No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
“Yugoslavia has Nothing. Yugoslavia has No Bread. But Hungary Gives Us Bread”: Access to Food and (Dis)loyalty in a “Redeemed” Yugoslav Borderland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 March 2024
Abstract
This article illustrates the socioeconomic background of rural political discontent in the post-imperial Yugoslav border region Prekmurje. The author argues that during the post-Habsburg political transition and ensuing social transformation, the fundamental lack of loyalty to the Yugoslav state among an important segment of the rural population of Prekmurje was rooted in insufficient access to food. Documents of court proceedings, official state reports, and findings of individuals with deep understandings of the situation on the ground reveal that this rural political mobilization was not so much a reflection of Hungarian propaganda or a “lack of appropriate national identification” among the local population—although, of course, these two factors cannot be ignored in a contested and linguistically and ethnically diverse region—but rather an outcome of the impoverishment of large sections of the peasant population.
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Regents of the University of Minnesota
References
1 On the Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission and the border in Prekmurje, see Cree, David, “Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission,” The Geographical Journal 65, no. 2 (1925): 89–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kyovsky, Rudy, “Trianonska pogodba in slovensko-ogrska meja (The Treaty of Trianon and the Slovene-Hungarian Border),” in Revolucionarno vrenje v Pomurju v letih 1918–1920 (Revolutionary Upheaval in Pomurje, 1918–20), ed. Liška, Janko (Murska Sobota, 1981), 236–59Google Scholar; Göncz, László, “Življenje ob novi državni meji po priključitvi Prekmurja Kraljevini SHS in delo razmejitvene komisije na tem odseku (Life on the New State Border after the Annexation of Prekmurje to the SHS Kingdom and the Work of the Boundary Commission on That Section),” in “Mi vsi živeti ščemo”: Prekmurje 1919: Okoliščine, dogajanje, posledice (“We All Want to Live”: Prekmurje 1919: Circumstances, Events, Consequences), eds. Peter Štih, Kornelija Ajlec, and Attila Kovács (Ljubljana, 2020), 293–350Google Scholar; Slavič, Matija, Naše Prekmurje: zbrane razprave in članki (Our Prekmurje: Collected Discussions and Articles), ed. Vrbnjak, Viktor (Murska Sobota, 1999)Google Scholar; and Kokolj, Miroslav, Prekmurski Slovenci: od narodne osvoboditve do nacistične okupacije: 1919–1941 (The Prekmurian Slovenes: From National Liberation to Nazi Occupation: 1919–41) (Murska Sobota, 1984), 120–26Google Scholar. Although the official name of the state was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929 onward), it will be referred to as “Yugoslavia” or the “South Slav state” throughout this article.
2 Archives of the Republic of Slovenia (hereafter: ARS), SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V, Pov. št. 896/IV., Komanda V. žandarmerijske brigade, Demonstracije v Prekmurju.
3 In the context of Slovenian ethnolinguistic discourse, the term “Magyaron” implied national apostasy and was used to designate individuals who were supposedly “of Slovenian ethnic origins” but who, for various reasons, had given up their true national identity and become Hungarians.
4 On the national appropriation of the western parts of Hungary by Slovene national activists and ethnographers, see Kosi, Jernej, “‘However, the Language Here is Changing Gradually, and in the Presence of So Many Local Dialects the Croatian and Its kindred Slovenian World Cannot be Separated Very Precisely’ – Drawing the Slovenian-Croatian National Border in the Territory of the Present-day Prekmurje Region,” Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino 57, no. 2 (2017): 33–50Google Scholar; idem., “The Imagined Slovene Nation and Local Categories of Identification: ‘Slovenes’ in the Kingdom of Hungary and Postwar Prekmurje,” Austrian History Yearbook 49 (2018): 87–102, here 90–94.
5 On the context that paved the way for the Yugoslav occupation of Prekmurje, see Hornyák, Árpád, Hungarian-Yugoslav Diplomatic Relations 1918–1927 (Boulder, 2013), 46–49Google Scholar; Contributions in Peter Štih et al., eds., “Mi vsi živeti ščemo.”
6 Definitivni rezultati popisa stanovništva od 31 Januara 1921 god./Résultats définitifs du recensement de la population du 31 Janvier 1921 (Sarajevo, 1932), 320–28.
