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
FABULOUS SPY GAMES reject the idea of doing business with the representatives of Nazi Germany, who were welcomed with open arms in the countries of the Bloc. The fight against fascism became the ultimate ideology of the left to no avail, as communism and national socialism were actually not that far from each other in terms of their goals and means: the political and economic cooperation between Hitler and Stalin was clear to see from as early as the 1930s.109 The agreement concluded on the eve of WWII, euphemistically called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was, however, a deal between Hitler and Stalin, and can be regarded as the height of this relationship. Stalin supplied the Third Reich with the necessary raw materials for the war economy, and even with industrial goods, right until the German attack. It had always been important for Germany and Russia to maintain economic links, and one could argue that geopolitics makes them natural allies as the combination of the developed industrial German territories and the vast Russian land rich in raw materials opens up enormous potential. How the economic ties linking the two countries evolved was always a decisive factor throughout history, since entirely rearranging power relations between them could lead to greater cooperation. Consequently, considerable forces have been moved over the centuries to block this. Although the political scene after WWII seemingly tore the eastern and western parts of Europe apart, rendering cooperation impossible between West Germany and Soviet Russia, in actual fact, this separation was not hermetically sealed even in the iciest years of the Cold War.110 The negotiations to unite Germany dragged on until the mid- 1950s, but none of the great powers were ready to relinquish their interests in the region, so the status quo became a stalemate for decades. The economic interests, however, did remain: the Soviet Union could not circumvent the booming West German industry, and the direct American presence made the latest technology available in West Germany, while the eastern markets, to which they had historical ties, were indispensable to German companies. Geo-political-historical interdependence remained, and it could not even be overridden by the drive to meet the expectations of contemporary politics, the 109 Mitrovits 2020, Koch 2014, p. 133-166 110 For more details, cf. Stent 1981; Pittman 1992; Carter 2012 44
