The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The chosen company

In the 6th year of the licence agreement Marlboro production exceeded the magic limit

ated the licence contract for the manufacture of Multifilters.The Multifilter brand was introduced onto the market at Christmas 1981. The price of a pack of Multifilters was HUF 34, while in comparison one egg cost HUF 1.90, one decilitre of sour cream HUF 3.40, and one kilo of potatoes HUF 7. The average monthly wage of a worker in the tobacco factory was HUF 4000.

So what sort of mood were we in at that time? Let’s look into a “mood report”. The factory’s MSZMP (Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party) chapter informed the city party centre that many people considered events in Salvador were receiving excessive publicity. The “mood report” covering questions in the city complained “one of the workers was waiting at the eye clinic with her children. The surgery started three-quarters of a hour late, and after a further long delay she finally managed to see the doctor. However, because she had only one appointment ticket, then only one of her children was examined. People are requesting that for the price paid for meat, they should really get meat, and not 30 dekagrammes of fat and gristle per kilo of leg of pork.” While the party was pondering on the order in which to implement provisions to improve the general sense of well-being, Jenő Váncsa, minister for agriculture and food - on a mission representing the government - arrived in Eger by helicopter and for lack of a better place to land he was set down in the Csebokszár housing estate’s hard court, and then finally taken on to his destination in a Zalka Máté street greengrocer’s dilapidated Lada. He was here to personally deliver the document certifying the title “Most Excellent Company” which the factory had been awarded for the tenth time. After the celebrations the minister departed by air, with the helicopter’s rotor blades whipping the air like a premonition of the failure to come of the planned economy.