Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION basis of the subsequent web of nexuses were built as early as the early 1940s. The idea worked perfectly well, Hungarian intelligence achieved outstanding results both in terms of trade cooperation and in exerting influence on western societies. To our present knowledge, military intelligence (Division 2 of the General Staff of the Hungarian Peoples Army, MNVK-2) was deeply involved in such secret service games that the presence of military intelligence could be detected behind most of the key figures identified so far. There were experts trained by the operative network of military intelligence who spoke a number of languages and were suitable for establishing and maintaining western relations. Driven by their patriotism, these men undertook their assignments voluntarily, and were recruited in a less formal way than the agents of the State Security Division of the Ministry of Interior. We have found evidence that they chose not to require even a recruitment statement or an agency agreement to be signed, and it stands to reason that the operational files were certainly not completed in each and every case either.6 The members of the network were not called agents but “committed sources” (in original Hungarian: “ megnyert” or “won”). They agencies did indeed try to “win” the given person over for the cause, hence the Hungarian description. Given that the archives of military intelligence are searchable to a very limited extent, for now we know little about these committed sources, but it is safe to say they had a strong presence in the areas of both the economy/foreign trade and journalism.7 Hungary played an exceptional role in trade between the two blocs: from 1972, foreign trade companies were given the opportunity to establish businesses in the capitalist West without requiring additional permits. A world was beginning to take shape. Networks of companies with ownership structures that were impossible 6 The director of Chemokomplex Ervin Gazdag’s R dossier (recruitment dossier) with MNVK-2 was moved to the archives of the Ministry of the Interior to be added to his file kept by civilian intelligence. Lieutenant-colonel Benedek Markotán stated the following in a proposal: “This is to report that the said person was engaged as a committed source from October 1959 onwards, although he was not formally recruited. His actual engagement was discontinued in 1970. From this time forward, he was used occasionally as an official contact.’ ÁBTL 3.2.1 Bt-1899. 50. Recommendation, 3 May 1974 7 Kenedi 2015, p 103 11
