Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)
Lajos Srágli: Hungary's Economy, Politics and MAORT
restitution as articulated in the ceasefire agreement, then the Soviet-Hungarian economic treaty concluded on August 27, 1945 defined the fate of the Hungarian economy in a profound manner. Since the private economy did not want to embark voluntarily upon the path designated by external economic, political, as well as internal political interests, nor to act against its own natural interests, the state apparatus intervened in the private economy to an ever increasing degree. 149 There were significant changes taking place in crude oil production in Hungary as well. The national borders, which were expanded as a consequence of the Vienna decisions, were once again redrawn to the mock boundaries of Trianon. Transylvania - and with her the hydrocarbon fields discovered, and the gas pipeline built during the war - were returned to Romania. The concession area of the Hungarian-Italian Mineral Oil Industries Ltd. Co., which was prospecting in the north-east - in the vicinity of Izaszacsal - was also cut out of our territory. The Muraköz was also ripped from Hungarv. The assets and licenses of the Hungarian-German Mineral Oil Works Lie. - which held a concession in the eastern part of the country - which already suffered damage during the war, were transferred to the Soviet Union's hand as a German interest. The Soviet Union used this as in kind contribution to the Hungarian-Soviet Crude Oil Limited Company, an Hungarian-Soviet joint venture established on April 8, 1946 pursuant to the Soviet-Hungarian economic treaty. Production at the Treasury's Bükkszék plant was hardly worth mentioning by 1944, and it lost its production capability completely because of the dismantling of equipment and their removal by the Germans. MAORT remained the country's sole substantive oil producing company. As of restarting production at the Zala oilfields, the situation of MAORT and that of oil production were fundamentally determined bv the changes which occurred in the control of crude oil production in Hungarv, in addition to war damage. From April 1945 until the signing of the peace treaty, instructions from the Soviet army's command had a decisive role in how production developed. Supplying soviet troops constituted a difficult task for MAORT. The demand for supplying fuel to them was articulated as a military constraint (sometimes expressly underscored by arms). In July 1945, the Ministry of Industry formally took over the supervision of MAORT plants from the Soviet army, nonetheless military control was not actually terminated. In these circumstances, ALVORT's Hungarian management was completely excluded from governance, was not allowed to make independent decisions, with execution being their only task. They received instructions concerning production directly from Russian military commanders until the autumn of 1945, in the form of orders. Almost nobody dared to resist the armed threats.' 1 " The production capacity of the oilfields, the professional conviction of specialists, and arguments based on natural sciences could not have any role in such circumstances. Initially, one could only find the opinions and concerns of MAORT's management and professionals in weekly production reports, later on an ever increasing number of submissions were drafted About rebuilding, stabilisation, and the three-year plan: PETŐ-SZAKÁCS 1985.; RÁNK1 1963.; SIPOSVIDA 1985., 102-123.; The idea that the Soviet-Hungarian treaty ensures a certain kind of exclusivity for the Soviet Union did arise. Theoretically, this was not so, but the obligations that exceeded the top limits of the I lungarian economy's performance capability - because the items appearing in the treaty were in this range - did not make it possible for I lungary too include similar treaties with other nations. MOIM Arch. MAORT weekly reports; 1945, PS. 47/6.; OI. XIX-F-l-oo l.d.2.
