Memento Park, Budapest

Memento Park

Memento Park

Memento Park, Budapest

This is a collection of statues, bas reliefs and busts that used to be located in public spaces in the city of Budapest during the period of the countries Socialist construction. This is similar (but not an exact equivalent) of the Park of the Fallen/Muzeon Art Park, Moscow, and the Museum of Socialist Art – Sofia, Bulgaria. It consists of 41 items, spread out over three sections, in the open air. The collection consists of what might be called the seminal works that were on display in the city but the curation also seems to have chosen some of the exhibits based upon the uniqueness of their design. Hungarian sculptors seemed to have followed a slightly different path in representing individuals and events from some of the other countries in Eastern Europe. Here you will see figures that are almost abstract, still ‘figurative’ but a shift away from the norm of the time.

What to look for;

  • a couple of good Lenins – although one of them looks slightly different from what we’re used to – and one of which Vladimir Ilyich holds his scrunched up cap in his left hand;
Memento Park - 01

Memento Park – 01

  • an interesting, stylised, made of stone, ‘the only Cubist-style monument of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the world’ to the right of the main entrance;
Memento Park - 07

Memento Park – 07

  • a truly monumental statue of a Soviet Red Army man – who used to be placed at base of the memorial to Freedom in present day Liberty Square;
Memento Park - 02

Memento Park – 02

  • the large statue group as a monument to Bela Kun and the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic, a late statue (1986) its composition is quite unique and seems to be open to a whole number of interpretations;
Memento Park - 03

Memento Park – 03

  • a couple of monuments to Georgi Dimitrov, the Bulgarian leader of the Communist (Third) International;
Memento Park - 04

Memento Park – 04

  • the two bas relief panels that were originally planned to be part of the decoration of one of the Budapest metro system;
Memento Park - 05

Memento Park – 05

  • the robotic forms of the three Hungarian volunteers of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War;
Memento Park - 06

Memento Park – 06

  • the wall to commemorate the defeat of the Hungarian Counter-Revolution of 1956.
Memento Park - 08

Memento Park – 08

More information about all the statues in the Park can be found in the official guide book, In the shadow of Stalin’s boots.

It’s a bit of a mixed message. It thinks it’s critical of the Socialist past – which the narrative puts down to be one only of Soviet occupation – but, from time to time, has to acknowledge that it was the Soviet Red Army that liberated the country from the Nazis. The only country that threw out the fascists, first the Italian and then the Germans, without the direct intervention of the Red Army, was the Albanians. The rest of Eastern Europe didn’t do it by themselves.

Perhaps one of the most telling statements made in the book is on page 4, second paragraph. Here it states ‘Hungary finished the Second World War in 1945 on the losing side’. By December 1944 the Red Army had surrounded Budapest but it took them 50 days to destroy the resistance of the German Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators. The remnants of this support for fascism obviously were not totally destroyed throughout the country and it was from this seed that the counter-revolution of 1956 grew – nurtured by the capitalist ‘West’.

Location;

To the south west of the city centre, just outside the official city limits.

1223 Budapest XXII. district, Balatoni út – Szabadkai utca corner

GPS;

47.42671015031753º N

18.999903359092098º E

How to get there by public transport;

From central Budapest take the Metro line No. 4 to Kelenfold, the end of the line. Once out of the metro system and in the passageway under the railway lines of the mainline station look for a sign pointing you to Örmezö which will take you to the bus station (blue buses) where you want to catch either the 101E, 101B or the 150. There’s an electronic information board as you come up from the underpass indicating how long before they depart. This is an express bus with few stops and Memento Park is the second of these, indicated on a screen as well as being announced. The second time the voice mentions a stop it is imminent. The entrance is just behind the bus as you get off, look for the black boots.

Memento Park website

Opening times;

Everyday from 10.00 – 18.00

Entrance;

Adults; 3,000 HUF

Students; 1,800 HUF

Children (under 14) 1,200 HUF

Guide book available at the ticket counter;

2,000 HUF

Related;

Park of the Fallen/Muzeon Art Park, Moscow

Museum of Socialist Art – Sofia, Bulgaria

The Great Patriotic War Museum and War Memorial – Gori

Gori Great Patriotic War Museum - 01

Gori Great Patriotic War Museum – 01

More on the Republic of Georgia

The Great Patriotic War Museum and War memorial – Gori

The Museum

This is quite a small museum and considering the huge numbers of people – especially during the tourist season – who go to Gori for the Stalin Museum (only a couple of hundred metres up the road) doesn’t get many visitors at all.

For many of those who do go there it might appear somewhat underwhelming as it doesn’t contain a lot of artefacts. However, I think that’s the ‘problem’ of the visitor not the museum – but also a ‘problem’ of which I myself am guilty.

