The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The cigarette factory

In 1946 the factory celebrated its 50th anniversary. Numerous occasions from the factory’s history - at least between May 1894 and September 1897 - are available as precedents for celebration. The roof-raising ceremony of November 1895 was followed by a very raucous, high-spirited party; surely the 50th anniversary should hark back to that famous day? In 1945, however, the factory’s tiniest problem was still of greater moment than the question of whether to celebrate an anniversary. That was a year filled not with success but rather with losses. Thus it was that the anniversary celebrations for the birth and subsequent rebirth of the factory took place in 1946, in November, and the celebrations were linked to the fact that it was in 1896 that the full complement of factory buildings had been completed and that the training of apprentices had been instituted on the factory site. With the mood induced by the celebrations, the frenzy of rebuilding began. Some of the workers formed a small theatrical group and performed Baroness Lili in the factory to great applause. A choir was formed, the library was extended to comprise a total of 700 volumes, the day nursery opened its doors again and a swimming pool was constructed for children and adults, a bowling alley and a basketball court were constructed thanks to totally voluntary community effort, and Mrs. Mihály Csegezi, the factory’s model worker, set the productivity record of 121,600 cigars in 850 working hours, a total which rose above the average output by 10,490 - not a trifling number. As the supply of raw material became surer and more consistent, so the number of workers began to increase. In May of 1946 there were 340 workers on the payroll, and 60 staff members on enforced leave. At the end of the year Syposs received permission from central office to hire 20 more workers, which he hired from among the 200 applicants from the large families of his existing staff. With the introduction of the forint, the price of cigarettes became fixed: a packet of “Munkás” cost eight fillér, a packet of “Magyar” ten fillér, packets of “Béke” and “Virginia” cost twenty-four fillér each.