Everyday Life under Communism and After

Front matter

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Introduction

Chapter One The Study of Hungarian Everyday Life: Historiography, Methods, and Concepts About the sources used for this volume The concept of daily life, correlations between lifestyle and changes in society

Chapter Two Two Hundred Pengős a Month, Five Hundred Forints, Two Thousand Forints...: Financial Circumstances, Prices, Wages, and Income Inequalities in Everyday Life National revenue, real wages, and changes in the standard of living Wages, prices, inequalities Unchanging and changing forms of poverty Accumulating property and wealth

Chapter Three From Plentiful Privation to a Consumer Society: The Changes and Characteristics of Consumer Consumption Consumption and consumer attitudes The corner store, the supermarket, and the shopping center: Changes in the locations of consumer consumption Homes, home construction, furnishings, and durable goods Clothing and the consumption of apparel The consumption and supply of foodstuffs

Chapter Four This Is How We Lived: Housing Conditions, Usage of Living Space, and Interior Decoration The general characteristics determining housing and the state of urban housing

33 33 43 59 69

87 87

116 129

143 182 viii

Village houses, village dwellings

For those without a home: apartments for rent, beds to let, and work dormitories

Living in dire straits —slums, shantytowns, and ghettos

The general characteristics of changes in home interiors

Working-class and middle-class homes

Rural and peasant interiors

The interior world of Soviet-type housing estates

Summer and weekend homes

Chapter Five ^Well-dressed and Fashionable": Changes in Clothing Styles, Habits, and Fashion Need and puritanism: rural and urban styles of dress in the mid-twentieth century Fashion and dressing habits during the state socialist period: changes in norms for everyday and formal occasions Up-to-date fashion and the re-differentiation of apparel at the end of the century

Chapter Six ^We Ate, We Drank, We Filled Our Stomachs": Nutrition, Eating, and Dietary Habits

The general characteristics of eating habits

From starvation to "eoulash communism"

The years of "feeling full"

Abundance and shortages after the fall of the Iron Curtain

Conclusions Appendix Bibliography

Index

415 415 416 449 466

Figures

Figure 1. Changes in the average monthly salaries for government employees in Hungary from 1938 to 1956

Figure 2. Evaluation of changes in the standard of living— compared to the previous year—in 1964, 1973, and 1976, respectively

Figure 3. Yearly income of collective farm members from 1958 to 1977, in forints

Figure 4. Charity action: gueuing for lunch outside a charity kitchen in the 19305

Figure 5. Faces of poverty: mother with children, 1976

Figure 6. The weekly chance to gain legal wealth, the lottery draw —singer Zsuzsa Cserháti with lottery numbers, 1972

Figure 7. Number of individuals with savings of more than 500,000 forints in Hungary from 1972 to 1987

Figure 8. Changes in the structure of private consumption from 1960 to 1980

Figure 9. Structure of consumption in 1960

Figure 10. Structure of consumption in 1980

Figure 11. Availability of selected appliances in Hungarian households

Figure 12. Advertisement for the East German small car Trabant, 1960s

Figure 13. Interior of a vegetable, spice, and grocery store in Budapest in the 1930s

Figure 14. The world of canned food—a shop interior in Dombóvár, 1954

Figure 15. The market at Fehérvári út in Budapest with the department store Skala Áruház in the background, 1982

Figure 16. The modern shop in the seventies: the local ABC store in Sátoraljaújhely in 1975

60 67

106 106 106 x FIGURES Figure 17. The "Zsibi" (Zsibogó) second-hand market in Debrecen in 1978

Figure 18. Boutiques on a housing estate in Orosháza in the early 1980s — the space of small business life

Figure 19. Privately owned confectionery in the 13th district of Budapest in the late 1970s

Figure 20. Duna Plaza, the first shopping and entertainment center in Hungary, opened in 1996 with a 9-screen multiplex cinema and skating rink

Figure 21. The building of prefabricated panel houses in Óbuda, Budapest in 1970

Figure 22. Changes in housing supply in Hungary, 1941-2011

Figure 23. Changes in the number of homes built in villages between 1961 and 1975

