Kothencz Kelemen (szerk.): Migráció és hagyomány-formálódás a történeti Duna-Tisza közi nemzetiségek népéletében - Bajai dolgozatok 22. (Baja, 2018)

Silling István: Nyugat-Bácska benépesülése

István Silling Demography of the West Backa District

The West Backa District was an ethnically heterogeneous region under the reign of Maria Theresa (1740-1780) where Serbs, Sokéi and Hungarians lived together. Germans, Hungarians, Bunjevci and Slovaks arrived to the area by organised and unorganised plantations. The area was divided into two parts by the Trianon dictate in 1920. Most of the area was taken to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes but the overall picture of nationalities still did not change much. Many of the volunteer Serbian soldiers came into lands at this time. These people, called ’dobrovoljác’, populated the Aleksa Santic land which had been confiscated from the Germans by the state. A similar Serb population also arrived to the village of Rastina (in Hungarian: Haraszti). The Serb population was relocated from the area because Hungary recaptured these territories in 1941. The Hungarian state settled Bukovinian Szeklers to empty houses. The Yugoslav state migrated Serbs and Montenegrins (literally “People of the Black Mountain”) to the houses of the expelled Germans after the WW II. Then the Serbs had become the ethnic majority of the West Backa District. The image of nationalities had changed significantly by the refugees of the South Slavic war at the end of the 20th century.

[Translated by the editor]

158