부산대학교 도서관

The present study examines the conceptions of developing public education whichmade part of the five-year plan launched in 1949 and modified “upwards” in 1951 bythe so-called Rákosi regime. The ideological background and preferences of theseconceptions were set by two mutually contradicting decisions taken by the Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers’ Party (29 March 1950, 15 February 1954),whereas economically they were determined by a military economy driven toirrationality, absurd efforts at increasing economic growth, and the gigantic dream ofcreating a country of iron and steel.The present study is aimed at demonstrating how the professional considerations,arguments and warnings of those working in the public education were given or deniedconsideration in an atmosphere filled with everyday fear, while, with the help ofarchival ducuments reflecting the methods of an overwhelming party direction, it triesto reveal the mutual rivalities and power games among the very leaders of the publiceducation.The author wants to emphasize the crucial importance of the hasty, unconsidereddecisions taken with regard to public education, of the overgrowth of educationalbureaucracy, of the overambitious campaigns aimed at concealing reality, and of theconflicts which set against each other the chief economic institutions (NationalPlanning Institute, Ministry of Finance, Council of National Economy) and those whotried to represent the interests of education, and to draw attention to the unmeasurabledamages which all these factors caused in the area of public education.