Figure 24. The spread of modern mass communication: TV and radio sets in a local Keravill shop in Szekszárd, Hungary, in 1967

Figure 25. Supplies in years of deprivation: distributing clothes and boots in a factory, 1946

Figure 26. Evening lights on Váci Steet, 1975 Figure 27. Distribution of food to children, 1946

Figure 28. The enjoyable objects of consumption: branded "Western" and cigarettes in the gift shop at the Budapest Keleti railway station in 1971

Figure 29. Rural grocery store in 1981 Figure 30. Construction of the housing estate in Óbuda, 1974

Figure 31. Housing estates built in the 1960s near the industrial areas of Ózd, northern Hungary

Figure 32. New apartment buildings in the late 1980s in Gyór

Figure 33. Changes in housing based on the number of rooms, 1990-2009

Figure 34. Floor plan for a “long” house divided into three parts to contain a room in front, a kitchen in the middle, and a storage room for foodstuffs at the back of the house

132 135

145 170 191

220 229 239

241 242

FIGURES

Figure 35. Floor plan for a "sguare" house

Figure 36. Distribution of homes with access to plumbing based on settlement size between 1949 and 1970

Figure 37. Changes in the percentage of homes with electricity based on settlement size from 1949 to 1970

Figure 38. The new village building fashion after collectivization, the square or “cube” house, Veszprém, 1960

Figure 39. The lounge of a workers’ dormitory in 1955 Figure 40. Cave dwelling in the village of Sály, 1972

Figure 41. Slums in Budapest: houses of the Szazados Road housing estate, 1978

Figure 42. The former steelworkers’ housing estate, now a ghetto, Hétes telep at Ózd, 2012

Figure 43. Floor plan of a one-room working-class apartment in the Óbuda Gasworks Colony

Figure 44. Floor plan of a two-room working-class apartment in the Obuda Gasworks Colony

Figure 45. Floor plan of a working-class apartment at the MAVAG Colony

Figure 46. The furnishing of a room in the apartment of Rezső Hampl Jr., a mechanic in Budapest, district 13, Tahi Street 26

Figure 47. Interior of a rich peasant home in the early 1960s

Figure 48. Apartment interior in a prefabricated large-panel house in the 1980s

Figure 49. Fashionable, elegant middle-class lady in winter coat and hat, 1940s

Figure 50. The fashion for simple elegance—a dress show at the ministry of transport, 1948

Figure 51. Girls in miniskirts on Rákóczi Street in Budapest, 1971

Figure 52. In the pull of tradition — women in headscarves at the Palóc Days in Hollókő, 1970

Figure 53. Women wearing ofthonka harvesting wine grapes in 1985

Figure 54. Advertisement for the Hungarian blue jeans “Trapper” in the seventies and eighties xi

271 277 282

339 354

366 368 xii

Figure 55. Dancers at Buda Youth Park in 1963

Figure 56. Young people at Buda Youth Park in 1976

Figure 57. People walking along the Danube in Budapest, 1986 Figure 58. Children’s fashion, 1980

Figure 59. Fashionable girl in the 1970s

Figure 60. Fashion designer in the mid-1980s

Figure 61. Since the late sixties, jeans have become an iconic item of youth clothing in Hungary too

Figure 62. Little girl eating bread and jam in 1958

Figure 63. Workers having lunch in the company canteen of the thermal power plant in Ajka, 1961

Figure 64. Kitchen in the 1970s

Figure 65. Canned food in a grocery store in 1968 Figure 66. A store interior in the 1970s

Figure 67. Man cutting bread, 1976

Figure 68. Trends and changes in living standards through Hungary’s short twentieth century

378 379 383 388 406 407

409 426

433 446 452 456 467

Tables

Table 1. Real wages and developments in per capita real income and consumption between 1950 and 1995

Table 2. Average monthly earnings for factory employees between 1938 and 1942

Table 3. Changes in gross average monthly earnings, consumer price index, and real wages between 1955 and 2009

Table 4. Changes in earnings and real income between 1990 and 2007

Table 5. Changes in average wages by economic sector from 1960 to 1979

Table 6. Changes in the number of residences from 1941 to 1990

Table 7. Consumer average for selected apparel items between 1950 and 1987

Table 8. Changes in average yearly per capita clothing expenditures from 1960 to 1985

