The Stalin Monument was a statue of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
. Completed in December 1951 as a "gift to Joseph Stalin from the
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
on his seventieth birthday", it was torn down on October 23, 1956 by enraged
anti-Soviet crowds during
Hungary's October Revolution.
Monument
The monument was erected on the edge of
Városliget
The City Park ( hu, Városliget; german: Stadtwäldchen) is a public park close to the centre of Budapest, Hungary. It is a rectangle, with an area of , located in District XIV of Budapest, between ''Hungária körút'', ''Ajtósi Dürer sor'', ...
, the city park of
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. The large monument stood 25 metres tall in total. The bronze statue stood eight metres high on a four-metre high limestone base on top of a tribune eighteen metres wide. Stalin was portrayed as a speaker, standing tall and rigid with his right hand at his chest. The sides of the tribune were decorated with relief sculptures depicting the Hungarian people welcoming their leader. The Hungarian sculptor,
Sándor Mikus, created the statue and was awarded the
Kossuth Prize
The Kossuth Prize ( hu, Kossuth-díj) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 (on occasion of the centenary of the March 15th revolution, the ...
, the highest distinction that can be attained by a Hungarian artist.
Background
![Sztálin-szobor és parádé a Felvonulási téren, Budapesten](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Szt%C3%A1lin-szobor_%C3%A9s_par%C3%A1d%C3%A9_a_Felvonul%C3%A1si_t%C3%A9ren%2C_Budapesten._Regnum_Marianum1.jpg)
The Stalin monument was built during the classical period of
Socialist Realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
, the official art of Stalinism, which was a tool to instill the ideology of the Party into the people. This realistic and didactic aesthetic style celebrated the hard working proletariat and especially the cult of personality surrounding figures like
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
, Stalin and other Eastern European Communist leaders.
Stalin statues sprang up everywhere in Eastern Europe from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were cult objects that demonstrated the almost mystical powers of Stalin. Upon the completion of the Stalin statue, a journalist in Budapest said:
Stalin was with us earlier; now he will be with us even more. He will watch over our work, and his smile will show us the way. I have been told that in Moscow it is customary to pay a visit to Comrade Lenin in Red Square before beginning, or after finishing, an important task, either to report or to ask his advice. Undoubtedly the same will occur here with the statue of Comrade Stalin.
The monument not only demonstrated Stalin's power, but the power of the
Hungarian Working People's Party as well. Directly across from Stalin's monument was MÉMOSZ, the house of the builder's union, condemned for its modernist architecture influenced by the West.
After the
death of Stalin in 1953, Socialist Realism went into decline, in connection with the political changes initiated by
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
in 1956 at the
20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...
, when he denounced Stalin's
cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...
.
Destruction
![Sztálin szobor Budapest 1956](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Szt%C3%A1lin_szobor_Budapest_1956.jpg)
On October 23, 1956, around two hundred thousand Hungarians gathered in Budapest to demonstrate in sympathy for the Poles who had just gained political reform during the
Polish October. The Hungarians broadcast
sixteen demands over the radio, one of them being the dismantling of Stalin's statue. A hundred thousand Hungarian revolutionaries demolished the Stalin statue, leaving only his boots, in which they planted a Hungarian flag. The bronze inscribed name of the Hungarians' leader, teacher and "best friend" was ripped off from the pedestal. Before the toppling of the statue, someone had placed a sign over Stalin's mouth that read "RUSSIANS, WHEN YOU RUN AWAY DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND!"
[Åman, Anders. ''Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe During the Stalin Era''. Cambridge, MA: The MIT P, 1992. 195.] The revolutionaries chanted "Russia go home!" while pulling down the statue. "
W.C." and other insulting remarks were scrawled over the fragmented parts of the statue.
The account of the incident by
Sándor Kopácsi
Sándor Kopácsi (March 5, 1922, Miskolc – March 2, 2001, Toronto) was a participant in, and chronicler of, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Early career
He began his professional life as a metalworker, as did his father and grandfather. In 1 ...
, head of Budapest's police: "
he demonstratorsplaced ... a thick steel rope around the neck of the 25-metre tall Stalin's statue while other people, arriving in trucks with oxygen cylinders and metal cutting blowpipes, were setting to work on the statue's bronze shoes. ... An hour later the statue fell down from its pedestal."
Present
![Stalin's Boots](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Stalin%27s_Boots.jpg)
The site of the former Stalin Monument is now occupied by the
Monument of the 1956 Revolution
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
, completed in 2006 for the 50th anniversary of the historic event.
A life-sized representation of the Stalin Monument was built in Budapest's
Statue Park
Memento Park (Hungarian: ''Szoborpark'') is an open-air museum in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to monumental statues and sculpted plaques from Hungary's Communist period (1949–1989). There are statues of Lenin, Marx, and Engels, as well as seve ...
with the broken bronze boots on top of the pedestal in 2006. This is not an accurate copy of the original but only an artistic recreation by sculptor
Ákos Eleőd
Ákos Eleőd (born 28 October 1961, in Budapest) is a Hungarian architect responsible for designing Statue Park
Memento Park (Hungarian: ''Szoborpark'') is an open-air museum in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to monumental statues and sculpted plaq ...
.
See also
*
History of Hungary
*
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
*
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences
*
Polish October
*
Socialist Realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
*
Stalin Monument (Prague)
*
Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
References
Bibliography
* Åman, Anders. ''Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe During the Stalin Era''. Cambridge, MA: The MIT P, 1992.
* Bown, Matthew C. ''Art Under Stalin''. Oxford: Phaidon P Limited, 1991. 73-86.
* Demaitre, Ann.
The Great Debate on Socialist Realism ''The Modern Language Journal'' 50.5 (1966): 263-268.
* Sinko, Katalin. "Political Rituals: the Raising and Demolition of Monuments." ''Art and Society in the Age of Stalin''. Ed. Peter Gyorgy and Hedvig Turai. Budapest: Corvina Bookk, 1992. 81.
* Terras, Victor.
Phenomenological Observations on the Aesthetics of Socialist Realism ''The Slavic and East European Journal'' 22.4 (Winter, 1979), pp. 445–457.
External links
American Hungarian Foundation's 1956 Site with Photos/Audio/VideoReflection of BBC's Reporting of the Hungarian RevolutionContinuance of Stalin's cult of personality in Georgia
{{Coord, 47.5114, 19.0814, type:landmark_region:HU, display=title
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Buildings and structures in Budapest
Demolished buildings and structures in Hungary
Monuments and memorials in Hungary
Hungary–Soviet Union relations
Colossal statues
Statues of Joseph Stalin
1951 sculptures
Destroyed sculptures
Removed statues