7 A Magyar Királyi Központi Statisztikai Hivatal, A Magyar Szent Korona Országainak 1910. évi népszámlálása (The 1910 Census of the Lands of the Hungarian Holy Crown) (Budapest, 1912). The data for Prekmurje was compiled and processed by Attila Kovács, whom I would like to thank kindly for providing me with the information.
8 Janez Malačič, “Demografski razvoj v Prekmurju 1919–2019: Upadanje prebivalstva ter modernizacija razvoja (Demographic Development in Prekmurje 1919–2019: Population Decline and the Development of Modernization),” in “Mi vsi živeti ščemo,” 355–57.
9 Kokolj, Prekmurski Slovenci, 589.
10 Mihael Kuzmič, Slovenski izseljenci iz Prekmurja v Bethlehemu v ZDA: 1893–1924: naselitev in njihove zgodovinske, socialne, politične, literarne in verske dejavnosti (Slovene Emigrants from Prekmurje to Bethlehem, USA: 1893–1924: The Settlers and Their Historical, Social, Political, Literary, and Religious Activities) (Ljubljana, 2001); Matija Maučec, “Prenaseljenost in sezonsko izseljevanje v Prekmurju (Overpopulation and Seasonal Migration in Prekmurje),” Geografski vestnik 9 (1933): 107–17; Ludvik Olas, “Razvoj in problemi sezonskega zaposlovanja prekmurskega prebivalstva (The Development and Problems of Seasonal Employment Among the Prekmurian Population),” Geografski vestnik 12 (1956): 176–208.
11 On modernization and economic development during the interwar period, see Metka Fujs, “Razvoj industrije in socialnopolitični položaj delavstva v Prekmurju med vojnama (The Development of Industry and the Socio-Political Position of the Working Class in Prekmurje Between the Wars),” in Razvoj delavskega gibanja v Prekmurju med vojnama (The Development of the Workers’ Movement in Prekmurje Between the Wars), ed. Ludvik Sočič (Murska Sobota, 1987), 6–45; Rudi Čačinovič, “Politični in socialni razvoj Prekmurja med obema vojnama (The Political and Social Development of Prekmurje Between the Two Wars),” in Prekmurski Slovenci v zgodovini: zbornik razprav o posebnih potezah zgodovinskega razvoja Prekmurja (Prekmurian Slovenes in History: A Collection of Discussions on Special Features of the Historical Development of Prekmurje), ed. Bogo Grafenauer (Murska Sobota, 1961), 117–29. On the banking system in Prekmurje, see Ferid G. Keršovan, “Murskosoboške banke v preteklosti: spomini (The Banks of Murska Sobota in the Past: Memories),” Kronika 12, no. 2 (1964): 105–10.
12 Gordana Šövegeš Lipovšek, Prišo je glás: Prekmurci v vojni 1914–1918. Padli in pogrešani (The Letter Arrived: Prekmurians in the War 1914–1918. The Fallen and Missing) (Murska Sobota, 2016).
13 The contribution of Prekmurian locals to the war effort primarily included the purchase of government-backed war bonds, participation in the activities of local Red Cross branches, care for the wounded, and the collection of raw materials. See Miklós Melega, “Podnošenje žrtve i solidarnosti—Okrug Murska Sobota kao ratna pozadina (1914–1918) (The Sacrifice of Victims and Solidarity—The District of Murska Sobota as a Backdrop to the War (1914-–1918)),” in Pomurje 1914–1920.: zbornik radova/Mura mente 1914–1920.: szöveggyűjtemény (Pomurje 1914–1920: Collection of Works), ed. Branimir Bunjac (Čakovec/Csáktornya: Povijesno društvo Međimurske županije, 2011), 59–82; Darja Kerec, “Prekmurje leta 1917 (Prekmurje, 1917),” Studia Historica Slovenica 18, no. 3 (2018): 811–25.
14 Zoltán Paksy, “Dejavnost vodilnih teles za Medžimurje in Pomurje v letih 1918–1919 (Activities of the Leading Bodies for Međimurje and Pomurje, 1918–1919),” Zbornik soboškega muzeja, no. 11/12 (2008): 7–22; Ibolya Foki, “Protest županije Zala protiv odcjepljenja međimurskih i pomurskih naselja (The Protest of Zala County Against the Secession of Settlements in Međimurje and Pomurje),” in Pomurje 1914–1920, 303–12.
15 On looting of shops in the village of Beltinci, see Ivan Jerič, Moji spomini (My Recollections) (Murska Sobota, 2000), 40–41.
