ABSTRACT
Pecsely has remained a relatively vital community both in its people and its physical growth but, as S. H. Franklin writes, 'a vital rural community is not synonymous with a vital peasant society.' In Pecsely , social divisions based on landownership lapsed very gradually and affected the course of collectivization. The limitations of non-agricultural employment vary regionally; in villages like Pecsely , where industrial and service jobs are plentiful in nearby towns, limitations are few. The collectives in Hungary are irrevocably integrated into the rural social structure and in Pecsely no evidence was found of a desire to revert to individual farming. The distinction is apt, for the relative vitality of Pecsely springs from its successful collective, the commercial value of its plotfarming products and the availability of non-agricultural employment near the village. This specific combination of features preserved Pecsely from the massive depopulation and slow death that have been the fate of many Hungarian villages of similar size.
