The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory
The cigarette factory
( i, From the gracefully upward-sweeping curve described by these figures, only the year 1954 stands out, as it is visible on the following page. In this year, despite a significant increase in the number of staff members, the pattern of increasing productivity was broken. According to the analyses of those who have followed the trends characterising the years surrounding the 1956 revolution, this falling off was brought about by Imre Nagy’s “generating of liberalism, right wing opportunist, revisionist” government programme and policy. While it is indubitable that the Stahanovist movement had begun to run out of steam, the causes of this sudden stunting of the growth pattern must nevertheless be sought elsewhere. The technological progress had in fact given rise to something of a bottle-neck in cigarette production. Although cigarettes were actually assembled by machine, the preparation techniques had scarcely altered since 1934. The tobacco mixture was prepared in the following manner: the various tobaccos - which in turn were made up of a blend of nine or ten different types of raw material - were arranged in a circular pattern, and the different tobacco types, in the correct proportions, were thrown into the air and allowed to fall back down into the middle of the circle, thus forming into a mixture. This technique was known as the “flying mixer”. The voluntary firemen’s team in full dress
