Beyond the plan: plot farming in Hungary

Abstract

In the course of the collectivization campaign in Hungary, the options open to the peasantry were very limited or at least heavily channeled toward specific directions. Options were open, however, as regards the engagement of family labour in various sectors of production such as, for example, nonagricultural employment in industry or collectivized agriculture. The terms of engagement of the former peasants in the various sectors - both agricultural and non-agricultural is a crucial question. As it will be argued in this study, the form this engagment takes, had, and continues to have, significant consequences on the development of the different sectors themselves, which may coincide with or diverge from, the aims of central economic planning at various points. For example, since the 1950s, there has been a vast influx of manpower from agriculture into industry, allowing the completion of its planned growth. On the other hand, the emergence of a new and resilient sector of private production, alongside collectivized agriculture, was quite unforeseen and unbidden. The unplanned development of the plot farming sector is inseparable from collectivization itself.