Relationship between town and ‘tanyas’ in Kecskemét during the Horthy regime

Abstract

Tanyas are isolated cottage-style farmsteads scattered around a central town, sometimes at a considerable distance, often 5-10 km, but sometimes up to 25 km. They are mainly distinguished by whether one could reach the town from them in a day and return or not. During the period between the two World Wars, Kecskemét was the market town where the ‘tanya’ zones, which concentrically surrounded the town, were the origin of significant domestically and internationally demanded fruit and vegetable cultivation – all of which contributed to a continuously extending and prospering farmland cultivation. From the second half of the 1920s, the booming economy induced profound changes in several fields and the category of ‘tanya’ settlements slowly ceased to be used for statistical or research purposes.
Between the 1920s and the 1930s, more than 90 per cent of the tanyas in the Kecskemét area were separate settlements. The concept of the tanyas was to make a living independently from a town and not primarily how to remain related to the town. Nevertheless the tanyas were symbiotically linked to the town, because there was a very intensive economic relation as produce was regularly brought to market in Kecskemét and central services (shops, schools, doctors) were used. In addition, about 5–7 per cent of the tanya population moved to town houses in winter. Thus tanya families lived in separation, but not in isolation from the town. They were just not part of town life for most of the year.
This study suggests that socio-historical and historical-geographical surveys – in contrast to currently used, mostly statistical methods – should treat in-towners and out-towners separately. In addition, adequate attention should be paid to the fact that the semi-peripherical and the peripherical town-regions were not sharply separated from each other in all economic and social aspects. Archive research and interviews with members of the older generation suggest that there was much differentiation between tanyas according to their distance to the town of Kecskemét.
In conclusion it is pointed out that most of the questions raised by historical-geographical research discussed here require innovative approaches and methods. They need the utilisation of additional resources such as archives, preferably digitalised archives, and interviews revealing historical experiences.