The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1981 (4. évfolyam, 3-6. szám)
1981-11-01 / 6. szám
25íh Anniversary of Hungarian Uprising ------Hungarian Farming the Best in Block T he continuing worldwide condemnation of the Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan, the East-West arms negotiations, the Polish crisis, and the USSR’s own increasingly serious economic problems were just some of the matters demanding the Kremlin’s urgent attention during the recent 25th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. Reflecting this preoccupation, Moscow’s Communist Party-controlled information media had less to say about the Hungarian events of October-November, 1956, than expected. Indeed, in the six months before and during the anniversary, the Hungary-related topic which seemed to mainly interest the Soviet authorities was agriculture. With meat, milk and bread rationed in many areas of the USSR and with this year's Soviet grain crop a staggering 65 million tonnes below target, it is understandable that the Kremlin should pay special heed to the State and private agriculture of Hungary, the only Soviet-bloc country that is farming successfully. (In the last ten years the value of Hungarian food exports to non-communist countries has trebled to 1,000 million dollars annually). Poland, suffering from the cumulative effects of decades of under-investment in agriculture, is likely to have food shortages throughout the hard, long winter. In Romania, similar scarcities caused widespread strikes in the Jiu Valley coalfield in mid-October, although such industrial action is illegal, and usually sternly penalised, in all Soviet-bloc countries except Poland. I n particular, Soviet agricultural officials ore examining the methods employed by Hungary's private farmers, who, although they have only a tiny part of the nation’s six million hectares of arable land, produce most of its abundance of fruit and green vegetables Hungary has about 1,500,000 of what are officially described as „household and auxiliary forms and small market gardens,“ most of them tilled by town dwellers as well as country people in their leisure time. It is now Moscow’s policy — at least during the present period of serious Soviet agricultural difficulties - for the State to invest heavily in the USSR's.own private plots despite the violation of Marxist-Leninist dogma that this involves. / From September 21 to 28 Hungary was visited by a Supreme Soviet delegation led by Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian Communist Party leader and a Candidate Member of the USSR's ruling body, the Politburo of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He made a particular study of Hungary’s private plots as well as going on an extensive tour of inspection of the nation’s almost totally mechanised State-controlled agriculture In October, in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, he initiated lengthy discussions on the Hungarian farming system. On October 7, the Budapest television service broadcast an interview with Shevardnadze. He said that he was „convinced’ that the Hungarians had established major agricultural enterprises „in a very creative way" They had adopted „many useful experiences from Soviet agriculture" but had „managed to preserve their own good traditions." They also„used and further developed all that they considered valuable elsewhere, and not just from the socialist countries." He added that Hungarian major industrial enterprises „mix agricultural and processingindustry activity and, in certain cases, even the production of building materials." What he described as „auxiliary economic activity" (private forming) was also profitable „This", he said, „was the economic structure we studied and this was, in particular, what we were interested In. We shall examine what we can gain from your experience and what we can use at home." Shevardnadze added: „...we have seen a great deal that we can adopt..." He acknowledged that in Georgia „a considerable proportion" of farm produce came from privately-owned household plots. „Now", he added, „Leonid Brezhnev and the Party Central Committee are urging that great attention should be paid everywhere to this short farming. It is my experience that you have been able to find an ideal solution in the relationship between agricultural co-operatives and household farms that is advantageous to everybody." Shevardnadze also said that he was impressed by the way the Hungarians had used scientific achievements. „Our (his delegation's) attention was drawn to the modern method of plant improvement, maize production and also to poultry, cattle and pig breeding as well as meat processing. Our notes fill an entire exercise book." In a Hungarion-language Soviet broadcast on September 26, Shevardnadze was quoted as „emphasising" that „here is great interest in the Soviet Union in the experience of Hungarian agriculture." Discussions on agriculture between Soviet and Hungarian communist officials were also mentioned in the September 29 issue of Sovjetskaya Kirghizia, the official daily newspaper of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic It quoted a speech by Academician P.N. Fedoseev, a Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences and a member of the CPSU Central Committee, who approvingly described private farming as „the second economy." 12 ZOLTÁN PFEIFFER DIES Zoltán Pfeiffer, one of the leaders of opposition to the communist takeover in Hungary, has died in a New York hospital. He was 81. Pfeiffer was a member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement in World War II. A lawyer, he became Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Justice in Hungary’s coalition government after the war. On his expulsion from the then majority Smallholders’ Party for criticising what he called the appeasement of communists, Pfeiffer founded the Independence Party. That party managed to win 14 per cent of the vote in the rigged election of August, 1947. But shortly after the election, Mátyás Rákosi, the Hungarian communist leader, declared that „there was absolutely no reason for Pfeiffer’s existence“. THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (NEMZETŐR) Edited by the Editorial Board Verleger, Herausgeber und Eigentümer TIBOR KECSKÊSI TOLLAS Journalist, Schriftsteller, München Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC Verantwortlicher Redak’eur (Editor): MIKLÓS VARY Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 Drude (print) : DANUBI A DRUCKEREI GMBH Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 AFRICA REPRESENTATIVES & SALE CAMEROON: L. T. JOHNSON, Divisional Inspectorate of Education, NKAMBE, North West Province, United Rép. of CAMEROON. EAST AFRICA: (2.— Sh, by air) (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania): General-Representa'ive: International African Literary Agents.1 P.O. Box 46055 NAIROBI, Kenya; NIGERIA (2.— Sh): Yemi OYENEYE, P. M. B. 101, Agege, Lagos. SIERA LEONE: (10 Le. c.; annual: 60) 1. Alusine B. Kargbo, c/o 2 Alusine St., Newsite Kissy, Freetown; SOMALIA: (2.— Sh., by air) MAURITIUS NALANDA Co. Ltd., 30, Bourbon Str., Port-Louis. GREAT BRITAIN ■NEMZETŐR“, B. C. M., London S.W. 7. U. S. A. Béla H. BÄCSKAI, P.O. Box 102, Audubon/Pa. 19407. AUSTRALIA Ferenc KROYHERR, 19, Ellerslie St., Kingsbury/Vic. 3083. PRICES: Surface mail: 1 copy AFRICA 1.80 Sh (100 CFA), Britain 35 P, Australia, USA, Canada: 90 cents, Germany: DM 2.— Annual subscription: AFRICA Sh 10 (500 CFA), Britain 2.—£, Germany/Europe: DM 10.- (or equivalent) Australia USA, Canada: $ 5.— For air mail add 50 •/o For students 50 % discount Our BANK ACCOUNT: No. 2605756 Commerzbank AG. Munich, German Federal Republic. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1981 (continued from page 11) Korchnoi’s Swiss lawyer, Alban Brodbeck, has dismissed, the allegations as false and insulting and has angrily denounced Tass, the Soviet Government news agency, for relaying them. In a recent interview, he described Tass as „that bloody agency", adding: „We have the cold war all over again." Resident in Switzerland, Korchnoi has been a refugee since 1976, in which year his wife and son submitted their first application for permission to leave the USSR. Karpov was given the highest Soviet State award, the Order of Lenin, for retaining the championship. He devoted six months solely to preparing for the Merano match, apart from leisure time spent with his wife and infant son. Karpov was awarded the Red Banner of Labour after beating Korchnoi in the 1978 world championship in the Philippines.