16 Ferid G. Keršovan, “Spomini na gospodarsko in socialno življenje v Prekmurju (Recollections of Economic and Social Life in Prekmurje),” Kronika 12, no. 3 (1964): 169–84.
17 László Göncz, “Načrti avtonomne in upravne organiziranosti Slovenske krajine v obdobju Károlyijeve ljudske republike (od novembra 1918 do marca 1919) (Plans for the Autonomous and Administrative Organization of Slovene Lands in the Period of Károlyi's People's Republic (from November 1918 to March 1919)),” Studia Historica Slovenica 21, no. 3 (2021): 727–87; Julij Titl, Murska republika 1919 (The Republic of Prekmurje, 1919) (Murska Sobota, 1970); György Feiszt, “Revolucionarni pokret u Prekmurju od 1918. do 1919. (The Revolutionary Movement in Prekmurje from 1918 to 1919),” in Pomurje 1914–1920, 345–52; Kokolj, Prekmurski Slovenci, 126–89; idem., “Prekmurje v prevratnih letih 1918–1919 (Prekmurje in the Revolutionary Years 1918–1919),” in Revolucionarno vrenje v Pomurju v letih 1918–1920 (The Revolutionary Upheaval in Pomurje, 1918–1920), ed. Janko Liška (Pomurska založba, 1981), 153–205.
18 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (V 1919–1925), no. 10278.
19 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje V, no. 46 (Izvleček iz poročila komandirja orožniške čete za Prekmurje).
20 ARS, SI AS 60, box 6, no. 4007, Prekmurje, situacijsko poročilo.
21 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje V, no. 12688.
22 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (V 1919–1925), no. 12943 (8.11.1919).
23 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (V 1919–1925), no. 20 (Razmere v Prekmurju).
24 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje V, no. 46 (Izvleček iz poročila komandirja orožniške čete za Prekmurje).
25 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (Prekmurje – razmere v Prekmurju), no. 803 (Situacijsko poročilo).
26 Regional Archives, Maribor (hereafter: RAM), SI PAM/0645/003/00721 Kazenski spis Okrožnega sodišča Maribor (hereafter: KS) Vr IX 2037/21 (168/6).
27 Kokolj, Prekmurski Slovenci, 120–24.
28 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (1).
29 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (135, Jožef Ritoper) – The line is taken from Sándor Petőfi's Nemzeti dal (National Song), recited on 15 March 1848 in Budapest, celebrated as the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49.
30 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (73, Ivan Mürec).
31 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (71, Jožef Gašpar).
32 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (153).
33 This kind of argument is presented in the article “On the Events in Murska Sobota,” published in the newspaper Tabor, an organ of the Slovenian branch of the centralist and integralist-oriented Yugoslav Democratic Party. “K dogodkom v Murski Soboti,” Tabor, no. 215, 22 September 1921, 1.
34 Ibid. – Sándor Mikola (1871 in Gornji Petrovci/Péterhegy – 1945 in Nagykanisza), grammar school teacher of mathematics and physics. In the aftermath of the Yugoslav occupation of Prekmurje (and his birthplace), he worked as a Hungarian political activist and advocate of the theory of the Prekmurje Slavophones as a special non-Slavic community—descendants of the Vandals. During this period he maintained contacts with opponents of the Yugoslav regime in Prekmurje, participating as a member of the Hungarian delegation (expert on Prekmurje) at the Paris Peace Conference and editing a newspaper, Domovina. See Vilko Novak, “Mikola, Aleksander (1871–1945),” in Slovenska biografija (Ljubljana, 2013). http://www.slovenska-biografija.si/oseba/sbi367787/#slovenski-biografski-leksikon (14 November 2022); Julijana Vöröš, “MIKOLA, Sandor. (1871–1945)” (Kranj, 2020). https://www.obrazislovenskihpokrajin.si/it/oseba/mikola-sandor/.
35 The events were summarized in this manner by the “semi-official” newspapers of both the Slovenian liberal and the Slovenian Catholic political elite. See “Madžaronske demonstracije v Prekmurju,” Slovenski narod, no. 214, 25 September 1921, 2; and “Razmejitev med Jugoslavijo in Madžarsko,” Slovenec, no. 215, 22 September 1921, 1.
36 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21.
37 Kosi, “The Imagined Slovene Nation,” 95–102; idem., “Summer of 1919: A Radical, Irreversible, Liberating Break in Prekmurje/Muravidék?” Hungarian Historical Review 9, no. 1 (2020): 51–68, here 63–64.
