ABSTRACT
Both national socialist and Marxist commentators identified violence as a tool used to achieve rational ends: national revival, on the one hand, and the restoration of capitalism and the formation of a fascist state, on the other. Both factions were interested only in macro-events and macro-history, ignoring local conditions, circumstances and actors as the sources of violence. In contrast to other right-wing militias in contemporary Europe, such as the German Freikorps or the Fascist militias in Italy, the Hungarian officers’ companies, which constituted the leading element of Admiral Miklos Horthy’s National Army, had a decisively elite character. Common explanations, such as the importance of relative deprivation as violence generator, ignore the importance of agency. Modeled on the German dueling fraternities, Hungarian fraternities prided themselves on their military prowess and masculine values. Antisemitic violence was an excellent way for radical students to air their anti-intellectualism and terrorize their teachers.
