Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)

Zsuzsa Kovács: The Oil Age and Its Impact on Everyday Village Life In Zala County's Settlements

The second flourishing of crude oil production in Transdanubia is connected to the Nagylengyel field, where the output of more than 1 million tons - achieved in the 1950s and 60s - surpassed that of the Lovászi and Budafapuszta fields bv far. The high-viscosity, gasfree crude oil discovered here contributed greatly to satisfying the hydrocarbon demand of industrial production forced on Hungary- in this period. It was possible to manufacture excellent road paving asphalt from the oil lifted to the surface, and the profitable demand for this was apparent, since the enlargement of the country's road network was on its way in earnest.

249 Owing to forced production, the water cut into the wells in just a short time, which led to the field's fast depletion. The Nagylengyel Crude Oil Production Company was established in 1952; the industrial plant, however, was chosen so as to have it lie close to the oilfield, half of which belonged to Nagylengyel, the other to Gellénháza. The section in question was later attached to Gellénháza, thereby this settlement received a central role and started out on the road of rapid transformation, lasting almost three decades, that goes hand-in-hand with industrial development.

2,11 The company found it easy to settle down at this settlement, because there were not any alternate mineral assets being exploited in the county, and industry was at a low standard from other points of view as well. Other than a couple of brickworks, mills, and timber felling, no other company operated in this area, so in Gellénháza the oil industry was awaited by a poor village eager to emerge from its circumstances, with a few hundred inhabitants. A dusty little village in the shadow of the county see All the way up to the village development period in the second half of the 20th century, the Göcsej region - encompassing the settlements between the Zala River, as well as the Kerka and Válicka Streams - was one of the most archaic geographic units in Hungarv, retaining centuries old traditions. The reason for this phenomenon is to be found primarily in the area's natural features, the low quality soil that only bore scanty produce, and the impassable roads that shut villages off from transportation. The members of the boy scout team that visited these lands in 1935 reported on conditions that conserved centuries old conditions. Thev sadly established that there was a very large number of 1-2 acre smallholders,

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1 but even those possessing larger properties also only scraped along in great poverty because of the land's low Gold Crown (i.e. the cadastral yield) value. Such general destitution served to explain the bad healthcare circumstances, and food shortages. Adults and children ate sparely alike, children often have no more than a piece of bread for lunch, and because of this they are frequently ill and infant mortality is high.

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2 Because of the sparsely constructed railway network and the roads that recurrently mm into muddy bogs whenever it rains, making them impassable either on foot or cart, transportation was toilsome indeed. Even a thirty minute rain shower was enough to make clayey roads impossible to use, therefore several villages were left to fend for their own months on end !4

' BACSINSZKY 1987,163. •

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" BACSINSZKY 198

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, 164. 31 NÉMETH 1935,76. 32 FALUSI 19.35,67.