ACTA HISTORICA - A MTA TÖRTÉNELEMTUDOMÁNYI KÖZLEMÉNYEI TOM. 3 (1954)

3. kötet / 1-2. sz. - INCZE, M:: The Conditions of the Masses in Hungary During the World Economic Crisis of 1929-1933.

THE CONDITIONS OF THE MASSES IN HUNGARY DURING THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS OF 1929-1933 by M. INCZE The over-production crisis of 1929—1933 took place against the back­ground of the general crisis of capitalism. This was the first world crisis follow­ing the first world war. This world crisis developed differently in the various countries, it became intertwined with the agrarian crisis, which, in turn, inten­sified it, and made it singularly protracted. The money and credit crisis broke out some time later, but its severity was all the greater. Production fell rapidly, unemployment assumed tremendous proportions, the living standard of the working masses sank catastrophically. By the end of 1932, in the U. S. A. industrial production had dropped to 84 per cent of the pre-war level ; in the United Kingdom to 75 per cent, in Germany to 62 per cent. As compared with 1928, industrial production fell to 56 per cent in the U. S. A., to 86 per cent in the United Kingdom, and to 55 per cent in Germany. Throughout the capitalist world the number of unemployed industrial workers rose to 35—40 millions. In the same period the Soviet State, accomplishing its first Five Year Plan, was achieving new successes in building Socialism. There the annua] growth of industrial production averaged 22 per cent. At the end of 1932, the industrial production of the Soviet Union amounted to 334 per cent of 1 The effects of the World Economic Crisis of 1929 — 1933 on Hungary have been ana­lyzed by a group of historians organized by the Historical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The results of this collective work, which lasted several years, include a presentation of Hungary's economic structure in the 1920's, an analysis of the effects of the industrial, agrar­ian and financial crisis as felt in Hungary, a recapitulation of how the Hungarian working people, led by the Communists, fought against the fascist governments, against the fascist regime of Admiral Horthy which threw the burden of the crisis on to the masses, and, finally, an analysis of the persistent consequences of the crisis. The present paper deals with the impoverishment during the crisis, of the Hungarian working people, the majority of Hungary's population. It is founded on material compiled by the above-mentioned group of historians and edited by Miklós Incze. Those parts of the work on which the present paper is based were done by : Miklós Incze and Elek Karsai (The conditions of the working class in the 1920's); Miklós Incze treated the impoverishment of the middle classes during the crisis (in this survey the author made use of the results of investigations made by the former Institute of Political Economy regarding the conditions of private employees and civil servants) ; Miklós Incze also treated the depression period ; Pál Petőcz and Miklós Incze elaborated the subject of the working peasantry (on the basis of material collected chiefly by Pál Petőcz) ; and, finally, Elek Karsai treated the conditions of the working class during the crisis.

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