István I. Mócsy:The Effects of World War I ...

Acknowledgments

Brooklyn College Program on Society in Change conducts research, organizes conferences, and publishes scholarly books. The Program has been encouraged and supported by Dr. Robert L. Hess, the President of Brooklyn College. The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Program a research grant for the years 1978-1981, which was renewed for another three year term (1981-1984). The International Research and Exchanges Board, the Joint Committee on Eastern Europe of the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Science Research Council have given additional support. Without these substantial and much appreciated supports, the Program could not realize its goals, indeed, could not exist. The University of Santa Clara provided added help in completing the research, holding conferences, and covering the costs of preparation of the manuscript for publication.

The copy editing was done by Mr. Roberto Cambria; the preparation of the manuscript for publication by Mrs. Dorothy Meyerson, Assistant Director, and Mr. Jonathan A. Chanis, Assistant Editor, both on the staff of Brooklyn College Program on Society in Change. The maps were prepared by Mrs. Ida E. Romann.

To all these institutions and persons, I wish to express my most sincere appreciation and thanks. Highland Lakes, New Jersey Béla K. Király March 15, 1983 Professor Emeritus Editor-in-Chief

Preface

The present volume is the twelfth in a series which, when completed, hopes to present a comprehensive survey of the many aspects of War and Society in East Central Europe during the past two centuries. These volumes deal with the peoples whose homelands lie between the Germans to the west, the Russians to the east and north, and the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas to the south. They constitute a particular civilization, an integral part of Europe, yet substantially different from the West. Within the area, there are intriguing variations in language, religion, and government; so, too, are there differences in concepts of national defense, of the characters of the armed forces, and of the ways of waging war. Study of this complex subject demands a multidisciplinary approach.

The present volume is a pioneering experiment in the history of refugees, who were forced to leave their homeland as a consequence of war. The particular significance of this kind of study is that masses escaping the scenes of ravages of war is a paramount East Central European experience. Within the land of the Crown of St. Stephen, mass exodus of people in all directions was quite a constant phenomenon. Probably the first massive refugee movement into Hungary was that of the Serbs as early as the reign of Matthias Corvinus. The Renaissance Monarch of Hungary opened the southern borders of the kingdom to give refuge to Serbs fleeing Ottoman rule. That movement climaxed with the entry into Hungary of 200,000 Serbs under the leadership of Arzen Cernovic, the Patriarch of Ipek, in 1690. Major Romanian influx occurred during the reign of the Phanariot Hospodars in the Danubian Principalities between the early eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: the Phanariots' exploitative rule caused masses of Romanians to seek haven in Hungary.

Hungarians themselves moved in great numbers from the Great Hungarian Plain to the north to escape Ottoman rule. The first time, when Hungarians had to escape from their land of birth and converge in inner Hungary from all directions at the same time, was the half decade immediately following World War I. Their experience, tragic for Hungarians though it was, nonetheless has been but one example of the multitude of similar agonies of East Central Europe.

Professor Mócsy's research fits comfortably into the general line of this series, for we are studying military history, not in a "militaristic", way, but in its relationship to other aspects of history. Our investigation focuses on a comparative survey of military behavior and organization of the various East Central European nations to see what is peculiar to them? what has been socially and culturally determined. and what in their conduct of war was due to circumstance. Besides conducting a historical survey, we try to define different patterns of military behavior. including the decision-making processes, the attitudes and actions of diverse social classes and the restraints or lack of them shown in war.

We endeavor to present considerable material on the effects of social, economic, political. and technological changes. and of changes in the sciences and in international relations on the development of doctrines of national defense and practices in military organization, command, strategy, and tactics. We present data on the social origins and mobility of the officer corps and the rank and file, on the differences between the officer corps of the various services, and above all, on the civil-military relationship and the origins of the East Central European brand of militarism. This volume certainly casts a glance on all these aspects as well as on the origins of the Horthy Army and its effects on Hungarian society between the two world wars.

Our methodology takes into account that, in the last three decades, the study of war and national defense systems has moved away from narrow concern with battles, campaigns, and leaders and has come to concern itself with the evolution of society as a whole. In fact, the interdependence of changes in society and changes in warfare, and the proposition that military institutions closely reflect the character of the society of which they are a part, have come to be accepted by historians, political scientists, sociologists, philosophers, and other students of war and national defense. Recognition of this fact constitutes one of the keystones of our approach to the subject. This volume, an experiment in the history of refugees, the victims of war, properly indicates the diversification of our interest in the various effects of war on East Central European societies. The particular significance of this volume is the careful examination of the painful birth of a new army built on the ashes of a great empire, after two frustrated revolutions and a successful counterrevolution .

Works in Eastern languages adequately cover the diplomatic, political, intellectual, social, and economic histories of these peoples and this area. In contrast, few substantial studies of their national defense systems have yet appeared in Western languages. Similarly, though some substantial, comprehensive accounts of the nonmilitary aspects of the history of the whole region have been published in the West, nothing has yet appeared in any Western language about the national defense systems of the whole area. Nor is there any study of the mutual effects Of the concepts and practices of national defense in East Central Europe. Thus. this comprehensive study on War and Society in East Central Europe is a pioneering work, the present volume being no exception .

The volume investigates one of the effects of World War I on East Central European society. In this respect. this is not the only item in the series: there are four volumes either already published or being published simultaneously with this book which should be considered companion volumes of the present work. Together they offer quite a broad view on what World War 1, the first total war, did to East Central Europe. These companion volumes in the War and Society in East Central Europe subseries are:

Vol. V. Essays on World War 1: Origins and Prisoners of War. Edited by Samuel R. Williamson, Jr. and Peter Pastor. 1982.

Vol. VI. Essays on World War 1: Total War and Peacemaking, A Case Study on Trianon. Edited by Béla K. Király. Peter Pastor. and Ivan Sanders, 1983.

Vol. IX. Kálmán Janics. Czechoslovak Policy and Hungarian Minority, 1945-1948. 1982.

Vol. XIII. Effects of World War 1: The Class War After the Great War: The Rise of Communist Parties in East Central Europe, 1918-1921. Edited by Ivo Banac. 1983.

István I. Mócsy:The Effects of World War I ...