ABSTRACT
In Hungary, prior to World War II, there were only 77 divorces for every 1,000 marriages. Of course, the divorce laws of Catholic Hungary made it extremely difficult to obtain official dissolution of a marriage. Thus, young people divorce one another before they have succeeded in establishing their own private life with even a minimum of possessions to call their own. In Hungary, as well as in many socialist countries, the most common form of divorce is the no-fault divorce, or as it is called in Hungary, "marriage terminated by common consent." Single and divorced, widowed or separated mothers work themselves half to death to bring up their children alone, frequently in places where the former husband, often with a new mate, still occupies a room. Unlike in the past, when "being divorced" meant something bad, something "socially unacceptable," today being divorced is like having had an appendectomy, at least for most people.
