ABSTRACT
A widening gap in income and living standards within villages had become evident as early as 1982-83. It was partly that the shift away from collective agriculture gave advantages to the more capable and more entrepreneurial farmers. But even more important was that some families quickly had begun to earn a substantial part of their livings outside of agriculture. During the previous several decades of socialism, while the rural economy had expanded, essential rural services in commerce, transport, repair work, and residential construction had been curtailed. A vacuum was created, and in the climate of economic liberalization of the early 1980s, a surge of peasants rushed to fill it. 1
