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’ - A Cold War Hungaricum
'THE HUNGARIAN MAFIA' The second half of the 1980s was about the transition from the socialist economy to capitalism. Large western companies and international financial groups watched the changes anxiously, and probably made efforts to influence the process. Hungary lost nothing of its appeal: its favourable tax environment and liberal regulation made it the most investor-friendly country in the region, and multinational big business was given the unmatched opportunity to take all profit made through its activities out of the country - at least this is what the American secret services believed made Hungary particularly attractive.257 257 CIA, FOIA, Prospects for US Export to Hungary and Poland, 1 September 1989 https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90T00103R000400410002-0.pdf (Downloaded on: 31 August 2019) The connections described above require further research and analysis, also from an economic point of view, that go far beyond the scope of this book. Yet, I feel it is important to outline the consciously created and built trade mechanism that was unique to Hungary and defined its role in the history of the Cold War. This role was by no means a minor one, particularly if we consider the size of the country. Its geopolitical position destined Hungary and the Carpathian Basin to be a bridge connecting East and West, and the political split of the world forced it to open a back door when the Iron Curtain was lifted. This was a necessity as you can have ideologies on the political level, but this cannot stand in the way of the economy, or money, to be precise. The flow of capital cannot be prevented, interests vested in financial power will prevail no matter what barbed wire stretches along the borders. The Soviet occupation brought the country’s political, social and economic life to a grinding halt, but there was nonetheless a hidden dimension to the events where continuity can be observed. That is, the continuity between Nazism and Communism, capitalism and socialism. The activities of the Hungarian mafia controlling secret Comintern money in Switzerland, or building close trade relations between former Nazi officers and their former prey, all suggest that, behind the scenes of politics, there was also another world driven by completely different motivations, and that exploring the latter is indispensable to determining the reality. The delusions of a global communist revolution necessitated unfettered 95