Table 9. Changes in the price for selected basic foodstuffs from 1939 to 1944

Table 10. Average per capita consumption of food from 1950 to 1996

Table 11. Changes in residential access to utilities and facilities from 1949 to 1995

Table 12. Housing and the number of residential homes, occupants, and density of occupants from 1970 to 2011

Table 13. Conditions in occupied residences based on number of rooms and occupants in 2005

Table 14. Level of comfort in residential homes, 1990-2011

Table 15. Selected indicators demonstrating changes in Hungary’s housing from 1990 to 2009

50 135

188 217

249 252 xiv Table 16. Occupied residences distributed by facilities and size of community in 1970

Table 17. Number of rooms in rural residences between 1949 and 1970

Acronyms

BKM: Ministry of Internal Trade (Belkereskedelmi Minisztérium)

KISZ: Hungarian Young Commurist League (Magyar Kommunista Ifjúsági Szövetség)

Közért: Municipal Food Trading Company (Községi Élelmiszerkereskedelmi Vállalat)

KSH: Central Statistical Office (Központi Statisztikai Hivatal)

MÁVAG: Hungarian State Iron, Steel, and Machine Works Limited Company (Magyar Allami Vas-, Acél- és Gépgyárak Részvénytársaság)

MNL BAZML: National Archives of Hungary Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Borsod-Abauj-Zemplén Megyei Levéltára)

MNL HBML: National Archives of Hungary Hajdú-Bihar County Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltára)

MNL HML: National Archives of Hungary Heves County Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Heves Megyei Levéltára)

MNL NML: Hungarian National Archives Nógrád County Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Nógrád Megyei Levéltára)

MNL OL: National Archives of Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára)

MNL PML: National Archives of Hungary Pest County Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Pest Megyei Levéltára)

MNL SML: National Archives of Hungary Somogy County Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Somogy Megyei Levéltára)

MNL SzSzBML: National Archives of Hungary Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Megyei Levéltára)

MNM TF: Historical Photo Department of the Hungarian National Museum (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Történeti Fényképtára)

MSZME: Hungarian Socialist Workers" Party (Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt) OTP: National Savings Bank (Országos Takarékpénztár) SZOT: National Council of Trade Unions (Szakszervezetek Országos Tanácsa)

UNRRA: United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

Introduction

Throughout the twentieth century and particularly during the latter half of this period, Hungary experienced multiple waves of political change that caused a series of political, economic, and social transformations which fundamentally influenced how Hungarians conducted their everyday lives." Even if this analysis were only to examine the years during World War II or the two periods marking the greatest shifts in Hungary’s political atmosphere—namely, the communist takeover and subsequent adoption of a state socialist system in the late 1940s and early 1950s, or the shift to democracy that began at the end of the 1980s and brought about a return to a market economy — these historical events would amply demonstrate the depth of change that took place. In accordance with the rest of Europe, the kind of modernizing and civilizing processes that occurred during the twentieth century in Hungarian history were not only technological in nature, but also resulted in societal transformations and shifts in mentality. This volume comprises my attempt to trace, analyze, and interpret this genuinely complex process of transformation. To do this, I have adopted a unique perspective achieved via an interdisciplinary approach combining aspects gleaned from history, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and statistics, for the purpose of reconstructing "from the bottom up" how everyday people from various social groups experienced these changes.

Within the fields of social history and sociology in Hungary, research regarding the phenomena and historical changes related to everyday life has received less attention in the past few decades than the topic either necessitates or is due. This remains true in spite of the fact that the historical changes displayed by family, household, or

! This volume does not aim to provide a historical overview of Hungary's entire political and economic history during the period under examination. As necessary, background information will be added in order to aid the reader's understanding. For a more comprehensive examination of this period, see Ignác Romsics, Hungary in the Twentieth Century (Budapest: Corvina-Osiris, 1999). For an overview of Hungary's most recent history, see Árpád von Klimó, Hungary Since 1945 (New York: Routledge, 2018).

everyday activities play a definitive role in influencing social processes on both the micro and macro scales. Interpreting either the past or the present cannot be imagined without possessing some knowledge of how individuals live, organize, plan, and conceive of their lives. Such considerations invoke the corollary guestions of what maintaining an existence demands on a daily level, what social conditions and surroundings are reguired, what types of objects are used in the course of everyday activities, and how all of these circumstances change.

