The truth about Hungary and Communism
Now that Hungary is a member of the EU and of NATO, practicing newfound Capitalism, maybe it's time to put the past in perspective. It wasn't all bad and I have very fond memories of the 27 years I lived there before it was time to move on.
Hungary was member of the Warsaw pact and the Eastern economic block (together with Poland, Chehoslovakia, Romania, Albania) and as such it was very closely tied to the USSR. While some local autonomy was allowed to state-owned companies (99.9% of all companies) they were told in no uncertain terms what was expected of them.
Typical large-scale bureaucratic mismanagement at most places, stupid waste and horrible levels of pollution was the norm. Due to that, East Europe’s average life expectancy was about 7-8 years below what we have in Canada and infant mortality rate was about double.
Socially we had nothing to do with the USSR - as long as you were not caught passing political jokes (policeman jokes were brutal) you were pretty well left alone to live your life very much like the average young student in Canada: have fun, chase the opposite sex and party till you dropped.
I left Hungary in 1972 one year after I graduated. I did not leave by legal means (it is a long story) and as a punishment I was sentenced to a 2-year prison term in my absence for defecting. All my possessions (including the condo, furniture, etc) were confiscated. After bumming around in Europe (England, Finland, Sweden) for a while I ended up in Canada where I have been living ever since (interrupted by numerous business trips and extended stays in the US.
Most of land and all the apartment buildings in the cities were state-owned and in very poor repair, but the rent was a joke: my parents paid the equivalent of $30/month for the rent of a one bedroom apt (outhouse shared with three other apts. at the end of the corridor). However, there were lots of family homes owned privately (mostly detached houses with small gardens) in the suburbs and everywhere in the country. The apartment shortage was so acute that 10-15 year waiting lists for rental units were not unusual. Most young people started their marriage in a spare room with one of the parents, or rented a room in somebody else’s. I could tell you horror stories about living conditions.
To resolve this problem, the state started building and selling condo apartments for people with money. The waiting lists for condos (even if you had the money) was still at least 3-5 years. Unless you had connections. You had to know somebody who knew somebody -- that is how I had the privilege of buying a one bedroom condo in the very outskirts of Budapest with a 35% down payment (I always said that, if I invested the energy it took to save up that money in Canada, instead of Budapest, I would be a millionaire now)
The apartment was so far out of town that it took me 2.5 hours to get to work every morning by a bus and three different streetcars. I had to start out in the opposite direction and turn around four stops later at the end of the line, if I wanted to get on the bus at all.
Still, I was envied as one of the privileged, as indeed, I was. Compared to us spoiled Canadians it may sound like a horror story, but I am sure it was absolute Paradise compared to how most of the world lives in Third World countries.
I have been living in Canada for 47 years now. I feel a lot more Canadian than Hungarian in most ways. I had no problem adjusting at all. I already spoke the language when I got here, I had two job offers within a week (computer experience helped) and I was faced with so much goodwill and so many helping hands that I felt I was in Heaven. It took me a few years to see the negative sides and develop a balanced, realistic picture about Canada. I am painfully aware how spoiled we all are and what it costs to the rest of the world but that is not my biggest problem in North America.
My biggest problem is what I see as the consequence of that spoiled status: the blissful ignorance about reality outside our borders. Just take the average person’s understanding of what Communism means. Due to almost a century of one-sided propaganda from mainstream media, the word Communism is synonymous with Evil. It is not that simple.
In theory communism is a social and economic system of total Utopia: humanity is one big family, everybody produces according to their abilities and consumes according to his or her needs. The state withered away, there is no crime, corruption, total fairness and compassion. Jesus would have approved.
In practice, apart from small pockets here and there in History, there has never been a Communist country anywhere on this planet, neither has there been any serious attempt to build one. In the USSR after the first, and in Hungary after the second, world wars, power was grabbed by ruthless opportunists who capitalized on the popular appeal of communist slogans to assure support from the masses until they managed to consolidate power.
Soon after that, it was the true believers in Communism who were murdered first (Stalin’s purges, same in Hungary). The so called communist states had nothing to do with Communism, apart from the slogans they used to justify what was essentially a police state dictatorship with a small elite at the top enjoying obscene luxuries and the masses kept in poverty, fear and ignorance.
Still, and this is what is not known, recognized and acknowledged by almost anyone: the so called communist countries did have a human face. During the 27 years I lived there, I had never seen anyone who could not get an education (totally free all the way to the top), could not get free medical help, including dental, had to sleep on the streets and freeze to death on winter nights.
Pension was automatic at 60 for men, 55 for women. There was no unemployment (actually it was a crime not to have a job) and no inflation (prices were kept the same by state subsidies). Whatever their evil (and there were lots) of the leaders, some efforts were made to provide for basic necessities for everyone in the country. I wish we could say the same in North America.
On the negative side: there was brain-numbing propaganda, no free press, literature or even speech, no political organization was allowed (one party system), no travel to the West for most people, but travel in the East bloc was allowed. Everything in western culture critical of communism or USSR was banned and History was completely rewritten in schools (The Hitler-Stalin pact never happened, The Berlin air-lift never took place, etc..) If you wanted to get promoted in your job, you had to join the Communist Party, spout the slogans and suck up to your boss.
As you see, it was not slavery in every aspect and I have always given my thanks to god for choosing Hungary for my birthplace as opposed to many other parts of the world. The only time anyone was shooting at me was during the 1956 uprising and that was a very short period in Hungary’s post-war history. And, thanks god again, nobody was dropping 10,000lbs bombs on me from 40,000 feet high up.
Hungary was member of the Warsaw pact and the Eastern economic block (together with Poland, Chehoslovakia, Romania, Albania) and as such it was very closely tied to the USSR. While some local autonomy was allowed to state-owned companies (99.9% of all companies) they were told in no uncertain terms what was expected of them.
