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 - End game
'FABULOUS' IN HUNGARY personal antipathy. As with Jonai, we cannot rule out the possibility that a working relationship with a former Nazi officer was untenable for Csillag, as he used anti-Semitism as the grounds for his emigration. The aversion between the two of them prompted Hoffmann to make inappropriate outbursts as he held Csillag to be a Stalinist: “Hoffmann was upset, telling us how Csillag appointed the head of HR to be head of division, and that people like him must be gassed,”408 Rojkó says in his report. The personnel changes he ordered as the head of Presto were indeed designed to render Hoffmanns relations impossible as Csillag transferred or retired several people who had had a relationship with ‘Fabulous’ for years, thus hampering the leaking of information.409 408 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-12344/ 13-a p. 304 Report, 27 November 1963 409 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-12344/12 p. 210 Social contact report, Mátyás Csillag, 15 November 1964 410 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-12344/8, p. 142 Service request, 4 December 1963 Hoffmanns most important connection was still Sebestyén, who, following the establishment of the OMFB, ended up in a position from which he could influence the country’s most important purchases and business deals, so it was top priority for counterintelligence to sour the partnership between them in the course of the investigation against ‘Fabulous’. They also used Nyerges in this operation, who received the task as an agent to pit the two men against each other. A great opportunity came late in 1963 after Hoffmann published an article in his own magazine Welthandels Informationen in the first half of the year. Quoting Sebestyén as its source, it analysed the tasks of mining natural gas in Hungary planned for the following two years, the impacts of the pipe embargo, and the details of the Soviet-Hungarian agreements resulting from this.410 State security found the latter to be particularly sensitive as western countries were using the pipe embargo as an attempt to make the building of natural gas and oil pipes more difficult, which could have jeopardised energy security, a key strategic area for socialist countries. We cannot tell from state security documents exactly what happened, but it seems highly likely that Nyerges intimidated Sebestyén by accusing him of a severe breach of confidentiality if Hoffmann was telling the truth and his information really was coming from the deputy chairman. Sebestyén ensured the head of division of the Ministry of 149
