ABSTRACT
Plot farming is commonly classified as part of the 'second economy' that thrives parallel to the primary socialized economic sector of Hungary. The particular sense in which 'first' and 'second' economy is used in relation to socialist societies has been a matter of controversy. Chronic house shortages and an economy riddled by scarce resources have been identified as objective economic conditions which stimulate secondary distribution. Family plots in Hungary followed the model of that in Soviet Russia and their position within the socialist economy has been riddled with similar contradictions and ambiguities. The plots' economic function was twofold: first, they were essential for the producers' subsistence, which could not be met by the collectives alone; second, they were meant to ease the transition from private to collective farming. After 1960 the ideological evaluation of plot farming changed and its complementarity to the collectives emphasized, with the plots being represented as quasi-integral parts of collectives.
