ALÁZATTAL ÉS BECSÜLETTEL. VENCZEL JÓZSEF AZ 1921-ES ERDÉLYI ROMÁN FÖLDREFORMRÓL
With humility and honour. József Venczel on the 1921 Romanian agrarian reform in Transylvania

Author(s): Barna Bodó
Subject(s): Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: József Venczel; 1921 Romanian agrarian reform in Transylvania;
Summary/Abstract: Evoking the scientist József Venczel is a serious challenge because, as aresearcher, he did mostly not what he was called to do based on his knowledgeand skills but what he was allowed or required to do in certain situations. Socialresearcher, university professor, public writer, he was a defi ning personalityof Transylvanian Hungarian sociology between the two world wars. He wasconcerned with the problem of land, the villages in Transylvania, demography,and the methodology of sociology. Only one volume was published duringhis lifetime: Az erdélyi román földbirtokreform [The Romanian Land Reformin Transylvania], published in Cluj in 1942. After the First World War, theRomanian parliament adopted several land reform laws: the law of Bessarabiaon 13 March 1920, the law for the old Kingdom on 17 July 1921, and the lawon the newly acquired territories (Transylvania, Banat, Crişana, Maramureş)on 30 July 1921. The question arises: did the land reform of 1945 pursueprimarily economic policies or did it have minority political objectives? Thefact that the land reform of each part of the country was regulated by separatelaws can be explained not only by the fact that the natural conditions ineach region were different and that there were also differences regarding thedistribution of lands but also – perhaps fi rst of all – by the fact that the nationalpolitical objectives of these land laws were different. Venczel showed that theRomanian decision makers of that time followed primarily national politicaldesires and not an economic or social necessity. When they drafted the lawregarding Transylvania, they aimed for a social reconfi guration to the detrimentof everything Hungarian, the wealth of churches, schools, the public wealthof villages, various humanitarian foundations.

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