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the broader managerial powers al–
ready in effect throughout otber
Comecon states - perhaps because
to do so would carry with it the
"dirty word" of reform. Yet Pres i–
dent Gustav Husak reports that the
new five-year plan will require better
qualified management personnel.
How to accompüsh such reorgani–
zation without tapping the skills of
the thousands of engineers, academ–
ics, and other members of the in–
telligentsia who are politically
barred from responsible jobs is per–
baps th e biggest dilemma con–
fronting Czechoslovakia today.
President Husak, who is also
Communist Party General Secre–
tary, realizes the importance of th is
dilemma very well. A former Stalin–
ist prisoner, Husak is a realist who
is, from all reports, stri ving to
achieve a middle ground between
old ha rd-line communism and the
permiss iveness that Moscow would
not tolerate in 1968. Mr. Husak
must move deliberately, but very
cautiously in reintegrating Iesser fig–
ures from the reform experiment
back into jobs where their know–
how could be best utilized for the
good ofthe whole country.
M r. Husak presently enjoys
Moscow's blessings. But the thou–
sands of Soviet troops still " tempo–
rarily s ta tioned" on Czech soil
guarantee that any reform from
now on will never get out ofhand .
Fresh Air on the Danube
In contrast to Prague, Budapest
appeared to our tour group to be
almost a "swinging" city.
Even though statistics reveal that
Hunga ry ranks considerably below
Czechoslovakia in per capita GNP
in the communist world ($ 1,850 as
opposed to $2,870), the streets of
Budapest seemed to tell a different
picture. Both prívate shops and
state-run stores were well stocked,
many with attractive window dis–
plays.
Book stores contained a wide va–
riety of subject matter - far more
tban in Prague, where the emphasis
was very heavy on politics and eco–
nomics. fn fact, Budapest is said to
have more fore ign books on sale
than any other communist capital.
(The pricing of the books is unique.
Prices on "acceptable" books are
deliberately kept very low so as to
10
HUNGARY'S
Communist Party chief,
Janos Kadar, chats free/y with West–
ern newsmen at European Security
Conference in Helsinki last year -
on/y East bloc head-ot-state to do so.
be affordable. The more politically
or cultura lly margina l ones carry
very heavy surcharges.)
The pace of Budapest
is
quite
hectic. Approxirnately half of all in–
dustry in Hungary is concentrated
in the area in and around Budapest.
(The ci ty contains over 2 mill ion
people; the next largest city, Mis–
kolc, is far down the population lad–
der at only 190,000.)
It was difficult to sleep a t our
room at the Hotel Royal Grand. All
night long, every 30 seconds or so,
noisy three-car trams trundled out–
side along
Lenin Korut,
a major
thoroughfare on the Pest side of the
Danube. The traffi.c became worse
du ring the morning rush hour -
which began around 5 a.m.!
AU
the apparent busin ess we wit–
nessed, however, cannot mask seri–
ous economic problems now facing
the nation as a whole. Hungary is a
small country with almost no natu–
ral resources of its own to feed its
ambitious post-World Wa r II indus–
trializa tion.
Because of its heavy dependence
on trade, the impact of world in–
fl. ation has come down awfully hard
on Hungary.
It
has not been able to
shield itself from soaring prices out–
sirle the communist world as well as
other East bloc countries.
In fact, Hungary's most serious
economic problem was generated
within Comecon, the Soviet-led
Eastern European "Common Mar–
ket. " In the aftermath of the star–
tling increase in prices of Middle
East oil, the Soviets, chief petroleum
suppliers to Hungary and the other
sa tellites, hiked their rates as well.
Tbe Soviet price on oil sold to its
socialist trade partners is still below
the world price. And, attempting to
so ften the impact, Moscow has
granted increased credits, as well as
agreeing to pay more for the prod–
ucts
it
buys - such as buses and
farm produce, Hungary's major ex–
ports to the U.S.S.R. Nevertheless,
to cope with soaring trade deficits,
Hungarian leaders, over the last two
years, have had to reshuffie their
economic planning. The much her–
alded "New Economic Mechanism"
(NEM) designed to reduce centra l
planning and increase productivity
and trade wit h the West has had to
be scaled down.
Government officials insist there
will be no major curtailment of con–
sumer irnports from the West. The
maintenance of a relatively high
standard of Living is politically im–
portant to a government that never
wants to see a repetition of 1956.
But sorne im port lines are being
trirnmed back to avoid duplication.
Price of Freedom
Hungary's price of re lative free–
dom a nd limited liberties on the
borne fron t is unswerving loyalty -
indeed, total subservience - to the
Soviet Union on international and
ideological ma tters. Last month, at
the quadrennial Soviet Communist
Party Congress in Moscow, Hun–
gary's party leader, Janos Kadar,
made all the appropriate ideologi–
cally sound pronouncements.
Prisoners of their own geography,
both Hungary and Czechoslovakia
are indispensable elements in the
great protective partition the Soviet
Union erected for itself in Europe in
the aftermath of World War
11.
Events in 1956 and 1968 proved
the ir immobility unmistaka bly.
And, last year at the European
Security Conference in Helsinki, the
cement in the Soviet western wall
ha rdened even further. The state
borders
in
Europe, agreed 35 na–
tions from both sides of the ideo–
l og ical barrier,
are n ow
"inviolable." O
(To be continued)
The
PLAIN TRUTH Apri i-May 1976