Abstract

In the spring of 1991, Gyula Benda and Vera Bácskai, then vice-president and
president of the István Hajnal Circle (Hajnal István Kör: HIK), launched a ques-
tionnaire-based survey to build a database of scholars engaged in social history
in Hungary, including their topics and methods, as well as their education, fel-
lowships abroad, language and computer proficiency, and so on. In practice, the
project entailed two questionnaires: one collecting personal data and another
focusing on research. The surviving data clearly remained incomplete, either
because HIK members failed to return the questionnaires in sufficient num-
bers or because the processing of the material was interrupted. I rediscovered,
in my desk drawer, completed questionnaires from fifty-seven individuals, so
I decided to process them for the anniversary issue of Korall. On the one hand,
the analysis charts social-historical dimensions such as generational and regional
distribution, recruitment, prior education, academic qualifications, occupational
groups, and theoretical and methodological orientations. On the other hand, in
order to map individual motivations, I have collected personal records (curricula
vitae) from archives and record offices and, where necessary, conducted inter-
views. These biographical fragments allow for a more vivid picture to emerge
of the early institutionalisation of social history, its state, standard, and overall
character.