Failed Eastern integration and a partly successful opening up to the West: the economic re-orientation of Hungary during the 1970s

The article investigates the 'long 1970s' (1968-82), when Hungary re-orientated its economic and foreign-trade relations. Hungary was always a promoter of a deepening of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) co-operation and when it noticed that socialist integration stagnated at the level of the bilateral exchange of commodities, Budapest gradually launched a policy of opening up to the world outside the CMEA. The year 1977 was a turning point in economic policy. Hungarian elites' thought and attitude towards the West changed, but not independently of the world economic crisis and its impact on Hungary. The oil crisis sharpened latent tensions, and behind the robust growth serious problems appeared. Although Hungary intensified its interrelations with the West and the Third World, the country was not able to profit from the advantages of international trade and co-operation. The article is based on state, party and senior economic leaders' archives.