A véderőtüntetések résztvevői
Participants of the Military Service Protests

Summary/Abstract: During the first three months of 1889 Hungary’s capital was loud from the clamor of protests. The students were the first to hold demonstrations protesting against the legal amendment whereby they would have had to serve an extra year unless they passed the officers’ examination after their first year of military service, i.e. they would have had to serve just a single year less than ordinary mortals. The university movement was used by the opposition parties to propagate their political view according to which “the situation of Hungary is bad within the Monarchy” as well as to turn the government out of office. During the politicization of the series of protests the composition of its leaders changed as well: the traditional student elite was replaced in part by the oppositions political sympathizers. Several members of the lower classes also joined the street protests, and their activities appeared to threaten the social order in the eyes of many. Accordingly, the powers that took a much harsher line against them than against the “educated youth” perceived as “our sons”. Although the legal amendment under dispute was finally accepted by the Parliament, the three months’ protests had a definitive role in the fall of prime-minister Kálmán Tisza one year afterwards.

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