957, at midnight, a meeting was being held between a lieutenant colonel, a first sergeant, a first lieutenant, and the community of the dormitory.The situation described looked like a parents-children discussion, full of protection and intimacy literally in the form of a dialogue: The following topics shaped the political debate from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.: the Miskolc University scandal, the role of the armed forces, the events in October as a revolution, the political roles of the university students, etc.The youngsters were very critical and well-informed; they had not acquired the concept of counter-revolution, but the end of the story is a happy ending from the viewpoint of the armed forces.Some university students were convinced at the meeting, and they later visited secondary high schools with the officers to convey the message: "Our friends, fellow studentswe were deceived!"[by the counter-revolutionists, the enemies of the communist system, and the people's state]. 61From the viewpoint of the armed forces, after March, their victory was fulfilledfrom the opposition to achieving the common goals; it was a long development history.

Conclusions
The 6 th Battalion of the 2 nd Regiment summarized the significance of these activities: "The enemy attacked through schools",62 from the viewpoint of the churches and the counter-revolution, therefore a definite change toward the true way of building socialism was brought about.In previous years, some teachers educated children improperly, so "we had to take the issues of youngsters in our hands". 63From a retrospective point of view (June 1957), it was a triumph, but without the help of communist officers and loyal teachers, this progress could not have been imaginable.A chaotic period emerged from the sources, a whole spectrum of possible practices, and contexts changed over time, meanwhile the official discourses tried to suggest a planned evolution and a coherent argument about the reasons of the (counter-) revolution.The armed forces existed only for a limited time of the communist takeover between November 1956 and June 1957: first, the politicians needed this power.After the stabilization, they became an unnecessary ballast that had to be terminated.In the light of recent developments (e. g.Russian aggression against Ukraine, children faced acts of war, violent environments of schooling) the topic of my study is very relevant.Perhaps learning from the past, and reading how these situations developed is a big benefit of such analyses.

Iveta Kestere
Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia The article 'Violence in the Education: The Post-Revolutionary Situation in Hungary (1956-1957)' analyses an under-researched topic, namely the repressions in the field of education after the failure of the Hungarian anti-Soviet revolution of 1956.Lajos Somogyvári's source material is professionally retrieved, it is unique, it reveals to the reader the mechanism of how the totalitarian power dealt with its opponents by humiliating and physically influencing them.This study is another important contribution to the history of 20th century's totalitarianisms.The focus of the study is revealed by the four research questions, the methodology and the sources used are clearly presented.The author's ethical position, with respect for the actors of recent history, is to be commended.I have just some suggestions to make the text better understandable for an international audience.First and foremost, I would recommend that the author prefaces the article with more background information on the events in Hungary in 1956-57, such as how Hungary came to the Soviet sphere of influence, why the revolution or uprising of 1956 against the existing government started, what forces initiated and led the uprising, what the rebels wanted, and how the uprising was put down.Secondly, I suggest to consider some concepts that the reader may not be familiar with: for example, "After the end of socialism" (p.3)Here I suggest using a more familiar term, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union or the collapse of the Socialist Blok."Reformer communists" (p.5), "Party apparatchiks" (p.6) and "pioneer patrols" (p.10): the text should explain what they were."…the loyal members of the new power" (p.8)What is meant by "the new power" here?Third, I think that the rich material gives rise to broader conclusions that should be more clearly linked to the research questions on page 4. The valuable thoughts expressed in the conclusion section of the summary may also be useful.Admittedly, the meaning of some expressions in the text is not very clear: "came from the contemporary authentic party and military documents" (p.3), "the last stage of socialization has been depicted in agriculture" (p.3), "the special armed troops visiting schools armed groups"(p.3.), "agents of real communism" (p.5), "real hard-core communism" (p.5), "between form teachers and students" (p.9).As there are some other parts of the text that are difficult to read or can be misunderstood, perhaps the services of a proofreading could be helpful here.Some technical notes.I recommend that links to archive material should not be included in the text, but only in footnotes.Is Figure 1 (p.5) necessary?The research process is well described in the text and does not appear to be so complex as to need a scheme.With a few shortcomings addressed, the article by Lajos Somogyvári will certainly be a valuable asset for the international audience of researchers in recent history and totalitarianism, as well as historians of education.
Is the background of the case's history and progression described in sufficient detail?Partly

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature? Yes
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?Not applicable Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?Yes

Is the case presented with sufficient detail to be useful for teaching or other practitioners? Yes
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: History of education, particularly, history of education in the Soviet Union, education of New Soviet Man, visual propaganda in education, as well as childhood representations within museums.
I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard, however I have significant reservations, as outlined above.

