Absztrakt

After the 1916 Romanian incursion, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled from Transylvania to what were perceived as safer areas in Hungary. Using a socio-historical approach, the study analyzes the fate of teachers from both liberal arts and science-focused high schools who fled Transylvania in 1916. The biographies of these teachers are identified through archival sources and school reports and analyzed using the method of collective biography. The analysis primarily focuses on dissenting cases. On one hand, it addresses why their idiosyncratic destination choices often deviated from their official appointment, and to what extent they were supported or rejected by the local communities. On the other hand, it also investigates the behavior of those teachers who refused to return home, and how their individual interests affected their decisions. The study argues that the attitudes exhibited during this period may have served as a model for group formation observed during the imperial transformation after World War I, as partially explored in previous research by Balázs Ablonczy and Ágnes Ordasi. Alongside archival sources (Hungarian National Archives, Transylvanian Reformed Church Archives in Cluj, Romanian National Archives in Cluj, Alba Iulia Archepiscopal Archives), the research used school reports and various press materials to determine the number of refugee teachers.