38 In the years after the occupation, the Yugoslav security authorities kept a long list of “suspicious anti-Yugoslav elements” in Prekmurje. See ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (Prekmurje – razmere v Prekmurju), no. 816 (Seznam politično sumljivih in državi nevarnih oseb in inozemcev območja 5. orožniške čete). In particular, Protestant pastors and Catholic clergy were said to be “overwhelmingly of Hungarian and Magyaron mind.” See Peter Ribnikar, ed., Sejni zapisniki Narodne vlade Slovencev, Hrvatov in Srbov v Ljubljani in Deželnih vlad za Slovenijo: 1918–1921 (Minutes of the Meetings of the National Government of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in Ljubljana and the Regional Government for Slovenia), vol. 3 (Ljubljana, 2002), 263, 269.
39 Janez Nemec (1912–2001) described in his “Spomini na mlada leta (Memories of My Youth)” how his father, a bilingual Hungarian-oriented owner of a hardware store in Murska Sobota, secretly read smuggled material in his bed. The unpublished memoirs are in the author's possession.
40 On the Covering Letter, see Cree, “Yugoslav-Hungarian,” 92–93.
41 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (Prekmurje – razmere v Prekmurju), no. 896 (“Demonstracije v Prekmurju”. Komanda V. žandarmerijske brigade – Komandantu celokupne žandarmerije).
42 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (Prekmurje – razmere v Prekmurju), no. 845 (Okrajno glavarstvo v Murski Soboti. Situacijsko poročilo. 22.9.1921).
43 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (Prekmurje – razmere v Prekmurju), no. 1504 (“Razmejitev v Prekmurju, protidržavne demonstracije”. 6.11.1921).
44 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (1).
45 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (182).
46 RAM, KS, Vr IX 2037/21 (133, Mihael Fartek).
47 Murska Sobota Regional and Educational Library, SI_PIŠK/0001/003/001/00075, 10/3 (Statistično poročilo sreza Murska Sobota, komandi mariborskega vojnega okrožja o prehrani, sanitetnih razmerah in mineralnem bogastvu v Prekmurju).
48 Questions surrounding land reform in Yugoslavia have been discussed many times and in great detail in existent historiographic literature. See especially Milivoje Erić, Agrarna reforma u Jugoslaviji: 1918–1941 god. (Agrarian Reform in Yugoslavia, 1918–41) (Sarajevo, 1958); Bogdan Lekić, Agrarna reforma i kolonizacija u Jugoslaviji: 1918–1941 (Agrarian Reform and Colonization in Yugoslavia, 1918–41) (Belgrade, 2002); Jozo Tomasevich, Peasants, Politics, and Economic Change in Yugoslavia (Stanford, 1955), 344–82; for Prekmurje, see especially Attila Kovács, “Agrarna reforma in kolonizacija na območju Dolnje Lendave med obema vojnama (Agrarian Reform and Colonization Around Dolnja Lendava Between the Two Wars),” Razprave in gradivo, no. 53/54 (2007): 68–97; Olga Janša, “Agrarna reforma v Sloveniji med obema vojnama (Agrarian Reform in Slovenia Between the Two Wars),” Zgodovinski časopis 18 (1964): 173–89; and Žarko Lazarević, Kmečki dolgovi na Slovenskem: socialno-ekonomski vidiki zadolženosti slovenskih kmetov 1848–1948 (Agricultural Debts in Slovenia: The Socio-Economic Aspects of the Indebtedness of Slovenian Peasants, 1848–1948) (Ljubljana, 1994).
49 Olas, “Razvoj in problemi,” 179–81; Marietta Boross, “O življenjskih in delovnih razmerah železnožupanijskih slovenskih sezoncev med dvema vojnama (On the Living and Working Conditions of Slovenian Seasonal Workers in Vas County Between the Two Wars),” Etnologija Slovencev na Madžarskem/A Magyarországi szlovének néprajza 4 (2003): 9–40. Katalin Munda Hirnök, “Sezonstvo (Seasonal Work),” Etnologija Slovencev na Madžarskem/A Magyarországi szlovének néprajza 1 (1997): 19–66.
50 Kuzmič, Slovenski izseljenci.
51 In February 1921, the regional government in Ljubljana issued a decree that opened up the possibility to migrate for seasonal work in Hungary only for those given approval by the State Labor Agency. Ribnikar, ed., Sejni zapisniki, 260.
