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Hungary Specialized-Officer Programs
Despite the benefits, youth in the late 1980s showed
little
interest in professional military careers. According to
the
Ministry of Defense, this lack of interest resulted in a
pool of
applicants smaller than the number needed for a good
selection of
candidates.
Candidates for officer training were chosen by the
ministries
of defense, interior, and education, together with the
Communist
Youth League's central committee
(see Mass Organizations
, ch. 2).
These candidates had to be of "good character,"
politically
reliable, physically fit, single, and not over twenty-one
years
of age, and they had to demonstrate military aptitude.
They were
required to take mathematics and physics tests and
psychological
examinations. Knowledge of Russian was necessary to become
an
officer in the air force. After such screening, candidates
then
attended a military college for four years as officer
cadets.
After passing final examinations, they became junior
officers (in
the army, air force, or border guard) and were obligated
to serve
fifteen years.
Political officers were trained in military colleges
but took
different courses. A background in the Communist Youth
League and
the Hungarian National Defense Association (Magyar
honvedelmi
szovetseg--MHSz) helped in selection for this career.
Older
candidates were chosen from the party apparatus or from
those
with degrees in the "science of Marxism-Leninism." The
Ministry
of Defense's Main Political Administration oversaw the
selection
and screening of political officers.
In the late 1980s, the HPA operated schools ranging
from
secondary schools through colleges for the academic,
technical,
and political training and advancement of regular
personnel. Many
senior officers, in addition to successfully completing
military
schooling at all levels, also were sent to the Soviet
Union for
courses in that country's military institutions. Such
Soviet
schools included the Voroshilov General Staff Military
Academy in
Moscow, the Frunze Military Academy and the Malinovskii
Military
Academy, the Zhukov Air Defense Academy, and the Moscow
Military
Academy of the General Staff. Courses of study in the
Soviet
Union lasted from two to eight years. The Soviet Union
also sent
lecturers and textbooks to Hungary. Hungarian officers
also were
trained in Czechoslovakia and Poland.
The military academies were the highest level of
military
schooling, the most important of which was the Miklos
Zrinyi
Military Academy in Budapest. Before 1968 its entrance
requirements were lenient, but after that time entry was
obtained
only upon the successful completion of a military college
or an
officers' training school of equivalent ranking. The
course of
study took three years, and a variety of subjects were
offered.
Graduation from the Miklos Zrinyi Military Academy was
necessary
to attain high-level command positions.
The Lajos Kossuth Military Academy in Szentendre in
Pest
County also ranked high in the military education system.
It was
considered to be academically equal to other institutions
of
higher learning. Graduates were commissioned as army
officers.
The Lajos Kossuth Military Academy offered specialized
training
in mechanized infantry, armored troops, surface-to-surface
artillery, engineering, military economy and supply, and
border
guard work. The Kossuth Academy required knowledge of two
foreign
languages, one of which had to be Russian. The school also
offered many courses on various aspects of
Marxism-Leninism.
Other high-level military schools included the Mate
Zalka
Technical Military Academy in Budapest, which specialized
in
antiaircraft, artillery, radar technology, signaling and
telecommunications, and nuclear, biological, and chemical
(NBC)
defense and warfare; the Gyorgy Kilian Technical Air Force
Academy, which trained ground and air crews and taught
aviation
and aircraft maintenance; the Honved Military College,
which
offered a three-year course of study for university
graduates
training to become officers; and the Frigyes Karikas
Military
College. The HPA also operated specialized military high
schools
in Eger, Nyiregyhaza, and Tata.
Volunteers for military colleges were generally between
the
ages of eighteen and twenty-one and were drawn from all
parts of
the country. As a group, their precollege academic
performance
was not impressive. Nearly three-quarters chose a military
career
because they liked the military life-style and its
contribution
to society. The remainder had motives that the HPA found
less
than admirable, such as the desire for high pay and fringe
benefits, and had goals that have been described as
"incoherent"
or "selfish," such as a desire for adventure. Some
students also
came from families with a strong military tradition. In
the mid1970s , about 14 percent of the students at the Gyorgy
Kilian
Technical Air Force Academy and 19 percent of those sent
to study
at Soviet military colleges had at least one parent with a
military background.
Warrant officers were selected from career servicemen
and
conscripts. They could not be older than twenty-three, and
they
had to have had at least an eight-year general
(elementary)
school education certificate. Their training took two
years, and
they could be promoted to the rank of sergeant or staff
sergeant.
They were obligated to serve at least twelve years.
Officers and regimental sergeants major (sergeant,
master
sergeant, and sergeant major) in the military were
compensated
relatively well. Although starting salaries were low, they
more
than doubled after fifteen to twenty years of service.
Officers
also received an additional clothing allowance. They could
retire
at age fifty-five instead of age sixty (the age required
for the
rest of the population), and their pensions totaled 60 to
90
percent of the average of their last five years' salaries.
They
also received from twenty-five to thirty-seven days of
vacation a
year.
However, the professional military life also had its
disadvantages. Officers could not engage in the second,
unofficial economy and were thus required to live solely
off
their salaries, a difficult situation in Hungary
(see Domestic Consumption
, ch. 3). The housing provided by the military
was
both cramped and substandard. A professional soldier could
be
assigned to four or five different garrisons during his
career,
requiring moves by the entire family. In some locations,
wives
could not easily find suitable employment, essential
foods, and
social services. Military authorities were very concerned
about
the increasing alienation and materialism and the
resulting high
rates of alcoholism, suicide, and divorce among officers
of the
HPA.
Data as of September 1989
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