The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe: Comparison and Entanglements

The Forced Collectivization of Agriculture in Hungary, 1948–1961

The forced Collectivization of agriculture in hungary, 1948–19611 József ö. kováCs Despite the hungarian Communist party’s repressive anti-peasant policies and the suppression of the 1956 revolution, more than three quarters of the hungarian peasantry refused to join the collective system until the forced collectivization campaign from the end of 1958 until early 1961.2 although this fact alone is important—as it involved more than 1.2 million peasants—this essay looks more closely at the social and structural factors that shaped the experience of collectivization in hungary. specifically, it addresses the following questions: how traumatic was the social experience of collectivization? What structural changes did it generate with respect to proprietorship, agricultural management, and peasant lifestyles?3 how did collectivization (re)shape society as a whole? What forms of individual and collective behavior developed during the collectivization campaign? 1 This paper is part of oTKa (hungarian scientific research fund) research program T49424. 2 in 1958 statistical sources reported about 1,580,000 agrarian workers in the private sector. in 1962, only 111,000 of these workers remained. orbán, Két agrárforradalom, 218. During the same period, the number of workers in collectives increased from 169,000 to 1,200,000. valuch, Magyarország, 199. The proportion of new members without property was 53.3 percent; therefore their loss in land value is difficult to estimate. pető and szakács, A hazai gazdaság, 439. 3 Weber, Wirtschaft, 1; suter and hettling, “struktur und ereignis,” 2001, 24–25; alexander, “Toward a Theory;” grenier, “a ‘hosszú,” 1–2, 306–12. 212 József Ö. Kovács in approaching these questions, some methodological issues must be addressed in order to establish on what criteria written historical sources should be evaluated, as there are several forms of historical observation, each with a specific viewpoint and methodology. according to french historian marc Bloch, “the variety of historical evidence is nearly infinite . everything that man says or writes, everything that he makes, everything he touches can and ought to teach us about him.”4 This study gives priority to the experiences and memories of contemporaries, which are important sources of historical observation because dictatorships attempted to suppress those memories by imposing forgetfulness.5 in soviet regimes, the massive expropriation of private properties took place by acts of terror. This procedure was justified by the argument that these properties were a basic obstacle to industrialization and the seizure of political power. The agents of dictatorship considered such an approach a precondition of controlled property acquisition and its partial distribution. party leaders also regarded it as an instrument for minimizing peasant independence, both material and psychological. in manner and in timing, the collectivization campaign impacted all aspects of economic, social, and cultural life. at the same time, it is important to consider forced collectivization as one element of communist socialization. The term “socialization” refers to an interactive social structure in which people were necessarily involved by way of state control, propaganda, political mobilization and personal interests. This particular social situation was given the official designation of an “issue of social importance.” Both in methodology and subject matter, this study is primarily a political social history of collectivization from the bottom up. in the context of the soviet system, the first sustained period of collectivization in hungary lasted from 1948 to 1953. stalin’s death in 1953 ushered in a brief period of liberalization, but party leaders initiated a new collectivization campaign just prior to the 1956 revolution. following an intermediate period from 1957 to 1958, party leaders undertook the final phase, which lasted from 1958 to 1961. The first section of this chapter reviews the main characteristics of the Communist party’s agrarian policies, man4 Bloch, Historian’s, 66. 5 my study is based on written historical documents that at the time were generally classified as secret. i use documents in the archival collections of the national party, ministries, and court system, as well as of each county-level archive of these organizations. i was unable to utilize information based on approximately 40 interviews due to the divergent narrative contents and space limitations. 213 The Forced Collectivization of Agriculture in Hungary agement, and officially designated collectives. The second part of the study presents the agrarian situation following the revolution of 1956, the concluding campaign of collectivization, and issues relating to the social effects of state terror, as well as reactions...