Kibucok és szövetkezetek, avagy szövetkezeti gondolatok az 1960-as évek Magyarországán – izraeli visszhanggal
Kibbutz and Cooperatives, or Cooperative Ideas in 1960’s Hungary – with Israeli Echoes

Summary/Abstract: In 1960’s autumn, a surprisingly positive review of one of the most important Israeli socio-economic innovations appeared in the Hungarianlanguage Economic Review [Közgazdasági Szemle]. The author, József Gábor, reviewed a book by Walter Preuss, a professor at Tel-Aviv University, on kibbutzim and other cooperatives. This caused a serious reaction, the Hungarian-language New East [Új Kelet] in Israel recognised its importance and described it in its columns, while at the same time a member of the Israeli “partner party” of the MSZMP, the Israeli Communist Party, of Hungarian origin, wrote a long critique of Gábor’s article, disputing the democratic and anti-capitalist significance of the kibbutz, as highlighted by the author. The critique and the claims made in Gábor’s article are in fact linked to the debate that took place in both countries (although with different emphases, because of the different socio-political realities) on the nature of collectives. The extent to which they should follow the cooperative model developed by the Soviets and the extent to which they should adapt to their own social reality. It was no coincidence that the new economic mechanism in Hungary had aroused sympathy in Israel and that there was interest in the kibbutz model among Hungarian agrarian reformers.

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