Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)
Zsuzsa Kovács: The Oil Age and Its Impact on Everyday Village Life In Zala County's Settlements
The number of employees was around 50 at most of the sites, and the workers there were usually women. 305 The Zalaegerszeg Handicraft Company's Gellénháza field section was also one of these, employing women from the families working at the oil plant. 3( ' 6 In the wake of the effects discussed in this paper, "oil villages" left behind their 19th century lifestyle once and for all. Neither industry, nor the collectivisation of agriculture, however, could do away with the centuries old desire to own land, and the rural tradition striving for self-sufficiencv. As a result of the changes that occurred in the structure of society during the second half of the 19th century, certain standardisation tendencies appeared in the lifestyle of villages and towns. This is particularly true in Gellénháza's case, where the industry settling down in the village brought along city intellectuals and a layer of workers with qualifications as settlers; in addition to which the settlement all but received small-town features as the housing development, the multi-storey houses, the public swimming pool or the cinema were constructed. The rural form of life, however, continued to oppose town lifestyle because of its ecological situation: house, plot, yard; moreover on account of the community control role si ill in effect to a certain extent.'" In the case of Gellénháza we can establish that the settlement underwent the generic changes of the 1960s, thanks to the oil industry, however, everything happened a lot faster, and differently from certain points of view. Not even this village was granted exemption in the second wave of agricultural cooperative organisation, but collectivisation was thus started later than in other parts of Hungarv. Families weathered out the mandatory produce surrender related difficulties of the 1950s more easily than in the other regions of the country thanks to men's wages earned in the oil industry. Later, the cooperatives established in the second wave already provided at least some minimal income for joining members, livelihood nevertheless continued to remain very difficult. 3 " 8 Thanks to industry, everyday life in Gellénháza was spent in a more predictable way, and therefore with more certainty. The years of security, however, came to an end from the 1980s, and one may predict that everything will fall back to the old rut after the golden age. Today, only a few people have jobs in the village vet again, so the settlement is once more becoming a residence and sleeper-village. A new boom could be conceivable with geothermal energy, if MOL were to spot this settlement as one of the sites for this development trajectory as well. The utilisation of inactive wells as low capacity power stations is currently no more than a future concept. Another path for the settlement's development would be for it to reinforce the sleeper-settlement aspect, since it lies a mere 10 kilometres from Zalaegerszeg, and a good part of its infrastructure obtained in the oil period could be utilised for this purpose today. '"' 5 MN, 2000,987. ""' ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, February 22, 1968. VALUCH 20(11, 281. M MOLNÁR 1996,637.
