For historians, the commercial operations that took place in Europe on both sides of the Iron Curtain and which under certain conditions can be considered a violation of the embargo established by the American authorities in 1949 on certain goods, are not a new strategic and dual purpose. (civilian and military).

The year 1962 is important in world and Romanian historiography primarily because it was then that the crisis of the Soviet nuclear missiles installed in Cuba (Operation “Anadyr”) took place, the war between China and India (October 20 – November 21) and the failed attempt by the authorities from Moscow to to integrate the economies of the member countries of the Council of Economic Mutual Assistance and their subordination to the interests of the Soviet Union. Much has been published on these topics, and films have been made about the two military-political conflicts mentioned, but today we will focus on a topic that is very little known to the general public: the exhibition of Austrian industrial products in the summer of 1962 and its role in the promotion in Bucharest of some vehicles that could be used for transporting Romanian perishable products to the West and the Middle East in the 60s of the last century.

On May 10, 1955, Gheorghe Gaston Marin gave the participants of a meeting in the Kremlin, which analyzed the production of some types and models of trucks in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the GDR and Romania, the following. : in the period 1956-1960, the Romanian authorities were able to import “approx. 500 pcs. trucks per year of types over and under 4 tons”. The first vice-chairman of the State Planning Committee explained that the corresponding limit is the maximum, because during the specified period it was planned to reduce the production and export of Romanian wood and crude oil. At that time (May 10, 1955), about 40% of Romania’s total product exports consisted of crude oil, and the production of this raw material was to decrease in the period 1956-1960 due to the gradual depletion of the known crude oil. deposits and the search for increasingly complex new deposits in Romania.

Gheorghe Gaston Marin mentioned at that meeting only the truck models manufactured in the USSR (ZIS-150), Czechoslovakia (Prague RN), Hungary (Csepel), GDR (Horsh) and Poland (Star) and which were desired by the Bucharest authorities, but which were not bought in large quantities due to the chronic shortage of foreign currency and the very shaky balance of Romania’s external balance of payments. Missing from this presentation is information about a 1952 contract worth about $359,000 to purchase a batch of Steyr trucks from Austria, and information that the Romanian authorities received 100 Willys Jeeps in the fall of 1953. Originally sent to Syria, they were transferred to the Italian ship “SS San Piero” and arrived in Constanta. We do not know whether the communist politicians in Bucharest understood that the operation in question involved paying a higher price for American vehicles obtained indirectly through Syria, and that they also required spare parts (which in turn were embargoed to communist countries that time).

For historians, the commercial operations that took place in Europe on both sides of the Iron Curtain and which under certain conditions can be considered a violation of the embargo established by the American authorities in 1949 on certain goods, are not a new strategic and dual purpose. (civilian and military). For example, after the publication of Circular No. 23 of the National Bank of Romania on September 13, 1993, regarding the amendment of the clause in the appendix to the Regulation on currency transactions in Romania, Josip Kostiantyn Dragan reported on the business he was conducting in Western Europe. During the 1940s he bought gasoline in Trieste and sold it in Italy, and in 1946 he began selling liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which was theoretically imported from Czechoslovakia and sold in Italy through the Butan Gas company. This business took place in a triangular combination, namely:

– various volumes of vegetables and fruits were purchased in Italy and sent to Belgium, where they were sold;

– with the proceeds, they bought rubber from Belgium and sent it to Czechoslovakia “on trucks”. But rubber was (and is) a strategic product under embargo imposed by the American authorities at the time, and not everyone could then cross from West to East with such cargoes of rubber;

– according to the statements of Yosyp Kostiantyn Dragan, liquefied petroleum gas was purchased from Czechoslovakia with the money obtained from the sale of Belgian rubber. The cylinders of the Butan Gaz company were filled with the appropriate gas, and then sold in Italy.

