Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
FINAL THOUGHTS – TRAPPED IN THE NETWORKS
FABULOUS SPY GAMES it clearly signalled their ascendence, but can we really regard them as nothing more than a lobby group? We have seen that opposing players appeared within the party and state hierarchy. The failure of the new economic mechanism cannot be explained simply by the strengthening of orthodox communists. Furthermore, in light of what is explained in this book, one is faced with the controversial situation where hampering the rationalisation of the economy, autonomous industry and the first tentative steps to place the economy on a market-based footing was in the interests of those already operating in line with the rules of a profit-oriented capitalist business world. It was their desire to eliminate competitors in the arena. The methods used often overstepped the boundaries of legality: their activity was a hotbed of corruption, and, as we saw, the suspicion of political murder can even be raised against these players, so this book is further nuanced by the unanswered questions surrounding György Péter s death at the very least. The term ‘foreign trade lobby’ does not, therefore, refer to the conventional definition of a group fighting for certain interests, generally using legal instruments. Instead, we know of several such groups in the economy of the Kádár regime. It is enough to mention the agricultural lobby,514 the lobby of industrial companies and the water lobby, which bear a striking resemblance to organised crime networks. The fact that they had connections in state institutions, as well as within the secret service, gives the structure of the group a rather mafia-esque look. As a mafia organisation, the ‘foreign trade lobby’ enjoyed a privileged position in the one-party state precisely due to its dictatorial organisation, which prevented rivals arriving uninvited from the outside. This is what I mean when I say a network protected by the hierarchy. 514 Cf. Varga 2013. Foreign trade is based on foreign relationships, so this lobby group was only a Hungarian tentacle of an international organisation. However, in contrast to the foreign relationships typical of the era, one has to seek beyond the Iron Curtain to find their partners instead of looking within the countries of the Eastern Bloc and Comecon. An orientation to the West was a logical consequence of the tasks to be carried out, since this was the only way to 190
