The Liquidation of Feudalism

by LELAND STOWE

The greatest revolution anywhere in todays world is the least known, the least coiyimented in our press and virtually unreported. This revolution is the liquidation of feudalism, under. Soviet auspices, in Poland, Hungary, East Prussia and Roumania. In these areas perhaps fifteen million peasants are being liberated from serfdom; probably another fifteen million are escaping a semisubsistence existence. Medieval systems, after centuries of entrenchment are being shattered. The feudal monopolies of the aristocracy and the Church are broken. All this without bloodshed. Just the same a tremendous revolution. This great historical change is surprising for its lack of publicity and outside interest. Equally surprising because, although Soviet Russia is chief sponsor ,the vast feudal estates are not being collectivized after the communist pattern. Instead they are being broken down into millions of privately-owned farms. Retention of private ownership is the general rule in the new land reforms now sweeping eastern Europe. Historians will rank this liquidation of feudalism among the foremost results of World War II. Its political consequences Will be as farreaching as its economic repercussions. The Feudal System Only a handful of Americans has ever seen or understood feudalism. Under feudalism a few thousand wealthy aristocrats own huge estates and work only a portion of the land while millions landless peasants are chained to misery, hunger and ignorance. In this century, Hungary, Poland and Spain have remained the most flagrant examples (and champions) of the brutally callous feudal system. The serfdom of helpless millions is its foundation stone. To understand why the Agrarian Revolution has come one need but examines what it is revolting against. Take Poland. After the last war 19,000 landowners held 43 per cent of Polands total farm area. Nearly 65 per cent of all remaining farms were so small (under 12 acres) they could not support the families living on them. In addition, some 4,000,000 Polish peasants owned no land whatever! Land reforms were started. But the big landowners throttled them after Pilsudski became dictator in 1926. By 1938 between six and nine million peasants still could not make a living on the land. Approximately one out of every four Poles was land-starved. The princes of feudalism monopolized their only source of freedom. Take Hungary. In Budapest in 1940 I obtained an official list of Hungarys largest estates. The top twenty-five ranged in size from 45,000 to 300,000 acres. Sixteen of these farming kingdoms were owned by Hungarian nobility or by the crown. The remaining nine were owned by Roman Catholic orders. About 3,000 estates totaled 9,000,000 acres near one-third of all Hungary. Imagine one-third of the United States in the hands of only 3,000 owners. Imagine one out of every five Americans (as a result) ragged., hungry and uneducated for lack of land to live upon. This was Hungarys feudalism. It has taken centuries and two world wars to break it monopolies. Land for 3,000,000 After the last war Hungarys powerful landowners, as in Poland, successfully resisted land reform. But this time the Red Army liberated Hungary Russians who had already dealt with the Czars feudal princes. The new Hungarian government . was obviously Soviet-approved, or selected. You might have expected then, that a wholesale collectization of land; would follow. Something quite different, fundamentally, has happened. All the big feudal estates, above 1,000 acres are being confiscated. Church properties for centuries among the largest in Hungary are among the one being reduced to 100 acres. By October about 3,- 000,000 hitherto landless peasants, one out of every five Hungarians, will be settled on small plots of soil and pay for them long-term. But there is no collecvization after the Soviet pattern. Some 9,000,000 acres are being redistributed- to private ownership. The greatest need and desire of Hungarys peasants (usually illiterate for lack of a livelihood) is being met. Poles Will Benefit The Unreported Revolution takes a similar course in Poland, where the vast feudal estates are disappearing probably forever. The Sovietinspired Warsaw government plans to provide nearly twothirds of Polands peasants with a minimum of 12 acres- owned by themselves. Perhaps one out of every three Poles will benefit. Americans must also remember that European peasants define freedom, first of all, as possession of sufficient land to support themselves. In this sense Soviet Russia is offering them their First freedom freedom from want. If this maj?, be an initial step toward an eventual communist Poland, the land reform in itself is in no sense communistic. With the peasants however, Soviet Russia will inevitably get the credit. Romania Made More Progress Roumania made more progress toward land reform after the last war. But today the properties of war criminals and German subjects are confiscated

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