Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
‘THE HUNGARIAN MAFIA’ - The key to success
FABULOUS SPY GAMES throughout this period. This conclusion is also underpinned by the fact that the foreign trade balance closed with a deficit nearly every year from the 1970s onwards, which means that the country became indebted primarily due to the unmarketable quality of Hungarian goods. By the late 1980s, Hungary was highly indebted, which is usually attributed to inept economic policy, the foreign trade deficit, deteriorating trading ratios and loss-making production, which was only exacerbated by János Feketes loan policy: 90 percent of the loans taken out came from bonds issued under free market conditions. As a result, the rescheduling of debts or an agreement for a moratorium was not even an option following the change in political system.213 213 Oplatka 2014, p. 106 214 CIA, FOIA, Special collection of Helmut Triska, 14 October 1953 https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/TRISKA%2C%20HELMUT_0055.pdf (Downloaded on: 21 August 2019) 215 Ibid. However, far more subtle factors underpinned the economic failures of socialist Hungary. In truth, however, riding the extreme waves triggered by the Cold War with exceptional talent, Hungarian foreign traders developed a system, which if reconstructed might fundamentally change our concept of the economic history of socialist Hungary. This highlighted the unique role of Hungarian foreign trade, the success of which one can hardly dispute, unlike its consequences. The roots of the phenomenon go back to the cooperation with the West German individuals I introduced in a previous chapter. During his posting in Frankfurt, Károly Junger was able to achieve favourable conditions for Hungary. The success of his business negotiations was also facilitated by government officials. Junger bribed several people in foreign trade to bring about favourable changes to the commercial quotas applied to Hungary. One of his principal partners was Bruno Süssmilch, an official of the Intergovernmental Department of the Ministry of Supplies, who had previously served the Third Reich himself as a member of the Nazi Party and who lost a leg in the war.214 Süssmilch would inform Junger about the directions of German trade policy, although this was not intentional according to the CIA.215 Junger s reports, however, suggest that Süssmilch was not as naive 76
