Hard Times in Budapest II: Communist Era and Statue Park

Throughout my trip,  I saw enormous statues celebrating the Soviet "liberation."  One such, a woman holding a palm leaf overhead, still stands on Gellert Hill in Budapest, although she is now without  the Soviet soldier who guarded her.  While Russian soldiers should be honored for their bravery and sacrifice to free these areas from the Nazis, unfortunately, the liberation ended up being a Soviet conquest, and true freedom did not follow.

The communists even took over the Nazi SS building for their own secret police, and  today's Terror Museum in Budapest tells the story of intimidation and torture.  The Hungarian dictator, Rakosi, was brutal and demanded unquestioned
devotion.  While the Nazis were vocal about their enemies, the communists were more secretive, engaging neighbors to report and spy on each other.  A few years ago, they found a film made in Budapest for training the secret police. A chilling DVD  "The Life of an Agent"  can now be seen and purchased (It doesn't work on my American DVD player, but is fine when played on the computer).  Those 60's spy movies were not far from the truth.

The first world event I remember was a scene from the news on our little black and white television of a crowd of people being beaten by soldiers.  It was a short clip and I was quite young, but its images  stayed with me.   I later realized it was the 1956 Hungarian uprising in Budapest.  What started as a student protest that pulled down the statue of Stalin to his boots near Hero's Square ended up a revolution that left thousands dead in its suppression.  Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary, and the retribution was severe.  However, their next leader was more pragmatic and gradually policies softened in the 60's and 70's.  To buy western goods on the street, Vaci utca, in Budapest was the dream of most Eastern Europeans, and I believe they also got the first McDonalds.  In the period of glasnost, the Hungarian communist party peacefully voted for its own dissolution, and free elections for the Republic of Hungary were held in 1990.


The communists were masters of graphic propaganda--huge posters and statues--used to rally and intimidate the masses.  In spite of intermittent rain, I arranged for a private car to take me to Statue Park or Memento Park (I found both names used) on the outskirts of Budapest (can be accessed by public transportation as well).  While most former communist countries destroyed the statues, the Hungarians removed them to this park to teach the value of freedom.  Although the ticket lady only spoke Hungarian and only accepted Hungarian florins or credit cards, I had a delightful, young, English-speaking guide who explained the architect's symbolic design.

Across from the entrance is a replica of the Stalin boot platform to remember the courageous Hungarians who fought tyranny.  The entrance looks like a classical building, but the main doorway is blocked by an engraved copy of the poem "One Sentence about Tyranny"-- a very long sentence written by Gyula Illyes, a poet and 1956 activist.  One must enter through a side door which is how they learned to get things done in that era.  But there is nothing behind the entrance facade, indicating that communism looked good, but was an empty promise.  The statues are arranged in figure 8 paths which only lead one in circles, and the park ends at a brick wall to show there was no future.

It was cold and rainy during our outside tour, but the guide said that was another appropriate symbol for their dismal days.  We talked of the symbolism of these statues, such as the Hungarian worker welcoming with both hands, while the Soviet soldier kept one clenched fist to his side, and how the Soviet is larger than his Hungarian counterpart.  The Soviet statue soldier from Gellert Hill was also there, but with no one to guard.  Some of my pictures are unfortunately splotchy from the rain.  I've decided they are symbolic of not having been able to see reality clearly.

Sometimes there were internal jokes about the statues, such as the giant statue of a man running out of City Park with his banner which was quietly called  "the cloakroom attendant."  They thought it looked like he was running after someone, yelling "Sir, you forgot your scarf."  The museum's guide book, In the Shadows of Stalin's Boots, is an excellent pictorial reference to the park and events of that era.


 I returned to my cruise group, more appreciative of my freedom and impressed by the Hungarian devotion to democracy.  Yet, in talking to my driver, who was the son of a Soviet rocket scientist, I was reminded that the quality of one's life in those years varied according to connections and positions (see earlier Small World post under Danube Cruise).  Ironically, when I was there, one of the former communist party buildings on the Danube was draped with a Mc Donald's "I'm lovin it" banner.   Indeed, it does look like the Hungarians are loving their freedom.

Click on link for slideshow:  
Budapest: Communist Era

Music: Shaporin, Soldiers' Chorus from the Decembrists, Soviet Army Chorus and Band
More information: /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_Hungary

/www.szoborpark.hu/index.php?Content=Szoborpark&Lang=en