Magyar társadalomszervezési kísérletek Észak-Erdélyben (1938–1944)
Hungarian Attempts at the Organization of Society in Northern Transylvania, 1938–1944

Summary/Abstract: Following 1920, the associations of the remaining Hungarian minority in Romania found themselves in a difficult situation in many respects, and were only able to reorganize themselves slowly. It was in parallel with this process that the National Hungarian Party came into being, providing political representation for the minority. During the second half of the 1930s’, criticism against the National Hungarian Party gradually grew stronger. Especially many members of the younger generations believed the Party’s leadership to have broken away from its popular basis. Therefore, they set out to implement a model of social organization capable of integrating the entire Hungarian ethnic minority into a homogeneous organization, simultaneously representing its political, economic and cultural interests. Peculiarly, it was in 1938, with the introduction of the royal dictatorship and the one-party system that the possibility opened up to realize these ideas by calling to life the Hungarian Popular Community. In 1940, following the new change in supremacy, the establishment and operation of Hungarian associations once again became free from obstacles in the Northern Transylvanian regions attached to Hungary. The concepts of organizing the Hungarians in Northern Transylvania on a national, but supra-class basis did not perish either. Using the fragmentary sources available, the present paper wishes to show the extent of the success or failure of such notions and endeavors, and the underlying reasons for them.

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