CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Essig, David Aime |
|---|---|
| Title | The Impact of Sovietization: A case study of the Hungarian peasantry under Stalinism |
| Summary | This thesis aims to reintroduce a previously ignored resource into modern-day social studies, namely 600 interviews conducted in 1957/8 by Columbia University with Hungarian refugees, into the academic discourse of the post-Soviet period. The author examines the social effects generated by the imposition of the Soviet model in Hungary upon the middle peasantry, using the period of Stalinization (1948-1953) as a backdrop. The thesis describes an ideological transformation in the peasantry’s traditional understanding of work, politics, the family unit, and social interaction, pointing to unfavourable economic conditions of Hungary’s command economy as providing the catalyst for change. The result is an analysis that portrays both a duality in the demeanour of the peasantry, as well as a divergence from traditional social attitudes to a much more liberalized atmosphere, particularly amongst the younger generation. Both effects are determined to have been heavily influenced by government-initiated social engineering campaigns. In the broader context, this study provides an analysis of a peasant society in its transitional period under Communism, an often neglected topic amongst English-language sources. |
| Supervisor | Constantin Iordachi, Miklos Lojko |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/essig_david.pdf |
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