Az ismeretlen katona. Kurucz János (1916–1951). Kísérlet életrajzra
An unknown soldier: János Kurucz (1916–1951) – Attempt at a biography

Summary/Abstract: Being of peasant stock, János Kurucz, whose life is the subject of this study, was a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; then over two decades later, he became one of the unknown soldiers of the Second Hungarian Army. Under higher orders – together with German, Italian, Slovak and other fellow-soldiers of diverse nations – he was sent to fight on the Russian front in 1942 and 1943. One month after the Soviet breakthrough of 12 January 1943, he started a diary, when, during the retreat, accompanied by an unknown friend, he kept breaking away from the march. This act of breaking away, at the same time, meant and presupposed independence and being outside the law. Although known to be religious, Kurucz was forced to transgress religious prescriptions, and his diary offers an insight into his inner world, while we can trace a series of individual decisions under extraordinary circumstances. With the help of the diary, the problem of obligations and liberty, or the observation of systems of norms can be investigated. Kurucz, as opposed to his nearly 120 thousand fellow Hungarians, returned from the bend of the Don, but becoming the victim of a disease contracted during the war, a hundred per cent disabled veteran, he died in 1951. My biography is an attempt to sketch the brief course of life of Kurucz from a tiny village of Somogy County on the road to the army, continuously shifting the perspective, relying on personal (family-related) and official sources alike.

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