Délvidéki Szemle

Eklézsiák jövedelmi osztályozása a reformkori Bihari Református Egyházmegyében

2026-07-06T16:01:57+02:00

The income classifications of parishes within an ecclesiastical administrative unit offer exciting opportunities for historical research. This study focuses on the Reformed Diocese of Bihar and explores the factors behind the formation of its parish classifications using two methodological approaches. The legitimacy of the classification from 1820 is examined through the collection of ministers’ salary records from 1823, while the classification from 1844 is analyzed on the basis of payments made by congregations to the agents’ treasury between 1822 and 1843. One of the key findings is that within a single ecclesiastical unit, multiple rankings based on different considerations could coexist simultaneously. Furthermore, neither the pastors’ salaries nor local trends in charitable donations exerted an exclusive influence on the classification of parishes.

Rectors of Túrkeve 1724–1821 (1823)1

2026-07-06T16:17:22+02:00

This paper investigates the Reformed school of Túrkeve and its rectors between 1724 and 1821 (with extensions to 1823). After the town’s resettlement following 1711, the school became closely integrated into the network of the Debrecen Reformed College, adopting its curriculum, regulations, and pedagogical norms. Using parish registers, visitation records, salary contracts, and collegiate enrolment data, the study combines institutional history with prosopographical analysis. It argues that the school’s staff and infrastructure stabilised by the late eighteenth century through the rector–praeceptor system, the construction of a new stone school building in 1792, and a regulated mixed remuneration scheme. Reforms introduced in 1807 promoted Hungarian-language elementary instruction alongside the gradual decline of advanced Latin teaching, contributing to sustained enrolment growth and the emergence of a four-grade structure by the early nineteenth century. The prosopographical register identifies thirty-seven rectors, all trained in Debrecen but diverse in origin and social background; rectorates were typically short transitional appointments.

Kárpátalja történelmi felekezeteinek sorsa a késősztálini egyházpolitika fényében (1944–1953)

2026-07-06T16:34:06+02:00

The problem inherent in the subject lies in the fact that, although macro-level syntheses on Soviet church policy during the given period have already been produced in both Russian and Ukrainian, comprehensive and primary-source-based studies focusing specifically on the Transcarpathian region remain scarce. This is particularly true if one seeks a historical work that addresses all of the region’s traditional denominations and/or churches within a single analytical framework. Accordingly, the primary aim of this study is to examine how the fate of the historical churches of the Transcarpathian region evolved in the late Stalinist period (1944–1953) following the change of power in 1944. We also seek to illuminate the political background that shaped the room for maneuver available to the various churches and denominations, and to demonstrate how, through its regulatory measures, the Soviet regime determined and constrained the everyday lives of believers and the practice of their faith.

The Attempted Arson of the Hungarian Reformed School In Vukovar, 1904

2026-07-06T15:00:22+02:00

This paper analyzes the attempted arson of the Hungarian Reformed School in Vukovar in 1904 within the broader context of nationality relations in the late period of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The introductory section provides a brief overview of the long-standing presence of Hungarians in Vukovar and eastern Slavonia, from the Middle Ages to the modern period. The central part of the paper examines the specific incident involving the attempted arson of the school and the local and political context in which it occurred. The event is interpreted as part of the broader tensions between Croatian and Hungarian national politics in the period following the Croatian–Hungarian Compromise, when issues of language, education, and cultural institutions carried strong symbolic value in the shaping of national identities. Particular attention is devoted to the reactions of the Croatian press, which tended to relativize the event, and the Hungarian press, which interpreted it as an example of the vulnerability of the Hungarian minority in Croatia and incorporated it into a broader political discourse on Croatian–Hungarian relations. The paper demonstrates how a local incident in a relatively small community could acquire significantly wider meaning through media interpretation and political instrumentalization. Through an analysis of newspaper sources and the local context, the study highlights the ways in which national tensions at the beginning of the twentieth century were articulated through symbolic conflicts surrounding a single educational institution.

A jugoszláviai reformátusság reprezentációja a csehszlovákiai magyar református egyházi sajtóban 1918–1938 között

2026-07-06T15:25:06+02:00

This article examines the representation of the Reformed communities of Yugoslavia in the official hungarian reformed church periodical Református Egyház és Iskola, published in Czechoslovakia between 1921 and 1938. The study aims to analyse how the journal constructed the image of the Reformed minority living in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and which thematic, narrative, and normative patterns shaped this representation. Methodologically, the article is based on qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis of primary ecclesiastical sources, including church reports, synodical decisions, institutional accounts, and news items. The findings demonstrate that the church press functioned not merely as an informational medium but as an active agent in maintaining minority Reformed identity, legitimising institutional consolidation, and fostering transnational Reformed solidarity. The analysis shows that Református Egyház és Iskola treated legal consolidation, minority conflicts, clergy shortage, diaspora pastoral care, diaconal activity, youth movements, and normative regulation as interconnected discursive fields. By highlighting the normative and mobilising role of ecclesiastical journalism, the article contributes to the historiography of Hungarian Reformed church history and religious press studies, while also offering a comparative framework applicable to the study of minority confessional media in Central and Eastern Europe.

Két kivégzés a Dél-Alföldön a XIX. század utolsó negyedében

2026-07-06T15:37:09+02:00

In our comprehensive research, we examine criminal offences committed in Dualist Hungary for which the perpetrators were sentenced to death and the sentence was ultimately carried out. The new Criminal Code of 1878, the so-called Csemegi Code, significantly restricted the applicability of this most severe sanction: henceforth, it could be imposed only in cases of regicide or attempted regicide, as well as premeditated homicide. As a result, during the period of the so-called “happy years of peace,” the number of executions in Hungary declined markedly compared to earlier times. Either the courts did not impose such sentences at all, or, if they did, the penalties of convicted defendants were often mitigated by higher courts on appeal; in the final instance, the monarch also granted clemency on numerous occasions. In the present study, we present two cases of robbery-murder from the southern Great Plain dating from 1877 and 1884, the perpetrators of which ultimately met their end on the gallows.

Kisvilágok határvidékén

2026-07-06T15:48:56+02:00

A tanulmány Németh István vajdasági magyar publicista és prózaíró életművét vizsgálja, különös figyelmet fordítva vidéki témájú riportjaira és drávaszögi írásaira. Bemutatja, hogyan válik a hírlapírói gyakorlat az irodalmi igényű szociográfiai ábrázolás eszközévé, ahol a társadalmi riport jelentős történelmi és néprajzi összefüggésekkel gazdagodik. Kiemeli Németh István kisebbségcentrikus, megértő szemléletét, amely a periférián élő vidéki közösségek mindennapjait, sorsát és kollektív értékeit helyezi középpontba. Részletesen kitér a szépirodalmi kapcsolatokra, átjárásokra, valamint a publicisztikai műfaj híd szerepére. A tanulmány hangsúlyozza az empátia, a kölcsönös megértés és a hiteles megszólaltatás jelentőségét, és rámutat arra, hogy ezek az írások a kisebbségi élet fontos közösségi összefüggéseit dokumentálják. Németh István hírlapírói tevékenysége így nemcsak színvonalas társadalmi és történelmi környezetrajzként értékelhető, hanem a délvidéki kulturális emlékezet szempontjából is jelentős forrásként szolgálhat.