Although the 1930s saw the partial emergence of a Hungarian middle class, the 1948-1949 communist takeover rendered it impossible for this type of social class to continue expanding. Once this occurred, the loss of property and general decrease in economic opportunities negatively impacted lifestyle, consumer patterns, social relations, and behavioral norms in a way that led to their homogenization. Within a set of changed circumstances, the late 1960s marked the initial regeneration of the kind of lifestyle differences that could meet a “quasi” consumer society’s norms at a higher average level than that previously experienced. After the nation shifted to democracy, these differences grew within the conditions brought about by a market economy.

As these waves of change and transformation occurred, it is therefore highly necessary to determine where some form of continuity can be detected in relation to where a state of discontinuity proved stronger. I strive to answer the question of what consequences emerged due to the ruptured spread of a middle class in Hungary and how these circumstances impacted everyday life, as well as the ways in which members of various social groups adapted to Sovietization while simultaneously exploring how the process of reestablishing a middle class emerged and developed in the decades marking Hungary’s post-communist period. Although the issues of culture and leisure activities naturally form an essential aspect of everyday life, examining these areas would have exceeded the limits imposed by an exploration that essentially takes the history of consumption as its focus.

Within the period under examination, in many respects the late 1960s and early 1970s represent a turning point given the fact that these years saw the unfolding of an infrastructural revolution characterized by the emergence of modern mass communication, the spread of motorization, and the improved comfort level of homes. Beyond

INTRODUCTION 3 these factors, increased access to electricity altered the basic quality of life in a way that was both fundamental and extensive. An additional significant turning point that occurred toward the end of the last century was the transformed culture and spread of infocommunications, a process that engendered multiple, complex layers of social and lifestyle changes. Although I only touch upon these issues at this point, the first chapter of this volume contains a thorough and detailed examination of the theoretical questions and interpretations attached to their discussion.

As the present work explores the larger topics mentioned above via the parallel histories of consumerism and modes of lifestyle, in some cases it consequently proved difficult—or perhaps even impossible—to maintain a separation between certain subjects. Given the very nature of the phenomena under examination, my analysis cannot be linked to exact dates or moments in time due to the fact that daily life patterns alter in ways that both emerge from and build upon a variety of intersecting processes.

Consumer consumption lies at the core of daily life while simultaneously occupying a definitive role in the fulfillment of material demands. Among other factors, the manner in which given individuals or social groups consume demonstrates how they interpret their own culture, as well as indicating the social parameters that determine their potential opportunities. Consumer habits generally display a direct and palpable connection to the ways in which consumption contributes to the formation of personal identity. In his classic work, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen argues that levels of consumption and the possession of objects that signify prestige also act as suitable indicators of social status. In other words, commodity goods not only serve the purpose of satisfying one’s demands and desires, they also demonstrate a sense of personal significance to the outside world. Consumption therefore comprises an aggregate of signs and symbols that are connected to the given culture, society, and economy. Beginning in the late 1960s, this type of “conspicuous consumption” increasingly came to the fore in Hungary and was accompanied by the parallel rise of an ever-stronger rivalry that shaped the lively and lasting race to “keep up” with the consumption of others. These factors paved the way for a relatively broad section of individuals— those capable of attaining a newly won degree of social mobility —to strengthen their positions and sense of social consciousness.

In this compilation of the research I have conducted in these areas, I introduce the characteristic trends and changes that defined everyday life during the lengthy half-century that followed World War II without employing the conventional kind of periodization that typifies a traditional reading of historical events. The resultant question to be posed is that of what— from a political and historical viewpoint— precisely connects various periods; what underlies the decision to choose the late 1930s and early 1940s as the starting point for this overview of the history of lifestyles in Hungary? One possible answer to this question lies in the process of modernization that began roughly in the 1930s and (due to its life-changing contributions in the areas of electrification, transportation, communication, and housing conditions) continues to influence our world even today. Another important factor can be found in the level of adaptivity and creativity with which some social groups in Hungarian society adjusted to the changes caused by politics and modernization during specific eras. The third reason for choosing to examine such a lengthy period is explained by the fact that certain political systems and events affected quality of life differently: at times, political conditions enforced limitations that led to noticeable alterations in both lifestyle and the manner in which daily life could be conducted or arranged. In essence, however, social habits, tradition, expectations, value systems, and individual creativity determined how innovations were accepted or developed and the trends that defined Hungarians' quality of life. These factors in turn gained a long-lasting hold upon Hungarian society.

