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The Hungarian Peasantry: 1948-1956
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2019
Extract
The literature on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution has generally ignored the part played by the peasantry. The present article is an attempt to fill that gap, first by examining the activities of the peasantry during the revolution itself, and secondly by attempting to give an account of the forces at work during the preceding years which caused the peasants to support the urban rebellion when it broke out.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1959
References
* I would like to thank Professors Alexander Dallin, Henry L. Roberts, and Paul E. Zinner for their assistance in the preparation of this article.
1 For statistics on the course of collectivization and the proportions of the different types of collectives see East Europe, November, 1957, p. 22. The statistics there are taken from various official Hungarian sources. In the present article the words “kolkhoz” and “collective” are used interchangeably to refer to the whole collectivized sector of agriculture (excluding the sovkhozes).
2 Helmreich, Ernst, ed., East Central Europe Under the Communists: Hungary (New York, 1957), p. 240 Google Scholar.
3 The 1945 land reform eliminated nearly all holdings over 57.6 hectares in size, reduced the number and increased the size of the farms in the 0-2.88 hectare category, and increased both the number and the average size of the farms in the 2.88-5.76 hectare category. For details see ibid., p. 234.
4 Two informants estimate the extent of these “state reserve lands” at 1,000,000 hold in 1952 and 2,000,000 hold in 1953.
5 Szabad Nép, December 16, 1952; East Europe, November, 1957, p. 22. In March, 1953, at the high point of the collectivization movement, 26% of Hungary's arable land was in Kolkhozes. The figure for December, 1952, is 24.6% (both figures are from Helmreich, op. cit., pp. 238-39).
6 Radio Budapest, December 29, 1953; East Europe, November, 1957, p. 22.
7 A broadcast on April 12, 1954, stated that the task of the regime was to win back the middle peasant to the kolkhoz (East Europe, November, 1957, p. 16).
8 Magyar Statisztikai Zsebkönyv, 1956; East Europe, November 1957, p. 22.
9 East Europe, November, 1957, p. 16.
10 Since 13% of the land was permanently in state farms, this meant that the collectivized sector (Types I, II, and III) should comprise at least 37%.
11 Istvan Markus, “The Summing-Up of Somogy,” Csillag, September, 1956; East Europe, November, 1957, p. 20.
12 Magvar Statisztikai Zsebkonyv, 1956; East Europe, November, 1957, p. 22.
13 Nepszabadság, April 10, 1957; East Europe, November, 1957, p. 22.
14 It has been estimated that the rural population decreased by 218,000 between 1949 and 1953 (Helmreich, op. cit., pp. 54-55). This does not include the peasants who worked in town but maintained farms in the country.
15 This is not to imply that before World War II the Hungarian village was a homogeneous unit. However, after the land reform it might have put up a united front against collectivization if new social distinctions and points of friction had not been created.
16 Népszabadság, April 10, 1957; East Europe, November, 1957, p. 22.
17 Borba, October 31, 1956, pp. 1, 3.
18 At the end of 1956 there were 686,800 radios in Hungarian villages (Statisztikai Evkbnyv, 1956, p. 261). Of the 3,202 villages in Hungary, 2,433 were electrified (ibid., p. 270).