Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
Documents
provincial district councils, and town councils of the same status as such district councils, shall be directly subordinated to the county council; town and village councils shall be directly subordinated to the provincial district council. Törvények és rendeletek hivatalos gyűjteménye [Official collection of laws and decrees], Budapest 1950, pp. 3-9. XXXII Excerpts from the report of the commission investigating the position of the Budapest working class, submitted to the Budapest Party Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party uly 29th, 195« This report has been based on personal and group talks with about 31,000 workers, and professional workers who were formerly workers, in 111 industrial enterprises. Pursuant to the resolution of February 4th, 1958, of the Political Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, this investigation dealt with the political, economic and cultural situation of the working class. A further study was made of the participation of workers in positions of leadership, and the work of party organizations among the workers. In the largest and most important factories this work was carried out by the Central Committee, and the Budapest Party Committee. About 1,500 comrades co-operated in this investigation in Budapest. ... Talks with workers in Budapest reflected the improvements that have taken place in the economic, social and cultural situation of the workers over the past year and a half. The majority of workers appraise the position correctly. They approve the measures taken by the party, of their class character, and of the consistent characteristic of the leadership, in reporting the true situation to the workers, and making no promises which it is unable to fulfil. The fact that the speeches of the party leaders and the government to the people are made in a simple, human manner, that they frequently visit factories and villages and have informal talks with the workers there, meets with general approval. In the course of these talks the workers mainly considered the situation in terms of the economic measures that have been taken. They ascribe the prevention of inflation to the efficiency of the party and the government, approve of the abolition of subscriptions to loans, the tax on the childless—and register the fact that these measures, combined with wage increases and the system of profit sharing have resulted in a general improvement of living standards. In so far as political activity is concerned the following groups stand out among the workers of Budapest : Those actively supporting the measures taken by the party and the government are mainly from the ranks of the party, older skilled workers, and the elder workers who have been in the factory for years, the old staff. We can depend on them in every question that arises, not only in questions of production. In addition to the politically active party members and older workers, there is a large section of people, sympathetic to the system of a people’s democracy and to the party. 126
