The Austrian author of the article analyses the nature of the emergence of the debt system after the Second World War. She pinpoints how the debt dependence developed in accordance with the interests of the capi­talist centres and which was the point when it turned into a debt trap as soon as those interests required that. In an indirect way, the article ques­tions the well known, even fashionable allegation that the indebtedness which developed during the Kadar era is a "crime of the communist regime against the nation".

The historian briefly characterises the foreign and domestic policy of those years of the Kadar regime in which a speech by János Kádár, car­ried as a document, was delivered. The speech is published for the first time now, in our paper and according to the editors' views ft can be a contribution to the better understanding of the "main actor" and the oper­ation of the whole Kadar era.

The article which was originally written for Anglo-Saxon readers, de­scribes the position of East and Central Europe after 1945 as one which was characterised by a dual dependence (depending on the empire and the market) from the very beginning. The article shows how market de­pendences gained ground step by step as against the dependence on the empire in the Kadar regime. In the interpretation of the change of system he joins those views according to which the transformations linked with the change of system are much more the result of external causes (those of the world system), than that of the inner, organic development stemming in the social relations of the given countries. At the same time, the increase in the external links evidently played a role in the develop­ment that the external, world system influences could exert their impact without difficulties.

The study presenting concrete mechanisms of dependence underlines the responsibility of the selfish and short-sighted policy of the IMF in the crisis of the countries of the East and Central European region following the change of system. The demolished COMECON was not replaced by another economic system, behind slogans of building the market, the de­struction of the market was taking place which has had a very negative impact on the circumstances of living in these countries. On an ideological basis, the development of various collective forms of ownership has been obstructed, whereas this could have been an effective form for the elimi­nation of state ownership under the specific conditions of the societies of the region. The author refers to the helplessness of East and Central Europe, the very weak bargaining position of the governments in face of the West which attracts them (while pushing them back immediately under the influence of being potential rivals).