Land Reform, Collectivization, Hungarians and South Slavs in the Baja Triangle (1945–1956)

The years following the Second World War brought dramatic changes in the economic and social situation of the Hungarian peasantry. The radical land distribution was followed by the Sovietization of agriculture and the first waves of collectivization, which caused a real crisis in the countryside. In this paper, I will analyse the land distribution and collectivization process in the ethnically mixed villages of a small region along the Hungarian-Yugoslav border. I will focus on the local South Slavic minority and its attitude to land distribution and collectivization. The archival sources also seem to indicate that during land distribution the South Slavs found themselves in a privileged position in the Baja Triangle. Moreover, social tensions were sometimes mixed with an ethnic dimension, too. The examination of the above questions is also justified by the fact that on the other side of the border, in Yugoslavia, an opposite process began in the 1950s, which could provide the locals with an opportunity for comparison.