The Poisoning Women of Tiszazug

Abstract

This article examines the social causes of the infamous Tiszazug murders (i.e., the poisoning of more than forty people, mainly men, by their female relatives) in interwar Hungary. First, it looks at those elements in peasant culture, such as the traditional neglect of the sick elderly and the disabled, which proved conducive to a violent solution of family problems. Then, the essay analyzes the changes in family structures and inheritance patterns and discusses the impact of political events such as the end of overseas migration, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the autarchic policies of the “successor states” and the failure of land reform on peasants’ lives. Finally, the article looks at the discovery of the murders and the peasants’ interpretations of the poisonings.