The happiest barrack
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The happiest barrack is a satirical term referring to Hungary and its relationship with the Soviet Bloc from the early 1960s to 1989 as after the communist leader of Hungary, János Kádár, had stabilized his regime, Hungary became relatively the most free among the communist countries of Central Europe.
The communist leadership and state police had little influence on peoples' every day lives as long as they only cared about "sausages and beer," as Kádár himself put it, but did not get involved in politics. Access to "communist luxury goods" such as meat in shops, bananas, colourful clothing, and electric home appliances were usually kept affordable.
Two items in hot demand were cars and telephone. Under the soviet-imposed COMECON rules Hungary was not allowed to produce cars, only buses and trucks. Import, 99% of which had to come from soviet bloc countries was never enough and people had to sign up 6 to 12 years in advance at a "Merkur" outlet if they wanted to buy a car. As for telephone, the communist countries all had their strong reasons not to give too many people home phones lines, as it would allow them to discuss ideologically inappropriate topics or conspire with the imperialists. You had to get a letter of recommendation from your employer if you wanted to ask for a phone line, but the exchanges were of the ancient rotary type, meaning very few new lines could be added.
During this time period, Hungarians seemed to be more at ease to an ordinary visitor than citizens of other Eastern Bloc countries, yet Hungary has consistently led worldwide suicide statistics, however this may be culturally induced (see Turáni átok).
During this time period, the most important venue of political dissent was humour, especially the stage performances of the late Geza Hofi and it was mostly tolerated. True opposition literature was privately produced in homes, and distributed in closed circles and persecuted by authorities with varying effort. Official efforts to gain support for socialist ideology amongst the people were half-hearted and produced little more than once-yearly marches that ended with free food picnics.
A large percentage of defence spending and funds assigned to improving the country's infrastructure were regularly diverted to welfare to keep people "happy" at the price of compromising Hungary's future. The Kádár regime managed to accumulate a state debt of 20 billion US dollars by the late 1980s. Fifteen years after converting to democracy, most Hungarian paved roads are still in a miserable shape and the state highway system is very small compared to neighbouring countries. The Hungarian Army was insignificant. Conscription ended in Nov 2004. This is now a significant barrier to further economic growth and European Union integration.
The Kádár era is still popular with elderly people in Hungary, who face difficulties living off relatively low pensions as opposed to a wage of considerable spending power in the pre-1989 years. Younger generations are more fascinated with new possibilities in the democratic free-market system.