Figure 1.--Here we see a Hungarian family in 1962. They are podly showing off their SKODA, Kiskunmajsa 1960. Notice the boys is pictured in what may be his school uniform and red Pioneer scarf. Unlike the West, workers could not afford or be allocated cars. The father here would have had an important Goverbment or Party post to obtain a family car. SKODA was a Czech compamy, but with operations in Hungary. The model is the Kiskunmajsa 1960. We know it was aimed at the Hungarian market as Kiskunmajsa is a town in Hungary. It may have beem built by SKODA in Hungary. It was a very basic car. We are not sure just how good it was compared to the better known DDR Trebbie.

After World War II, the Communists under the aegis of the Red Army seized control of Hungary (1945). Stalin oversaw the same provess in Hungary as the rest of the Soviert Empire he was constructing in Eastern Europe. There was a brief transitiinal period which was useful both to molify the Western press and to identify independent thinking figures to be be purged later (1945-47). The Commiunists were in control from the beginning, but ruked through coalition governments giving the illusion of democracy. The Communist Party seized full control (1948-49). With the breakdown of Soviet-Allied cooperation in occupied Germany andcthe formaloutbreak of the Cold War, cosmetic coaltions were no longer needed. A new constitution gave the Hungarian Workers' Party an exclusive monopoly on political power and thius the ability to completely overhaul the Hungarian economy. The Communists proceeded to enact a throughly Stalinist political and economic system (1949-53). The Communists launched on a massive program of industrialization. To the shock of the Communists, the economy did not grow like the economies of Western Europe. Not ony were the state-owned industries not profitable and able to pay good wages, but because of state policie, shortages developed for agricultural products. The economomic problens were only partly due to Communist inefficencies. The Soviet Union exploited all of its Eastern European subject peoples. Stalin's death seemed to create the the posibility of more flexibility (1953). Imre Nagy became prime minister. He announcedcnew policies called the New Course. The Soviers engineered his ouster (1955). The economic failure of the Stalinist economic system gavecrise to growing dissension and protest. The workers pradise the Communists had promised not only did not occur, but shortages andc shoiddybproductions meant that Hungarian living standards noyt only did not rise like those in the West, but fell below pre-War standards. The rumors reached Hungay of the Soviet 20th Party Congress and De-Stalinization. Workers and students rose up against the orthodox Communist regime that had replaced (October 1956). Imre Nagy assumed leadership, but the Soviets sent in their tanks to suppress the rebellion. They installed János Kádár as prime minister. The Soviets and their Hungarian acolytes like Kádár launch a Stalinist crackdown amd widespread arrests. Nagy was promised safe passage, but arrested and executed. The Hungarian Workers' Party because of its hated reputation was renamed the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. After the repression that followed, more liberal outlook took hold in Hungary and an economy which came to be called Goulash Communism. There were notable improvements, but Hungarian industry was not competive outside the COMECON barter system. This was the situation when Communism fell (1989). While the economic failings of Communist Hungary were well known, before the fall of Communism, what was not know was the envirimental desvestation wrought by stateowned industrial concerns.

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Created: 6:47 PM 4/18/2019
Last updated: 6:47 PM 4/18/2019



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