Czechoslovakia.—The Republican Party of Farmers and Small Peasants was founded in 1896. At first its policy inclined toward conservatism but later it veered to the left. In 1920 the party polled 603,618 votes and in 1925, 970,498 in the Czech territories alone. The Peasant Movement has been strongly represented in most of the successive coalition governments. It secured the adoption of the eight hour day for agriculture and a number of other progressive measures.
Estonia.—The Peasant Party of Estonia was founded soon after the war. The movement here reached a peak of development in 1932, when through a union of its several groups into a new Agrarian Party it obtained 42 seats in the national parliament and a dominant place in the Government. Its influence, however, was fairly eclipsed in 1934 by the creation of a national dictatorship.
Hungary.--A Small Farmers' Party made a promising beginning in Hungary, but the introduction of open balloting in country districts effectually checked all political activity on the land.
Latvia.—In 1928 there were six Peasant Groups in Latvia. Three were of the Centre : the Peasants' Union, the Latgallian Catholics and Christian Peasants, and the Latgallian Peasants; and three were of varying Leftward shades : the Agrarian Settlers, the New Farmers and Small Peasants, and the Latgallian Peasant Labour Party. These factions differed mainly in regard to land reform and in their bias for closer relations with the west or with Russia. Of late years the movement has been somewhat over shadowed by the growth of fascism.
Lithuania.—Before the coup d'etat of 1926 the Peasant Union of Lithuania had ir members in parliament.
Poland.—The movement in Poland has been much divided by regional, clerical, and personal influences. As a parliamentary instrument it lost most of its value upon the accession to power of Marshal Pilsudski. But it continued to be fairly effective in the different localities in promoting cooperative effort among the peasants.
Rumania.—The National Peasant Party, which was formed by a fusion of the National (Transylvanian) Party with the Peasant Party managed through the twenties to assert itself in spite of elaborate "doctoring" of elections. The march of 6o,000 Peasants on the capital and a series of large mass meetings in 1928 re sulted in a sweeping victory for their party at the polls, where they secured 333 out of 387 seats in the national assembly. The Peasants were in large measure responsible for the return of King Carol to the throne in 1930, but the following year they found themselves turned out of office by the king's own personal repre sentative, Professor Jorga. Thereafter it seems to have been
Carol's general policy to maintain something approaching a bal ance between parties in the nation.
Yugoslavia.—The Croatian Peasant Party, founded in 1904, had 3 deputies in 1908, 49 in 191o, and 6o in 1923. It practically dominated Croatia and gained some strength in Herzegovina and Dalmatia. Remarkable both for its organization and its spiritual power, it was the only Peasant Party founded on a rural creed rather than mere agrarian interests. Being primarily Croatian it was closely identified with the movement for Croat and Slovene autonomy. In 1928 its two great leaders, Stephen and Pavle RadiC were murdered and the following year a dictatorship under King Alexander drove the movement underground, whence it was not again to emerge even after the king's own assassination in International Organisation.—A number of international agrarian organisations have existed before the war or were formed after it, but of these none had the two distinguishing character istics of being limited to truly Peasant groups and of being established for political action. Three attempts have been made to set up an international body on these lines: (I) Soon after the war an attempt was made by Bavarian and Austrian agrarians to join up the Peasant groups of central Europe, the Bavarian Dr. Heim being one of the initiators. The tendency was strongly Conservative, anti-Bolshevik (in this be ing included all the democratic influences coming from Berlin) ; and while some of the leaders kept neutral, others had a strong clerical bias. The attempt never materialised.
(2) Though no Peasant Party exists, or would be allowed, in Russia, the Soviets encouraged some of the refugees living in Moscow to set up a Peasant International there. Formed in 1923, it held its first Congress in 1925. It has made no visible impres sion on the Peasant movement.
(3) On the initiative of the Bulgarian Stamboliski an inter national agrarian bureau was established in Prague in 1921, the Czech, Bulgarian, Polish and Serbian Peasant Parties being its members; purely for research and information. In May 1928 the organisation was widened, being joined by the Croatian, Ruma nian and other Peasant Parties, including the newly-formed French and Dutch Parties. Eight Parties of central and eastern Europe have in addition formed a regional group within the bureau, to act politically in close contact, with a joint central executive. The group, like the bureau, is to work for the solution of political and social problems according to peasant interests; it is to pub lish in one or more of the western languages the chief writings of Peasant leaders, and prepare a peasant news agency. The regional group was formed especially to resist jointly any attempt at dictatorship, whether from the Left or from the Right.
(D. MO PEASANT PROPRIETOR: see LAND TENURE.