Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
ATTACK ON THE OMFB - The Siemens lobby
FABULOUS SPY GAMES Hungarian foreign trade companies and the companies using these computers, and yet, in spite of his nexuses, János Sebestyén was still able to break IBM’s monopoly: Siemens also decided to enter the business of producing computers, and the interests of the circles controlling the OMFB dictated that it was the West German technology that should be popularised in Hungary. Their main argument was that this rate of US influence must be stopped. This reasoning was rather weak, however, as the manufacturing of computers in Europe was based on American licences.451 Given that huge allocations were made for the developments in the budget, the stakes, however, were high. 451 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15829/3, p. 180 Summary report, 29 May 1970 452 Baráth - Kázsmér - Újvári 2013 p. 123. 453 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15829/3, p. 180 Summary report, 29 May 1970 Harmonised work to develop a single, compatible range of computers, the Unified Computing System (ESZR), began in 1967. In Hungary, Government Decree 10125/1968 established the Interministerial Computer Technology Committee, which was in charge of elaborating the development programme, and developed and monitored the policy to purchase licences. The senior leaders of the Committee included Árpád Kiss, chairman of the OMFB, engineer Zsolt Náray, who was the mastermind behind creating the unified computing system, and János Sebestyén, while the members of the Committee included senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Metallurgy and Machine Industry (KGM), the National Planning Office and the Central Statistical Office. The smallest product in the computer range to be developed in the interests of creating the Unified Computing System had to be manufactured in Hungary. This significantly benefited Videoton, who would later develop and manufacture the products, as it made it easier for the company to branch out into the world of mini- and microcomputers.452 Implementation was planned to take place over seven years from 1969 to 1975 in an attempt to catch up to the development levels in computer technology of the moderately developed European capitalist countries. The costs were estimated to total 10 billion forints.453 162
