Baják László Ihász István: The Hungarian National Museum History Exhibition Guide 4 - The short century of survival (1900-1990) (Budapest, 2008)
Room 20. The Rise and Fall of Communism (1945-1990). István Ihász
Hungarian economic policy ignored the 1973 world market price explosion, which began with the drastic increase in the price of crude oil followed by the other raw materials and fuels. Because of the low level at which they were refined, the exportable Hungarian products (corn, meat, bauxite etc.) were sold practically at the raw material price, which had risen at a far less dynamic rate. The Soviet Union, as the main transporter of raw materials, itself only kept to the favourably fixed Comecon prices until the end of the 1970s. In 1973 the Hungarian political leadership still reacted to challenges by dismissing the leading figures of economic and intellectual reform (Rezső Nyers, Jenő Fock and Lajos Fehér), and following the 1973 so-called "philosopher's trial" of the students of Lukács, they and many other intellectuals dispersed all around the world despite their proximity to and because of their criticism of the inner circle of power. Neither could striking success be achieved later by the limited socialist reforms, even though those in power gave an increasing degree of tacit acquiescence in order to prevent political activism in society: Behind the pictures adorning the wall of János Kádár's office in the Party headquarters we can cast our eyes jpon a cabinet display representing the period's ntellectual and material culture: these accessories are partly the souvenirs of defined political foreign -elations, and partly gifts to "the great chess-player" 'rom companies and institutes operating in the spheres of socialist industry, agriculture and commerce. We can see here models of industrial goods produced Nith heavy state funding specifically for the undemanding eastern market, souvenirs advertising f he agricultural cooperative, citadel of the Hungarian 'agricultural miracle", as well gifts that changed ownership at the ritualistic meetings of the communist parties, 'exhibition detail)
