ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of state-building imperatives in the Hungarian context utilizing the several models of peasant-state interaction developed. The policy of forced collectivization in Hungary had a divisive effect at all levels of society. In examining the significance of class warfare in the Hungarian case, it is necessary to determine the dimensions of rural inequality in Hungary and the relative strengths of the Hungarian Communist Party and the rural opposition. The record in Hungary seems to indicate a combination of class-based policies and anti-rural policies in general. Agricultural development in the Hungarian Plains, a flat open region suitable to large-scale cultivation, had been limited by lack of sufficient water. While the collectivization movement in Poland was centered in particular regions, Hungarian policy-makers were interested in establishing collectives throughout the countryside to serve as models for the independent smallholders. The Soviet government also refused to support Hungarian pleas for a revision of the Transylvanien border with Romania.