Department of Social Sciences, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
The author's text reveals little or completely unknown facts from a critical period of contemporary Hungarian history.Through the historiographical approach of the history of everyday life, he provides some insights into the shape of education not only in the short period of the Hungarian Revolution, but especially in the period that followed the suppression of this revolution.Specifically, it traces the approximate period from the autumn of 1956 to the spring and summer of 1957.The topic may seem marginal from this point of view, but from the point of view of Hungarian history of education, it is one of the neuralgic points and therefore represents a very specific and significant topic.This is evidenced by the words of the author, who states in his text that even after more than half of a century since the events described, it is still a very sensitive issue for many (and not only for the witnesses of these events).Until now, it has essentially been a kind of a taboo.For this reason, I see the publication of the results of research on this topic as very beneficial.On the basis of the information presented in the text, I even believe that the study may contribute to a certain correction of the view of the issue that has been presented so far in Hungarian history of education.For this reason, the contribution of the text can be seen as very crucial as well.The paper is also valuable with regard to the sources and methodology used.In fact, the author works with sources that he discovered by chance and about which nothing has been known before.After all, without this "luck" this study could not have been produced.I also appreciate the fact that the author's methodological description is very extensive.This gives the reader a detailed insight into the methodological "kitchen" of the author and at the same time they can follow step by step how the author worked with different types of sources and how the whole text was created.The very detailed methodological description may have been deliberate, because it also allows an implicit understanding of certain limitations found in the study; for example, a certain "fragmentation" of the themes that construct the main part of the text.The author does not, as the reader might expect, focus on one area of education (e.g.primary education) and deal with it in depth, but, given the currently available sources (of which, I assume, there were only a limited number), he gives an insight into the different levels of education and rather "shows" the different approaches and procedures the repressive regime of the time used for its purposes.This also causes a certain "episodicity" of some of the stories described, or it may constantly raise new questions for the reader, which the text, even considering the availability of sources, cannot answer.Therefore, the study can also be considered a first step towards further in-depth research on the topic.The question is whether it will be possible to find new sources or living witnesses who would be willing to share with us more about the topic.This fact, among other things, raises another question.Namely, whether the author tried to find such witnesses himself and if so, how successful he was in this matter.From the text, unless I have missed something, this is not entirely clear.
The research results themselves are presented in the text in a very appropriate way.They are very suggestive and give the reader a very accurate picture of the everyday reality of the education sector in the period under review and the approaches and procedures that the repressive authorities chose to deal with the situations that arose.In this context, it is a bit of a pity that the author does not also attempt a more general view and summary in the conclusion.In fact, the results presented in the text not only illustrate the situation prevailing in the education system in Hungary at the turn of 1956 and 1957, but de facto show the elements typical of the functioning of totalitarian regimes.In other words, in this light, the text also extends beyond the borders of Hungary, thus undoubtedly acquiring an international dimension in addition to a regional one.

Antonio Francisco Canales Serrano Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain
The article deals with a very interesting topic and makes a relevant contribution to the field of study of the history of education and especially to the history of education under dictatorships.The use of previously unexplored sources, as well as their variety, is remarkable.I would like to make a single suggestion to the author.Is "violence" really the best term for the title?Wouldn't "repression and control" be preferable?Violence refers primarily to the use of physical force and this is not strictly the case here.

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature? Yes
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?Not applicable Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?Yes

Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results? Yes
Is the case presented with sufficient detail to be useful for teaching or other practitioners?Yes Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise: History of Education
I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.
The benefits of publishing with F1000Research: Your article is published within days, with no editorial bias • You can publish traditional articles, null/negative results, case reports, data notes and more • The peer review process is transparent and collaborative • Your article is indexed in PubMed after passing peer review • Dedicated customer support at every stage • For pre-submission enquiries, contact research@f1000.com Zs. Kőrösi and A. Molnár, ed., Carrying a secret in my heart … Children of the Victims of the Reprisal after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.An oral history (Budapest-New York: Central European University Press, 2003).6 V. Sheridan, ʻSupport and surveillance: 1956 Hungarian refugee students in transit to the Joyce Kilmer Reception Centre and to higher education scholarships in the USA', History of Education 45, no.6 (2016): 775-793.7 R. Maruzs, ʻKülönleges feladatok a karhatalomban [Special roles in the armed forces]' in A dolgozó népet szolgálták?Fegyveres testületek és pártirányításuk a szocializmusban [Did they serve the working people?Armed forces and their control by the political party in state socialism].Eds.I. Ötvös and P. Triber (Budapest: NEB, 2018), 67-82.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The three step-research process related to the sources.

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Student: 'Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!We asked you to forget the past!(…) Lieutenant Colonel: 'We are angry with you, like good fathers (…) Do you take any steps to get closer to us? Student: 'Please, trust us in the future!Lieutenant Colonel: 'You have to deserve it first.'" 60 Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?YesIf applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?Not applicableAre all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?YesAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?YesIs the case presented with sufficient detail to be useful for teaching or other practitioners?YesCompeting Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.Reviewer Expertise: History of Education, Pedagogy, History of Everyday LifeI confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.Reviewer Report 17 November 2023 https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.154336.r211274© 2023 Canales Serrano A. This is an open access peer review report distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.