Organizing the structure of this book in a way that would integrate both this volume's thematic and chronological demands presented a definite challenge. Of all the available possibilities, I eventually chose to situate single thematic units — such as consumption, norms, and processes — within the analysis of long-term trends, thereby reducing the chance that the same themes would be repeated.

I would like to express my gratitude to all of the institutions (including the 1956 Institute, the Department of Social History at Eötvös Loránd University's Faculty of Social Sciences, the Hungarian Academy of Science's Research Center for Social Sciences at the Institute of Political Sciences, the Department of Sociology and Social Politics at Debrecen University's Faculty of the Humanities, and the Institute of Historical Sciences at Esterházy Károly University) which have provided the intellectual resources necessary for the writing of both

INTRODUCTION 5 this book and its precedents. I thank Árpád von Klimó and Krisztina E. Fehérvary for their thoughtful insights and suggestions throughout the preparation of the English-language version of this work. The following individuals aided me in the collection of data: Zita Cseh, Csaba Csóti, Sándor Galambos, Julianna Héjja, György Majtényi, András Rozs, Lívia Rőczei, Zoltán Szatucsek, Mihály Szécsényi, Anita Tóth, and Sándorné Úri, in addition to many others without whose contribution my research would have been impossible. Research, production, and publication of the volume"s Hungarian-language manuscript was financed via grants issued by the National Program for Research and Development (NKFP), the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the National Cultural Fund, and the János Szentágothai Grant Program for Experienced Researchers at the National Program of Excellence. I thank these programs for their support. The photographs that are not only used in my research but also partially featured in this volume were collected by Marianna Kiscsatári and Katalin Bognár, employees of the Hungarian National Museum ss Historical Photo Archive, together with Ildikó Simonovics and Street Fashion Budapest, the program under her directorship. The English translation is the work of Maya J. Lo Bello, whom I thank for her accuracy and suggestions.

Generous and essential support for the translation of this volume was provided by means of the EFOP grant (efop-3.6.1-16-2016-00001, “Complex Improvement of Research Capacities and Services at Eszterhazy Karoly University”) made available by Eszterhazy Karoly University as well as by the Institute of Political Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Center for Social Sciences. I express my sincere gratitude for their aid.

This book would have been impossible without the extremely thorough and exact contribution of the staff at CEU Press, whom I also thank for their work. Special thanks to Jozsef Litkei, editor at CEU Press, for his suggestions and precise work. In closing, I would like to thank my family for their endless patience and support throughout my research and the writing of this book.

Tibor Valuch June 25, 2021, Debrecen

Chapter One

The Study of Hungarian Everyday Life: Historiography, Methods, and Concepts

In contrast to the relative scarcity of academic works in Hungary that utilize a socio-historical approach to the investigation of daily life, international scholarship has long been occupied with the study of everyday life and considers its research one of the most significant questions in the field of history. From many points of view, the historians from the Annales school in France played a groundbreaking role in developing this field even if it was only later, during the 1970s and 1980s, that the many attitudes and approaches utilized in focusing on this type of research method were systematically organized. Merely listing the names of researchers, such as Fernand Braudel, Alan Macfarlane, Natalie Zemon Davis, Carlo Ginzburg, Philippe Aries, Michel Foucault, Alf Liidtke, and Hans Medick, amply demonstrates the extent to which micro-histories represent a justified approach toward exploring the past. During the past decades scores of academic works have continued to examine the daily lives of everyday people in order to demonstrate how a given historical period can be reconstructed via the study of everyday objects, demographic processes, cultural habits, the private sphere, technical developments and their effect on society, the habitation of settlements, dress, nutrition, living spaces, furnishings, the usage of social spaces, and the gender-based differentiation of society. The research results garnered by examining these seemingly marginal topics have brought us much closer to understanding a particular social phenomenon or analyzing social change than would have otherwise been possible through the utilization of the tools and techniques related to a more conventional approach that focuses on a more traditional interpretation of the era’s political context.

