The country is being built - The main investments of the first year of the 3-year plan - Finish the 3 Year Plan within 2 1/2 years

<p>The country is being built - The main investments of the first year of the 3-year plan - Finish the 3 Year Plan within 2 1/2 years is a 1949 vintage Hungarian propaganda poster map showing Hungary and Budapest designed by Andras Meszaros and Klara Bognar.</p> <p>The first three-year plan, which was designed to complete the post-war reconstruction, ran from August 1, 1947 until the end of 1949, when it ended in a surge of Stakhanovite work contests. The rise of industrial output exceeded the plan, so that it was more than 40 percent higher in 1949 than it had been in the last year of peace. Behind the expansion lay industrial capacity that had been increased over the decade by a very high investment ratio and wartime expansion, coupled with a generally rapid rate of growth fuelled by the domestic economic factors of the reconstruction period. Early signs of the war hysteria of subsequent years were the fact that heavy industry grew fastest - by 66 percent -&nbsp;and light industry slowest - by 20 percent. Another sector whose strategic character earned it preference was transport, where most of the war damage had been repaired by 1949 and the level of equipment in some areas exceeded the pre-war level. The private sector remained dominant in retail and wholesale trading until it was overtaken by the nationalization. The new geopolitical coordinates caused foreign trade to undergo a complete change of direction, with the Soviet Union replacing Germany as the main trading partner. Hungary’&#39;s external economic scope narrowed sharply with the Cold War and the economic relations built up with the countries of Comecon, established in 1949, became dominant.</p> <p>The economic changes affected the public in various ways. It has to be said in parentheses that the rapid reconstruction had much to do with the mechanism of social psychology known as the ‘liberation effect’. In other words, Hungarian society became convinced that there was a chance of creating a different world of new social and economic relations and was prepared to make major sacrifices to that end. One such sacrifice was the low rate of improvement in the standard of living. The high rate of investment meant that living standards at the end of 1949 were at least 15–20 percent lower than in the last year of peace. Income levels were set very low during the stabilization, as can be seen in the consumption, real-income and living-standard trends. One essential change largely governed by the political sphere was a radical alteration in income distribution and wage relativities among the various social and occupational groups, with the traditional inequalities easing. (source:&nbsp;http://www.rev.hu/history_of_45/tanulm_gazd/gazd_e.htm)</p> <p><div class="image"> <img title="Meszaros - Bognar - The country is being built - 3 Year Plan 1949 vintage Hungary Hungarian Budapest communist propaganda poster map" alt="Meszaros - Bognar - The country is being built - 3 Year Plan 1949 vintage Hungary Hungarian Budapest communist propaganda poster map" src="/system/images/images/000/005/948/original/Meszaros_-_Bognar_-_The_country_is_being_built_-_3_Year_Plan_1949_vintage_Hungary_Hungarian_Budapest_communist_propaganda_poster_map.jpg?1531311645" /><br /> Meszaros - Bognar - The country is being built - 3 Year Plan 1949 vintage Hungary Hungarian Budapest communist propaganda poster map </div></p>