Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)

‘THE HUNGARIAN MAFIA’ - The red octopus

'THE HUNGARIAN

MAFIA'

‘THE HUNGARIAN MAFIA

’

The red octopus

By the end of WWII, it became obvious that the future would be shaped by the two opposing great powers, so European states were reduced to secondary players in the arena of world politics, wedged between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Germany had defeat in the Second World War behind it, and it seemed it would have to forgo its imperial plans for the time being, as its dominance in Central Europe was questioned. The fate of a country divided into occupation zones became uncertain. The economic ties of Bizone and then Trizone108

with the eastern parts of the country were kept under strict control, cooperation with the territories in the Soviet occupation zone become more and more restricted. Stuck in the buffer zone between the interests of great powers, Germany’s role in the new world order soon became apparent. As a strong ally in Europe, it was critical to the US to have a partner that could serve both as a military and economic base directly along the borders of the Soviet sphere of interest. The Americans also needed to obtain reliable information on the territories occupied by the Soviets, so they supported the revival of commercial ties based on historical traditions. The officers of the former Third Reich, who had local knowledge and relations in these countries, got to play a role in this based on some opportunist considerations, all the more so as it is clear most of them also had intelligence experience. Nor did the Soviet Union 108 At the end of WWII, Germany ended up occupied by four powers. By 1946, relations between the Soviets and western Allies were so severed that economic cooperation between the zones became more and more cumbersome, and the Iron Curtain was brought down. By late 1946, the British and American zones were united economically to create Bizone, and then Trizone in 1948 when the French zone also joined them.

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