Tag: Hungary stamp

Often old Soviet and new Russia have similar ideas to help and thereby control old satellites. Nothing sinister really but it is a lot easier to build on what you have than completely start anew. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

You could really show industry on older stamps. This stamp manages to show an oil pipeline, a high voltage electrical transmission line and a vision of the Soviet nuclear plants that Hungary had just signed up for. Did no one call the Greens. I guess not but it is a good stamp because it showed what the Soviets had done, was doing, and what they planned to do to improve things in Hungary. This was all a reality but that doesn’t mean the efforts don’t need selling. That the approach to selling it looks so dated only improves the stamp in my eyes. The other stamp in the set displayed a Sputnik tracking station. Interesting but much more dated. The Paks nuclear power station and the Friendship oil pipeline are still doing their thing and both are even being expanded. COMECON still at work for you Hungary!

Todays stamp is issue A534, a 3 Forint stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Hungary on September 5th, 1974. The stamp recognized the 25th anniversary of Soviet economic cooperation and technical assistance to Hungary. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used, An imperferate version exists that is worth $5,

At the 1958 COMECON summit in Prague, it was agreed upon to build a more than 5000 kilometer pipeline to take crude oil from Tatarstan in central Russia to Eastern Europe. The nations would all contribute to contruction with Hungary handling the electronic control systems. The fact that oil was flowing through the pipeline by 1963 shows  how efficient even communist construction was back then. The Friendship pipeline was and is the longest pipeline in the world. The oil was sold to Eastern Europe at bargain prices and as such is too important a relationship to let end despite the end of the cold war and Hungary entering the European Union. In fact, the Hungarians have recently expanded the pipeline to the Adriatic Sea in Croatia to allow for wider exports.

In 1973, the Hungarians witnessed the Arab oil embargo and decided on a nuclear power plant to supply domestic electricity needs. 4 Soviet designed reactors were in operation at the Paks site by 1982. Not as fast as the pipeline but still very fast by modern standards. The plant was originally to have a thirty year life but has proved to be so important that there as been a 20 year extension of the plant. The plant supplies over half of domestic electricity needs. In fact the plant is being expanded with two additional reactors bought from and financed by Russia. The purchase angered the EU but the need for speed and commonality won the day.

Well my drink is empty but I will pour another to toast COMECON. That Russia is still benefiting from the old Soviet generosity shows the rightness of it. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

When a place has been conquered, there comes the question of how much of a local face do you put on your rule. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I like the visuals of todays stamp. A political leader pleasantly listening to the concerns of country people. Where it falls down is how different the style of dress of leader and follower. Notice also that the little girl has flowers to present to the leader. As a young girl in Germany, my Grandmother was chosen to present the bouguet of flowers to Kaiser Wilhelm when he visited her school. The picture would have looked a lot like this. She remembered it the rest of her life. Yet should a Marxist leader in a classless society be duplicating pictures of Royals. Perhaps its time to reread “Animal Farm”.

Todays stamp is issue A213, a 60 Filler stamp issued by Hungary on March 9th, 1952. It celebrated the 60th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian General Secretary Matyas Rakosi. It was part of a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Matyas Rakosi was born in present day Serbia to a not practicing Jewish family. His ancestors had played a part in the insurrections of 1848. He was well educated including time in London and Hamburg. During World War I, he served in the Austro-Hungarian army until captured by Russia in 1915. He escaped prisoner of war status and joined the Bolshevik insurrections in Saint Petersburg. There was a short lived Communist government in Hungary circa 1920 that he was an official in but soon he was back in exile in the Soviet Union. He married there a divorced lady from Irkutsk, an Asian part of Russia. In January 1945, in preparation for taking Hungary from Germany, the Soviets selected Rakosi to lead and put together a new government. The takeover was somewhat in the system with other parties forced to merge with the communists and then purged of those deemed untrustworthy or disloyal. Rakosi called the mergers and purges salami tactics. You cut then off like you slice a salami.

Hungary was in a predicament when it came to recovering from World War II. Much of the wealth of the country had been destroyed and yet as a former Axis ally, there was also much reparations to pay mainly to Russia. The payments totaled 23 percent of GNP a year. It also had to pay for the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary. West Germany faced similar challenges and pulled off an economic miracle of recovery. Unfortunately Rakosi was no Adenauer.

Rakosi was however a close ally/front man for Stalin. His purges rid the government of Marxist reformers like Imre Nagy. Nagy could sense the discontent and rose up trying to turn Hungary into a neutral but still Communist country. By that time Khrushchev  was in power in Russia and Stalin’s stooges were out of favor. Nagy was put down and tried and executed. Rakosi himself was not allowed to stay in power either. He traveled to Russia under the guise of medical treatment but then spent the rest of his life there in out of the way Kirgikistan. Russia offered to let him retire to Hungary if he stayed out of politics but Rakosi refused. His remains were returned to Budapest but his grave is marked only with his initials to prevent vandalism.