Typical large-scale bureaucratic mismanagement at most places, stupid waste and horrible levels of pollution was the norm. Due to that, East Europe’s average life expectancy was about 7-8 years below what we have in Canada and infant mortality rate was about double.
Socially we had nothing to do with the USSR - as long as you were not caught passing political jokes (policeman jokes were brutal) you were pretty well left alone to live your life very much like the average young student in Canada: have fun, chase the opposite sex and party till you dropped.
I left Hungary in 1972 one year after I graduated. I did not leave by legal means (it is a long story) and as a punishment I was sentenced to a 2-year prison term in my absence for defecting. All my possessions (including the condo, furniture, etc) were confiscated. After bumming around in Europe (England, Finland, Sweden) for a while I ended up in Canada where I have been living ever since (interrupted by numerous business trips and extended stays in the US.
Most of land and all the apartment buildings in the cities were state-owned and in very poor repair, but the rent was a joke: my parents paid the equivalent of $30/month for the rent of a one bedroom apt (outhouse shared with three other apts. at the end of the corridor). However, there were lots of family homes owned privately (mostly detached houses with small gardens) in the suburbs and everywhere in the country. The apartment shortage was so acute that 10-15 year waiting lists for rental units were not unusual. Most young people started their marriage in a spare room with one of the parents, or rented a room in somebody else’s. I could tell you horror stories about living conditions.
To resolve this problem, the state started building and selling condo apartments for people with money. The waiting lists for condos (even if you had the money) was still at least 3-5 years. Unless you had connections. You had to know somebody who knew somebody -- that is how I had the privilege of buying a one bedroom condo in the very outskirts of Budapest with a 35% down payment (I always said that, if I invested the energy it took to save up that money in Canada, instead of Budapest, I would be a millionaire now)
The apartment was so far out of town that it took me 2.5 hours to get to work every morning by a bus and three different streetcars. I had to start out in the opposite direction and turn around four stops later at the end of the line, if I wanted to get on the bus at all.
Still, I was envied as one of the privileged, as indeed, I was. Compared to us spoiled Canadians it may sound like a horror story, but I am sure it was absolute Paradise compared to how most of the world lives in Third World countries.
I have been living in Canada for 47 years now. I feel a lot more Canadian than Hungarian in most ways. I had no problem adjusting at all. I already spoke the language when I got here, I had two job offers within a week (computer experience helped) and I was faced with so much goodwill and so many helping hands that I felt I was in Heaven. It took me a few years to see the negative sides and develop a balanced, realistic picture about Canada. I am painfully aware how spoiled we all are and what it costs to the rest of the world but that is not my biggest problem in North America.
My biggest problem is what I see as the consequence of that spoiled status: the blissful ignorance about reality outside our borders. Just take the average person’s understanding of what Communism means. Due to almost a century of one-sided propaganda from mainstream media, the word Communism is synonymous with Evil. It is not that simple.
In theory communism is a social and economic system of total Utopia: humanity is one big family, everybody produces according to their abilities and consumes according to his or her needs. The state withered away, there is no crime, corruption, total fairness and compassion. Jesus would have approved.
In practice, apart from small pockets here and there in History, there has never been a Communist country anywhere on this planet, neither has there been any serious attempt to build one. In the USSR after the first, and in Hungary after the second, world wars, power was grabbed by ruthless opportunists who capitalized on the popular appeal of communist slogans to assure support from the masses until they managed to consolidate power.
Soon after that, it was the true believers in Communism who were murdered first (Stalin’s purges, same in Hungary). The so called communist states had nothing to do with Communism, apart from the slogans they used to justify what was essentially a police state dictatorship with a small elite at the top enjoying obscene luxuries and the masses kept in poverty, fear and ignorance.
Still, and this is what is not known, recognized and acknowledged by almost anyone: the so called communist countries did have a human face. During the 27 years I lived there, I had never seen anyone who could not get an education (totally free all the way to the top), could not get free medical help, including dental, had to sleep on the streets and freeze to death on winter nights.
Pension was automatic at 60 for men, 55 for women. There was no unemployment (actually it was a crime not to have a job) and no inflation (prices were kept the same by state subsidies). Whatever their evil (and there were lots) of the leaders, some efforts were made to provide for basic necessities for everyone in the country. I wish we could say the same in North America.
On the negative side: there was brain-numbing propaganda, no free press, literature or even speech, no political organization was allowed (one party system), no travel to the West for most people, but travel in the East bloc was allowed. Everything in western culture critical of communism or USSR was banned and History was completely rewritten in schools (The Hitler-Stalin pact never happened, The Berlin air-lift never took place, etc..) If you wanted to get promoted in your job, you had to join the Communist Party, spout the slogans and suck up to your boss.
As you see, it was not slavery in every aspect and I have always given my thanks to god for choosing Hungary for my birthplace as opposed to many other parts of the world. The only time anyone was shooting at me was during the 1956 uprising and that was a very short period in Hungary’s post-war history. And, thanks god again, nobody was dropping 10,000lbs bombs on me from 40,000 feet high up.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Chris
(new)
Nov 16, 2018 07:55AM
What an interesting and enlightening little article. I particularly enjoyed the part about Communism never really having been implemented anywhere - a fact the vast majority of Americans (and others, too) seems to ignore. Propaganda comes in many forms - some of it has the hammer-and-sickle as a symbol, some has the CNN logo
reply
|
flag
This truly shines a light on what I was trying to understand. The "intent" of communism vs. the reality. I know that history is written by those who want to skew beliefs, so to hear from someone with first hand knowledge is so insightful. Thank you, my friend.
