This factory was one of the largest industrial investments of the 1950s in Hungary, it provided electricity for 50 years. Construction involved almost 4,500 workers, and about 2,000 workers who were employed in the manufacturing process after construction was finished. Of the total
production 80% was reserved for Soviet use and the remaining 20% was placed at the disposal of the Hungarian industry.
The Hungarian economy prior to World War II was primarily oriented toward agriculture and small-scale manufacturing. From the late 1940s, the Communist government started to nationalize the industry. At first, only factories with more than 100 workers were nationalized; later, this limit was reduced to only 10. From the early 1950s, more and more new factories were built. This rapid and forced industrialization followed the standard Stalinist pattern in an effort to encourage a more self-sufficient economy. In 1968, Stalinist self-sufficiency was replaced by the “New Economic Mechanism”, which reopened Hungary to foreign trade.
Although Hungary enjoyed one of the most liberal and economically advanced economies of the former Eastern Bloc, both agriculture and industry began to suffer from a lack of investment in the 1970s.
The factory has been under demolition for the better part of the last decade and the process is still under way.