No doubt the Axis government that preceded the Communist government did not allow left wing types to mature locally. As was the same with right of center types in Communist times. That makes the awkwardness  of being lead by stranger exiles when the pendulum swings. Not a recipe for success. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Hungary came in third in the medal count in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. The stories of their golden female swim team shows the struggles they faced to get their gold. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This is a big colorful stamp of the type so common in eastern Europe during the cold war. What to me makes it rise above the average is the pose of the swimmers mid dive. It shows the athleticism and strength required to compete with the best in the world. By showing as a generic athlete and without any national team markings, it hints at what the sorority of the best must be like.

Helsinki was awarded the 1952 summer games after their previous would be Olympics was cancelled in 1940. It marked the debut of the USSR, the PRC, Indonesia and the return of Germany and Japan to the Olympics. The medal count had the USA in first, the USSR in second, and Hungary in third. There was a funny bit of fake news out of Russia at the time when authorities announced that Russia won the games. When it was pointed out that USA had won the most medals, the Russians corrected kind of saying now that USSR and USA had tied under a point system that they invented.

The first Hungarian swimmer from 1952 we will talk about is Katalin Szoke. Author’s note: I have wrote the swimmers names in western style, in Hungarian, family name comes first. She won two golds in 100 meter freestyle events. She competed again without success in the 1956 games. Her father was a policeman and a member of the then right wing party. After the war the communist government sentenced him to death in absentia. He had run to Argentina. Katalin took her mother’s maiden name to sever ties to him and after divorcing a member of the water polo team married another teammate of her first husband and defected to the USA. She died in 2017.

Judit Temes won a bronze in the 100 meter freestle and a gold as part of the 100 meter relay team. She was Jewish and remained in Hungary. She died in 2012.

Valeria Gyenge won gold in the 400 meter freestyle event. She again competed in the 1956 games and afterword  defected to Canada with her future husband who was on the water polo team. Her father in law was a 1928 gold medal Olympian in Fencing that later died in a Nazi concentration camp. She is still alive at age 85 in Canada.

Eva Novac won four medals in freestyle and breaststroke. This includes a bronze from the 1948 games in London. She later defected to Belgium where she died in 2005.

Eva Szekely won a gold in 1952 and a silver in the 1956 games. She is also a Jew and credits her surviving the Holocaust because she already at a young age held the national speed swimming record. She also married and divorced a member of the water polo team. Her daughter competed and won in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics after being coached by her mother. Her daughter slightly broke with tradition by marrying and divorcing a member of the canoeing team. Eva is still alive in Hungary at age 91 and has authored 3 books about her experiences.

One can see that from war to Holocaust to the repression of 1956 the kind of  struggles faced  by the Hungarian athletes of the day. That they overcome to the extent of such a small country coming in 3rd in the medal count is extraordinary. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Hungary desperately tries to preserve itself by exiting the Empire at the end of World War I. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your fist sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The Central Powers were really suffering greatly fighting world war I. The expense and demands logistically of supporting large conscript armies fighting multi front wars was quickly impoverishing Hungary. One can sense the weariness on the stamp and the poor quality of the printing adds to the effect. Perhaps not what the issuer intended but the reality shows through.

The stamp today is issue A9, a 10 filler stamp issued by the Kingdom of Hungary in 1916. It displayed a soldier in a trench. It was part of a 19 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Hungary had been part of the Austria Hungary Empire since 1867 in which there were two realms under one monarch. During the period there were failed attempts at Germanifacation that tried to take advantage of the many ethnicities contained in the empire. World War I saw disaster by siding with the Central Powers. Serbia was conquered and some success was achieved against Russia but there was also endless fighting with Romania and Italy. Hungary sent 4 million conscripts off to fight.

At the end of October 1918 there was an Aster revolution where soldiers had a coup. They wore aster flowers to demonstrate peace and the King accepted the coup. The association with Austria was ended and the King gave up power but did not technically abdicate, Count Karolyi was named president. His goal was to create an Eastern Switzerland and disbanded the army. He tried to attract ethnic minorities to be loyal to Hungary by offering self rule but was unsuccessful. He also tried to redistribute land to the peasants but the only actual transfer was of his families own land.

Getting rid of the army proved a huge blunder. New country Czechoslovakia attacked as did Romania. The French decided that since Hungary was now independent that the peace treaty signed with Austria did not apply to Hungary. New territorial demands were made and President Karolyi some think foolishly agreed to them.

Six months later Karolyi was deposed by communists who declared a Soviet People’s Republic and sent Karolyi into exile in France. The Communists had the only armed force and it was implied that the were backed by the Soviet Red Army. These brand of Communists also only lasted about six months and soon Hungary was a much smaller kingdom again.

Karolyi’s reputation was somewhat rehabilitated under the post World War II  communist regime, and indeed the former Count/President served the new regime as ambassador to France in the late 40s. His reputation has dropped again since communism fell in Hungary with his statue removed and his name removed from several streets. His rule was short and disastrous but his intentions were good. For that I think the statue should have remained just being sure the full story is told.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another and raise it to the end of the war and the Switzerland of the East. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.