52 Olas, “Razvoj in problemi,” 184–95; Maučec, “Prenaseljenost,” 107–17.
53 Kokolj, 126–27.
54 For the history of railways in Prekmurje, see Zoltán Lendvai Kepe, Poglavja iz zgodovine železnice v Lendavi/Fejezetek Lendva vasúttörténetéből (Chapters from the History of Railways in Lendava) (Lendava, 2020); Kokolj, 181–82.
55 This is an issue beyond the scope of this article. However, it is generally accepted that Yugoslavia, at the time of its creation, was a country with an industrial base that had either been destroyed or remained underdeveloped and that also contained a predominantly peasant population—three quarters of the Yugoslav population lived from agriculture. It remained a predominantly agrarian and industrially underdeveloped state throughout the entire period. As a result, it was largely dependent on the economic situations in and political decisions of other European countries, particularly those to which it sold agrarian raw materials and semi-finished products in exchange for industrial goods. Agricultural productivity was low on average, and farms were heavily burdened by loans (for land purchases, operating capital, etc.). At the same time, the countryside was overpopulated; this meant that, in the absence of an industrial policy, the peasantry was forced either to emigrate or to live in scarcity and hunger on heavily indebted family farms. See Lazarević, Kmečki dolgovi, 33–71, for a good overview.
56 Pirc, Ivo and Baš, Franjo, Socialni problemi slovenske vasi. Zv. 1 (The Social Problems of Slovene Villages, vol. 1) (Ljubljana, 1938), 90–91Google Scholar.
57 According to the criterion of how much land was needed to support a family of five, in the interwar period (after the land reform) about 80 percent of the farms in the northern hilly areas and 40 percent of the farms in the southern lowlands of Prekmurje were considered to be unsustainable. Olas, “Razvoj in problemi,” 178.
58 Pirc and Baš, Socialni problemi, 80.
59 See, for instance, Centrih, Lev, “‘Govorile so celo strojnice!’ Boljševizem v prevratni dobi na Slovenskem: med preprostim ljudskim uporništvom in vplivi ruske revolucije (‘Even the Machine Guns Spoke!’ Bolshevism in the Revolutionary Period in Slovenia: Between a Simple Popular Rebellion and the Influences of the Russian Revolution),” in Slovenski prelom 1918 (The Slovenian Rupture, 1918), ed. Gabrič, Aleš (Ljubljana, 2019), 311–27Google Scholar; Banac, Ivo, “‘Emperor Karl Has Become a Comitadji’: The Croatian Disturbances of Autumn 1918,” The Slavonic and East European Review 70, no. 2 (1992): 284–305Google Scholar, here 302–05; Saje, Franček, “Revolucionarno gibanje kmečkega ljudstva v Sloveniji 1917–1919 (The Revolutionary Movement of the Peasantry in Slovenia, 1917–19),” Prispevki za zgodovino delavskega gibanja 7, no. 1–2 (1967): 141–50Google Scholar; Očak, Ivan, Afera Diamantstein: prvi antikomunistički proces u Kraljevstvu Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca (1919) (The Diamantstein Affair: The First Anti-Communist Trial in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1919)) (Zagreb, 1988)Google Scholar. See also the very informative text, if somewhat devoted to a broader audience, by Stefan Gužvica: “Represija nad radničkim pokretom: Dugo kretanje između fabričkih hala i vešala (The Repression of the Workers' Movement: The Long March Between the Factory Halls and the Gallows),” Mašina, 2 July 2020, https://www.masina.rs/represija-nad-radnickim-pokretom-dugo-kretanje-izmedu-fabrickih-hala-i-vesala/?fbclid=IwAR2-VjAAMLVMOSdARNDzng3xyVZcLIBlHaEFOozZljJQ3Pebi6D96Da09RA.
60 ARS, SI AS 60, Prekmurje IV, V (Prekmurje – razmere v Prekmurju), no. 11978 (“Razmere v Prekmurju,” 7. decembra 1921).
61 For the election results see Kokolj, Prekmurski Slovenci, 96–101, 151–53, 189–90, and 234–37.
62 Fujs, “Razvoj industrije,” 15–16.
63 Tomasevich, Peasants, 261. It is worth bearing in mind that such a situation was not necessarily the result of internal political chaos, corruption, etc., but of the structural constraints of the capitalist mode of production, in which Yugoslavia, as an economically dependent state, was not in a position to conduct an independent economic policy. See also Tomasevich, Peasants, 645.