Unravelling the threads that create the fabric of daily life has become the mutual research field for disciplines such as history, sociology, historical and cultural anthropology, social ethnography, and social statistics throughout the past few decades. Given the nature of the topics under examination, viewing history through the lens of the everyday opens the way to a type of interdisciplinarity that allows for a multifaceted approach and interpretation.’ The story of daily life has also gained the attention of comparative historical analyses, as can be seen— to mention just one such source —in the volume Europäische Konsumgeschichte edited by Hannes Siegrist, Hartmut Kaelbe, and Jürgen Kocka. Other works that provide similarly striking examinations of the role played by luxury in state socialist states or the unique nature of consumer habits in former state socialist nations also deserve mention.” The presence of these examinations clearly indicates that the history of consumerism has become a unique, independent branch of social history.’ It naturally goes without saying that both

! Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption (New York: Routledge, 1996); Ursula A. J. Becher, Geschichte des modernen Lebensstils (Munich: Beck Verlag, 1990).

? Hannes Siegrist, Hartmut Kaelble, and Jürgen Kocka, eds. Europüische Konsumgeschichte: Zur Gesellschafts- und Kulturgeschichte des Konsums (18. bis 20. Jahrhundert) (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 1997); David Crowley and Susan E. Reid, eds., Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2010); Mary Neuburger and Paulina Bren, eds., Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

? See Wolfgang König, Kleine Geschichte der Konsumgesellschaft (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2008), 294; Michael Prinz, ed., Der lange Weg in den Überfluss: Anfänge und Entwicklung der Konsumgesellschaft seit der Vormoderne (Padeborn: Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, 2003), 578; Christian Kleinschmidt, Konsumgesellschaft (Göttingen: Vanderhoeck and Ruprecht, 2008), 192; Suzanne Breuss and Franz X. Eder, eds., Konsumieren in Österreich: 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Innsbruck-Wien: Studien Verlag, 2006), 276; Frank Trentmann, “Beyond Consumerism: New Historical Perspectives on Consumption,” Journal of Contemporary History 3 (2004): 373-401; Djurdja Bartlett, Fashion East: The Spectre That Haunted Socialism (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010); Susan E. Reid and David Crowley, eds., Style and Socialism: Modernity and Material Culture in Post-War Eastern Europe (Oxford: Berg, 2000); David Crowley and Susan E. Reid, eds., Socialist Spaces: Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc (Oxford: Berg, 2002); Crowley and Reid, eds. Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2010); Frank Trentmann, ed., The Oxford Handbook of the History of Consumption (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); Hannes Siegrist and Manuel Schramm, eds., Regionalisierung europdischer Konsumkulturen im 20. Jahrhundert, Leipziger Studien zur Erforschung von regionenbezogenen Identifikationsprozessen 9 (Leipzig: Leipziger Uni Verlag, 2003); Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, and Claudius Torp, eds., Die Konsumgesellschaft in Deutschland 1890-1990: Ein Handbuch (Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2009); Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, "Consumption History in Europe: An Overview of Recent Trends," in Decoding Modern Consumer Societies, ed. H. Berghoff and U. Spiekermann (New York: Palgrave, 2013), 17-36.

methodological and theoretical aspects of my research have been inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s works regarding types of capitalism, consumerism, social stratification, and societal differences. Social historical analyses of daily life in East Germany have proven similarly influential to my interpretation.*

In Hungary the field of everyday life as a branch of historical research has long been a matter primarily reserved for study by ethnographers, sociologists, and social statisticians. This proved particularly true in the case of studies focusing on the second half of the twentieth century; as regards previous eras (the Middle Ages or modernity) historians played a definitive role in analyzing, for example, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries or the early part of the twentieth century. The first thematic collection of documents was finally published in 2000.° Furthermore, Hungarian social histories of everyday life have centered on topics such as the family, the household, or the private sphere, while heightened attention was turned toward trends in middle-class home interiors during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries or the examination of the middle-class lifestyle. Some attempts were also made to reconstruct the lifestyles led by working-class individuals during this same period.’ Most of

