A Scientific Discourse on the Position and Role of Military History Half a Century Ago

The Contribution of Géza Perjés to the Debate on Hungarian Military Historiography in Summer 1956

Abstract

In 2005 a session was organized by the Institute of Military History on the position of Hungarian military historiography as a sub-discipline, on its position and role, together with the task of its reform in the light of the new possibilities of military historiographers. On the basis of papers from that time to date one can declare that the problems discussed brought no consensus at all; all the less since they were closely interconnected with other discourses on the autonomy of Hungarian military science, on its structure and on the circumscription of its special fields. So the basic questions raised as early as the middle of the 19th century – the tasks and objectives of military history research and the position of military historiography in the system of sciences – have remained unanswered even by today. This is why the opinion of Géza Perjés (1917–2003), the Hungarian military historiographer of the greatest influence, formed in the summer 1956, seems to be informative and highly current at present, too. The original text of his contribution came to light from his posthumous papers and is published unabridged in this study. According to Perjés military history is an auxiliary science of historical knowledge as a whole, and its task cannot be to help contemporary military praxis because the inherency between military past and present military affairs is far from being immediate or close.
military past and present military affairs is far from being immediate or close.