Kálmán Benda (1913–1994) was a Hungarian historian and archivist. He studied history and geography at the science university of Budapest as a student at the Eötvös College. He got scholarships to pursue studies in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris in 1937–1938. From 1938 to 1942, he was the director of the People’s College in Tata. He worked as an instructor at the Calvinist Grammar School of Budapest (1940–1941) and assistant administrator at the Ministry of Religion and Public Education (1941–1942). In 1942, he began working at the Teleki Pál Science Institute. He served as vice-director at the Institute between 1945 and 1947. He taught at the science university of Budapest (1945–1949), and he was vice-director at the East European Science Institute (1947–1948), but he lost his job at the end of 1948 for political reasons. Benda earned a living doing odd jobs, but in 1950, he was given a position at the Archive of the Church District along the Danube River of the Hungarian Calvinist Church. In 1957–1958, Benda served as the vice-director of the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. From 1958 to 1983, he was a fellow at the Institute. From 1983 to 1985, he was head of department. In 1985–1987, he was a scientific advisor at the Institute. He taught at the school of education at Szeged (1975–1977), and in 1980 he was made the director of the Ráday Collection. In 1984, he became an honorary professor at Eötvös Loránd University. As a scholar, he focused on the history of Hungarian and Transylvanian culture and education in the Early Modern Age.