Glossary -- Hungary

Comecon

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Sometimes cited as CMEA or CEMA. Members in 1989 included Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslavakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, the Mongolian People's Republic (Mongolia), Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam. Its purpose was to further economic cooperation among members.

corvee

Number of days each week that the serf was required to work for his lord.

entail system

Form of inheritance by which land passed to the owner's male descendents or, if he had no male heir, to the crown. Entail checked Hungary's economic development because it prevented the nobles from selling their land or using it as collateral to obtain credit.

forint

National currency of Hungary. As of July 1989, the official exchange rate was 62.28 forints to US$1.

gross domestic product (GDP)

Includes "transferred value" (cost of materials) and "newly created value" (profits and wages). "Nonproductive" activities (services) are not included in GDP; thus, it is not comparable with the Western concept of gross national product (GNP).

Hofkriegsrat

Central organ for all military matters in the Habsburg lands.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Established along with the World Bank (q.v.) in 1945, the IMF is a specialized agency affiliated with the United Nations that takes responsibility for stabilizing international exchange rates and payments. The main business of the IMF is the provision of loans to its members when they experience balance of payments difficulties. These loans often carry conditions that require substantial internal economic adjustments by the recipients.

nomenklatura

From the Latin nomenclature. This Russian word denotes an enumeration of important positions and the candidates who are examined, recommended, and assigned to fill them by communist party committees at various levels.

palatine

Originally created in the fifteenth century. Highest officeholder in Hungary in the eighteenth century; in theory, the commander in chief of the Hungarian armed forces.

Pannonia

Former Roman province west of the Danube in present-day Hungary and northern Yugoslavia.

Party Rules

HSWP document, which can be altered by the party congress. The Party Rules contain sections on regulations for admission into the HSWP, the organizational structure of the party, the principles of democratic centralism, the role of the Basic Organization, the tasks of the party in state and mass organizations, and membership dues.

Petofi Circle

A group formed in 1956 named after the nineteenth-century poet and revolutionary Sandor Petofi, who symbolized Hungary's desire for freedom. Made up of liberal writers, intellectuals, and some communists, the circle generated the ideas that led to the Revolution of 1956.

value-added tax

A tax applied to the additional value created at a given stage of production and calculated as the difference between the product value at that stage and the cost of all materials and services purchased as inputs.

Warsaw Pact

Political-military alliance founded in 1955 as a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Members in 1989 included Bulgaria, Czechoslavakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Has served as the Soviet Union's primary mechanism for keeping political and military control over Eastern Europe.

World Bank

Informal name used to designate a group of three affiliated international institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IBRD, established in 1945, has the primary purpose of providing loans to developing countries for productive projects. The IDA, a legally separate loan fund administered by the staff of the IBRD, was set up in 1960 to furnish credits to the poorest developing countries on much easier terms than those of conventional IBRD loans. The IFC, founded in 1956, supplements the activities of the IBRD through loans and assistance designed specifically to encourage the growth of productive private enterprises in less-developed countries. The president and certain senior members of the IBRD hold the same positions in the IFC. The three institutions are owned by the governments of the countries that subscribe their capital. To participate in the World Bank group, member states must first belong to the IMF (q.v.).