Stalinist Vision for Economy and Environment in Hungary in the 1950s

Abstract

In this chapter Pál explains the economic and technological context of Stalinist industrialization in Hungary. He concentrates on the First Five Year Plan in Hungary, and points out the environmental aspect of that rapid economic and industrial program. Pál focuses on local impacts of Stalinist industrialization and he analyses the economic, technological, and environmental changes in Hungary’s primate industrial district built by the communists in the Borsod Basin, Northeast Hungary. He analyses the dynamics of water shortage and water pollution in the Borsod Basin. At the end of this chapter Pál analyzes the communists’ economic and technological measures to curtail pollution issues by focusing on the Lenin Metallurgical Plan in Diósgyőr, one of Hungary’s largest steel mills.