* Thomas Lindenberger, ed., Herrschaft und Eigen-Sinn in der Diktatur: Studien zur Gesellschaftsgeschichte der DDR (Vienna: Bohlau Verlag, 1999); Evemarie Badstiibner, Felix Miihlberg and Christel Nehring, eds., Befremdlich anders: Leben in der DDR (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 2000); Ina Merkel and Felix Mühlberg, eds., Wunderwirtschaft: DDR-Konsumkultur in 60er Jahren (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1996); Arnd Bauerkamper, Die Sozialgeschichte der DDR (Munich: Oldenburg Verlag, 2005).

5 Rózsa Fazekas and Eva Kujbusné Mecsei, eds., Mindennapok Szabolcs és Szatmár megyében a XIX. században (Nyíregyháza: Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Megyei Levéltár, 2000), 426.

€ For a historiographical overview of these issues, see Gábor Gyáni, "A hétköznapok historikuma,” in A hétköznapok historikuma, ed. József Dusnoki-Draskovich and Ádám Erdész (Gyula: Békés Megyei Levéltár, 1997), 11-27.

7 See among others Maria Mialkovszky, "Egy budapesti szervezett szakmunkás lakása a századelőn," in Magyar Munkásmozgalmi Múzeum Évkönyve 1975-76, ed. Alfréd Hollós (Budapest: Kossuth Kiadó, 1977), 54-94; Mária Mialkovszky, "Adalékok az otthonkultúra-kutatás kérdéséhez az Allt-féle hagyaték kapcsán," in Magyar Munkásmozgalmi Múzeum Évkönyve 1979-1980, ed. Alfréd Hollós (Budapest: Kossuth Kiadó, 1981), 43-121; Vera Peterdi, "Az Allt-család háztartási eszközei," in Magyar Munkásmozgalmi Múzeum Évkönyve 1979-1980 (Budapest: Kossuth Kiadó, 1981), 151-95; Vera Sallayné Peterdi, "A MAVAG kolóniái 1865-1989,” in Tanulmányok a MAVAG történetéből, ed. Géza Bencze (Budapest: Magyar Történelmi Társulat, 1989), 209-33; Vera Peterdi, "Gyáripari termékek a budapesti polgári háztartások konyháiban (1880- 1945),” in Néprajzi Értesítő, vol. 76 (Budapest: Néprajzi Múzeum, 1994), 259-78.

this research emerged during the 1980s, the same decade that also marked the arrival of the methods and approach related to the writing of microhistories and historical anthropology in Hungarian scholarship.

To mention just a very few of the historians and researchers who have contributed to the research of daily life in Hungary, the books and studies written by Gyula Benda, Tamas Faragó, Erik Fügedi, Gabor Gyáni, Karoly Halmos, Péter Hanák, György Kövér, Zsuzsa L. Nagy, Zoltan Toth, and Karoly Vörös remain worthy of our attention. The fields of sociology and social statistics include researchers, such as Rudolf Andorka, Béla Falussy, Istvan Harcsa, Istvan Kemény, Agnes Losonczi, Katalin S. Nagy, and Elemér Hankiss, whose work has provided the foundation for analyses of social, lifestyle, and mentality histories of post-1945 Hungarian society. Among those researching social ethnography, studies by Eszter Kisban, Péter Szuhay, Kata Javor, and Maria Florian have primarily led to new breakthroughs. A further source demanding mention is contained in the fourth part of the eight-volume handbook Hungarian Ethnography, a monograph that surveys and summarizes the changes that village life underwent in Hungary during this period.*

As regards the five decades that followed 1945, the history of daily life has not received equal attention on the part of researchers. It is for this reason that very few sources can be found among the social sciences (whether historical, sociological, or anthropological in nature) in Hungary regarding the history of nutrition, one of the topics discussed in this volume. My discussion of public supply, the consumption of foodstuffs, and eating habits is therefore an attempt to fill some of the gaps left in this particular area.