"Peace Loan" was a form of savings between 1949-1955, during the beginning period of communist dictatorship in Hungary. It was a type of government loan similar to war loan. According to the government, peace loan served „the rebuilding of the country” and „struggling for peace”. It was said to be a voluntary institution, however it was rather obligatory for everyone to bond them regularly. In order to motivate people to bond the loan draws were organized where people could win money as a prize. The socialist propaganda put a lot of emphasis on spreading news about people winning large amounts of money with small bonds.

This month we diplay the list of Peace Loan Bond in 1952 from Tiszafüred, a small town in East-Hungary. According to this document we could see that the local authorities led a strong campaign in order to convict the inhabitants that they had to join the Peace-Loan bonding. We have 657 persons or „bonds” on the list, with their names, social status and personal address and with the amount of money they bonded.

Although the socialist state was the „workers’ state” we could see that local inhabitants were devided into four social strata. On the list there were the members of agricultural cooperatives, who had to bond a minimum amount of money (100 Hungarian Forint it was their montly payment). Next group were the strata of the private small-holders, who were not involved in agricultural cooperative movements. That is why they had to bond more amount of money: between 100-800 Hungarian Forints. The third group was the category of rich peasants, named „kulaks” who were the „enemies of the regime”. According the theory of Stalinism (or Marxism-Leninism) rich peasants were the „class-enemy of the poorer peasants” On the list ther were 40 kulaks in Tiszafüred: they had to bond 800-1000-1500 or 2000 Hungarian Forint for Peace Loan in order „to defend socialism”. The fourth strata was the „others”: a mixed social category with craftsmen, merchants, causual workers, housewives, etc.

It is interesting that some other goups (eg. teachers, party workers of communist party or employees of local authorities) were not registered on the list.

We also show „Certificate of merit” to those who were involved in Peace Loan Bond campaign in 1951. These documents were used as propaganda of Peace Loan.

By Vadász, István