Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
‘FABULOUS’ IN HUNGARY - Sympathetic journalism
'FABULOUS' IN HUNGARY member of the resistance group led by László Sólyom,364 into the authorities.365 After the war, the Peoples Court of Budapest sentenced Porkai to one years imprisonment, but the National Council of Peoples Courts acquitted him of the charges, and he was later recruited to be an agent of the terror organisation by György Kardos,366 an officer of the Military Policy Department. Kardos told state security detectives during the investigation against Hoffmann that Porkai had worked not only for the Arrow Cross prior to 1945, but also for the Gestapo, and his dossier was destroyed during the revolution.367 Given that Porkai was in contact with the German secret service, he may have known Hoffmann from back in 1944. Counterintelligence managed to gather quite a lot of compromising information on Porkai as they had a wife of one of the agents employed as a waitress who was able to tell her husband a great deal about the manager s little tricks and frauds. On top of this, the agent claimed he dared not let his wife go home alone late at night and would sit at a table quietly in the evenings to keep an eye on the restaurants guests.368 Eventually, the fraud and petty embezzlement at the Rózsadomb restaurant did not make it to trial. We do not know exactly who was behind Porkai, but a state security report from the early 1950s states that Porkai had György Marosán369 to thank 364 László Sólyom (1908-1950), a Hungarian royal military officer and one of the significant figures of national resistance after the German occupation. In 1945 he was appointed head of the Budapest Police Headquarters, while he returned to the army in the spring of 1946, serving as the Chief of Staff of the Hungarian Army between 1948 and 1950. He was brought before a court in a show trial and executed in 1950. 365 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/7 p. 92 György Kardos’ information on Porkai, 3 July 1963 366 György Kardos (1918-1985) was a member of the illegal Communist Party before 1945. Following 1945, he was a detective of the Military Policy Department led by György Pálffy and played a decisive role in elaborating the ideology underlying the Hungarian Community show trial and in conducting the trial itself. In 1950, he was arrested during the State Protection Authority’s campaign against the Military Policy Department and remained in prison until 1954. In 1956, Kardos was recalled to state security, before working at the cross-border intelligence department of military intelligence, until he was relieved from service in 1961 at his own request. He worked as the director of the publishing house Magvető Kiadó until his death. 367 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/7 p. 92 György Kardos’ information on Porkai, 3 July 1963 368 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/6 p. 54-59 Report by‘ Örsi’, 26 August 1960 369 György Marosán (1908-1992) participated in the workers’ movement from a very young age and engaged in politics from 1927 onwards with the Social Democratic Party. After 137