This calculation can be changed from a logical point of view, since the Czechoslovak authorities wanted to import natural gas from Romania (a cheap and convenient solution) and Austria (a solution that should be avoided because it involved payment in foreign currency). The Prague authorities neither then nor later were interested in exporting a product that they did not have in sufficient quantity for their own economy.

Natural gas deposits, which would allow it to be processed into liquefied gas and exported to Italy under conditions of economic efficiency, also existed in the Soviet zone of occupation in Austria. In addition, in Lower Austria (conquered by the Red Army in April-May 1945) there were also industrial installations that allowed the production of LPG from natural gas. Thus, the money received from the sale of “Czechoslovak” liquefied gas was used to buy Italian vegetables and fruits, which were transported to Belgium to obtain the rubber necessary for the manufacture of tires for “Skoda” and “Tatra” cars, because as well as for the production of T-34 tank bucket tires (produced under a Soviet license in Czechoslovakia and exported, including to Romania, in the 50s). The possibilities of using Belgian rubber in Czechoslovakia were limited only by the high level of competence of specialists and technical installations that they had at that time in this country for the production of rubber products.

Currently, it is known both from the published memoirs of Gheorghe Gaston Marin and from the video footage of Josip Constantin Dragan that the first refused the offer of the other for the participation of the Romanian state in the construction of the automobile plant in Lugoza, starting in 1963, with the aim of producing 45,000 “Lloyd Arabella” cars next year. Until now, we have not been able to find out whether Gheorghe Gaston Marin knew in 1963 about the “triangular” agreements that Josip Kostiantyn Dragan concluded in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and about all their consequences.

Returning to the meeting in the Kremlin on May 10, 1955, during which Gheorghe Gaston Marin presented promising plans for the production in Romania under Soviet license of the ZIS-150 truck, this took place in parallel with the latest preparations from Warsaw and Vienna. , made with the aim of successfully holding an international conference (which ended with the creation of the Warsaw Pact Organization on May 14, 1955), respectively, for the conclusion of the “State Treaty on the Restoration of an Independent and Democratic Austria” (May 15, 1955). The chronological sequence of events in Warsaw and Vienna was logical for the authorities in Moscow. First, they created a pretext for keeping Soviet occupation troops in Hungary and Romania (this time under the auspices of the Warsaw Pact Organization), then representatives of Moscow took part in the signing of the treaty in Vienna, which, among other things, was supposed to end the Soviet military regime of occupation in Hungary and Romania .

The agreement by which the authorities in Vienna managed to restore their independence on May 15, 1955 was accompanied by a number of measures taken by Austrian politicians with the aim of quickly and effectively withdrawing all foreign military units (especially Soviet ones) from the country. For example, the Österreichische Automobil-Fabrik (ÖAF), located in Floridsdorf (in the Soviet occupation zone) and used in the period 1945-1955 to pay war reparations to the USSR, was transferred to the Austrian state administration in exchange for an obligation to manufacture in Austria and supply shipment of trucks and buses to the Soviet Union. They were also known in the USSR as “Austro-FIAT” due to the original Italian origin of the plant where the respective cars were manufactured.

ÖAF 745G tractors (1,200 units) were the main part of the transport equipment sent to the USSR. They towed two-axle Tranberg semi-trailers, which had a body made of polished aluminum panels and their own 9 hp engine. (necessary for the operation of a refrigeration unit installed on a semi-trailer). A small number of ÖAF 745G tractors were sent to the USSR together with flatbed semi-trailers, as well as other body types.

Subsequently, a new series of cars was developed at the Austrian plant: ÖAF F745G. They had the cab mounted above the engine, providing much better visibility for the driver and easy access to the engine. A batch of ÖAF F745G vehicles (equipped mainly with Tranberg refrigerated semi-trailers, as well as platform semi-trailers with tarpaulin) was sent in 1959 to the Soviet Union. Various oral sources claim that deliveries of cars produced at the Österreichische Automobil-Fabrik to the USSR (including some limited series trucks with various body types) ceased in the early 60s. Read the entire article and leave comments on Contributors.ro