Four decades after the Yalta meetings, Eastern Europe is still in the grip of the world's mightiest landed empire, the Soviet Union. Five uprisings and unceasing remonstrations have brought about no structural changes in this Eurasian dominion. One of the many bitter lessons the small nations of Eastern Europe have learned is that the West will not liberate them; another is that the Russians will stay as long as they wish.
Aside from these rules of East European geopolitics, the satellite countries have tried to accommodate themselves in a variety of ways: from Stalinist orthodoxy (German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria), to the highly diluted Soviet-style socialism of Hungary, to the "perpetual revolution of sabotage" of Poland. Western observers see only the Hungarian solution as having long-range survival value.
"Maverick," "adventurous," "semi-capitalists," even "ingenious," the Hungarian leadership is credited with bringing the standard of living close to that of Western Europe. In addition, since the bloody revolution of 1956, there has not been any significant political turmoil. Aside from a small but vociferous group of political dissidents, the Kadar government generated a good measure of contentment. The regime has been able to concentrate all its energies on economic improvement.
Even to the casual observer it seems obvious that, by almost totally eliminating shortages, the economy is geared to consumerism--the idea that the public takes priority over the state. This is such a novel notion in the East that it strains the entire Marxist economic system, both in principle as well as in practice. One casualty may soon be full employment, if Hungary wishes to remain competitive in the world market.
Especially dramatic are changes made in the reorganization and modernization of farming. A well-thought-out integration of farming places Hungary among the most effective grain and livestock producers of the world. A large part of this agrarian success is due to the new system of ownership, which is a combination of state, cooperative, and private enterprise. More than half of Hungary's foreign currency is from agricultural products (grain, meat, fruits, and vegetables).
But there is a question that state planners are only beginning to answer: What has this prosperity meant for those who carried it out? Have the people themselves benefited from it, and if they have, how? The Communist party has finally recognized "certain retrograde developments" in rural society, and individual critics termed village life "empty," "gray," and "less meaningful than it has ever been."
A traveler taking the train to Budapest from Vienna on the eve of World War II during the summer of 1939, would probably have been pleased by the scenery. Upon leaving the Alpine foothills, he would have crossed the border between Austria and Hungary, where a vast plain stretches for hundreds of kilometers toward the east. Golden wheat fields would have alternated with deep green cornfields, and where harvesting has already begun, he would have seen peasant men in white shirts and traditional baggy pants, mowing with scythes and followed by colorfully dressed women, picking the grain. It would have been a rustic scene undisturbed by the noise of machines. The train would cut through fields of various sizes, from tiny parcels
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