EN
'Kozgazdasagi Szemle' (Economic Review), Hungary's oldest journal for economics, is 130 years old. It began as the 'Nemzetgazdasagi Szemle' (National Economic Review) relatively early in world terms, in 1874, under the auspices of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The first number of its American sister, the American Economic Review did not appear until 1911, 37 years later. The history of the 'Kozgazdasagi Szemle' exemplifies how journals, like books, take on a life of their own. The journal has been relaunched three times, and not only that fact, but the motives of founders and re-founders reflect plainly the age in which they repeatedly set about providing a high-standard forum for economics in this country. The article presents circumstances of the third launch that have hitherto been largely unknown to readers. It shows how, paradoxically, it was a proposal from the 'hard-line' party chiefs that altered to 'Kozgazdasagi Szemle' the all-too-revealing name of 'Magyar-Szovjet Kozgazdasagi Szemle', which the journal had borne from 1948 to 1954. Nonetheless, the revamped journal struggled from its very first issue to promote economic rationality, amidst highly unfavourable outside circumstances.