Rendszerváltás és elit csere után (70 éve történt a Magyarországi gyáripar államosítása)

Seventy years ago, three years after World War II, the bulk of the Hungarian manufacturing industry was taken over by the then ruling coalition government. This was the culminating point of a process of elite change, which started at the very beginning of 1945. It was perceived then by the contemporary economic actors as an irreversible act, determining the Hungarian economy not only for four decades, but forever. More interestingly, back in 1948 there was a real public consensus about the superiority of state ownership, supported by such facts as the military success of the Soviet Union in the war and the ongoing nationalizations in the core part of Western Europe (Britain, France, Italy, etc.). The main aim of the present paper is to focus the readers' attention to the thoughtfulness and the brutality of the nationalization process, which inevitably created long-lasting wounds and resentment in a very large part of the Hungarian society. This deeply rooted bitterness and various types of material grievances are still playing a role in the formation of the Hungarian public opinion today.