# {74.} Classes and Social Strata in the Hungarian Village

CHAPTERS

- Nobles and Lords
- The Village Intelligentsia
- The Rich Peasants
- The Middle Peasants
- The Poor Peasants
- The Rural Agricultural Labourers

The population of the Hungarian villages was not homogeneous even in the Middle Ages, since property differences and occupational variations led to the development of groups of different character and interest, as also did religious differences and variations by age groups. All this can be measured in the area of economic and social life just as much as it shows up in the cultural sphere. The freeing of the serfs in 1848 ended part of the feudal obligations, and from then on there appeared within the peasantry even more marked property and attitudinal differences. The interests of the rich peasant strata tied them to the ruling class, while the indigent peasantry was growing closer to the industrial proletariat. In the following we will point in broad outline to the most important of the property-occupation groups, primarily at the turn of the century, and will follow some places and cases all the way to 1945.