Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)
Tamás Magyarics: The United States and the Issue of MAORT's Nationalisation
with adequate quantities of food, then this obligation will also be thrown at them. The issue of American investments having become endangered because of the Soviets' economic policv in Hungary was of less gravity, as was the fact that Hungary could onlv satisfy compensation obligations that United States citizens were due with greater difficulty in such circumstances. Finally, under the principle of "open doors", i.e. the American foreign trade principle that could be considered traditional —at least since the turn of the century, Washington made a grievance of its citizens not being able to compete for investments in Hungary under equal criteria. The "year of juncture" was 1947 in Hungary too: this was when Béla Kovács, Chief Secretary of the Smallholders' Party was arrested (February-), the communists forced Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy to resign, and this was when the infamous "blue slip" elections - and their rigging - took place in August. Senior officials at the US State Department passed a resolution in October, according to which they did not intend to endanger US-Soviet relations because of Hungary, which in the language of diplomacy meant that they de facto acknowledged Hungary's belonging to the Soviet sphere of interest. The two left-wing parties merged in June 1948, and this year also saw the end of what we refer to as the coalition years, and the forty year long history of communist dictatorship began. The communist leadership wasted no time in eliminating private property and starting nationalization - without compensation - parallel with that. The main milestones of transforming Hungary's economy included the nationalization first of private enterprises employing more than 100, then more than 10 people, the organisation of estates into cooperatives (often using force), moreover the serving of Soviet economic interests by establishing Hungarian-Soviet joint ventures (M-YSZOVLET, M\SZHART, MASZOVOL, MOLAJ, etc.). The last two, both oil companies, yvere created in April 194 7 . ALVSZOVOL took shape from an earlier Hungarian-German joint venture, while MOLA} was set up from a former Hungarian state owned firm. In the case of foreign-owned companies, hoyvever, the communist leaders carried out nationalization together with a show-trial in almost every case. Thus, in the case of IT&T, it was Robert Vogeler yvho was put on trial and convicted on the basis of fictitious accusations. MAORT inevitably took a key role in the economic and political designs of Hungarian and Soviet communists. The So\dets took over the oil company's management as early as 1945, on the one hand forcing the company into excessive production —citing their needs, and on the other not paying for deliveries, so MAORT ran out of cash and became unable to carry out the required improvements. At the same time they started to explore the possibilities that appeared to be practical for nationalising the company: the Hungarian political police yvas given the task of gathering information suitable for this. MAORT was not the onlv oil company with American interests in Hungary. Vacuum Oil, Socony Vacuum Oil's subsidiary specialised in oil refining for the most part. MOLA), established in April 1947, however, developed into a serious competitor, and the Hungarian state also granted it preferential treatment as opposed to Vacuum Oil. The Hungarian authorities took over Vacuum Oil's financial management in the autumn of 1948, and obliged it to pay such an enormous amount in taxes that the company was unable to settle. Using that as a pretence, the Hungarian government expropriated the company The Hungarian and Soviet authorities waited until the summer of 1948 to take administrative steps against MA( )RT. On August 11, 1948, Simon Papp got a tip that the State Protection Authority- was looking for