War museums in the west – or certainly in the UK – are devoted to the instruments of war, the weapons that have been used through the ages as technology makes the task of killing someone ‘easier’ and more sophisticated. Yes, there will be exhibitions, normally ‘special’ ones that complement/supplement the permanent display, that place a greater emphasis on those who were fighting or were caught up in the conflict but the norm is to display what does the killing.

I think I’ve come to understand – and it took the visit to a number of museums in various part of what was the Soviet Union – that Soviet museums of the Great Patriotic War were primarily dedicated to those who fought and died. The museums were more like memorials to the dead than celebrations of what was used to kill them.

Although the museum in Gori is small this is even more evident in a couple of the larger museums I have visited recently – the first being the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow and the second the Museum to the Battle of Stalingrad in Stalingrad/Volgograd. Both those museums have military equipment on show but the vast majority of the items on display are much more personal, items that the soldiers and civilians carried as well as many photographs of those who fought and died.

At the heart of both those museums is a virtual shrine to those who gave their lives for the Soviet Motherland to which visiting groups of school children, military personnel – as well as many other Russian visitors – treat as a sort of pilgrimage to pay homage and thanks to those who died in the fight against Nazism. Even though the Soviet Union collapsed many years ago the Russian people still understand that the Great Patriotic War was an ‘existential’ (a word that has probably become overused in recent times) struggle for the country. Defeat wouldn’t have just meant losing the war, it would have resulted in the end of the Russian people as a nation.

And the museum in Gori mirrors that but on a much smaller scale. When it comes to exhibits there more in the way of photographs, of scenes from the various battle fronts but also of Georgians (and, I must assume, those from Gori and the surrounding area) who died in the war. Although there was no fighting on the territory of Georgia as such around 350,000 Georgians lost their lives on other fronts and in other battles against the Nazis. In this museum some of those are remembered with their photographs displayed in the corner of the museum.

Gori Great Patriotic War Museum - 02

Gori Great Patriotic War Museum – 02

There are, however, other items of interest for a visitor. These include;

  • a full length statue of Joseph Vassarionovich Djughashvili (Joseph Stalin) standing at the bottom on the single room which is the museum. Not the best of likenesses but one to add to those searching for his statues in Gori, complementing those in a near-by park and the railway station. (Both those a more accurate likeness, I think.);
  • a number of interesting banners from different regiments and battalions, some with images of VI Lenin and/or JV Stalin. Some are not in the best of condition but not surprising considering the ferocity of the battles;
Gori Great Patriotic War Museum - 03

Gori Great Patriotic War Museum – 03

  • a collection of Nazi insignia, in display cases on the floor – emulating the fate of the Nazi banners thrown at the feet of Stalin, and in front of the Lenin Mausoleum, in Red Square on the first Victory Day in 1945;
  • a small statue depicting homage to the Red Flag.

The War Memorial

Great Patriotic War Memorial - Gori

Great Patriotic War Memorial – Gori

Gori’s War Memorial, to the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, is located in Hero’s Square – which is the small garden in front of the main entrance to the museum.

The memorial begins just to the right of the museum entrance. Here there’s a plaque, in Georgian, with an inscription which quotes part of the poem by the Georgian poet Galaktion Tabidze – ‘Let the Banners Wave on High’ (დროშები ჩქარა):

‘დიდება ხალხისთვის წამებულ რაინდებს,

ვინც თავი გასწირა, ვინც სისხლი დაღვარა.

მათ ხსოვნას სამშობლო სანთლებად აინთებს’

‘Glory to those with souls devoid of fear,
Who for the people’s cause did bravely die…
Their names shine bright like torches in the night…’

Then there is ceramic mural which takes the form of an ‘L’ shape, with a small part on the wall of the museum and then the longer side being on a wall that runs the length of the square. On here you see depicted both figures in the land army as well as those from the naval armed forces. As stated above no battles actually took place on Georgian soil but many Georgians did fight and die on the various fronts and those from Gori are memorialised inside the museum.

Georgian Socialist Realist art, especially when it comes to murals and bas reliefs, is very distinctive. The same can be said of the statuary of the period. In both those art forms the rounds are exaggerated as are the straight edges of the human form. This can be seen here in Gori but is also demonstrated on the Mother of Georgia – Kartlis Deda statue in Tbilisi; the wall panels next to the Bodorna Hydroelectric plant (along the ‘military road’ which goes up to the Russian border at Kazbegi); and the mural on the side of the telephone exchange in Tskaltubo.

The specific Georgia style gives the figures an almost comic aspect. This is enhanced by the fact that the murals, at least the majority I’ve seen, are made up of smaller sections (whether ceramic or stone) and the spaces between the blocks give the impression that the figures are string puppets where there are gaps between the joints.

The first group of three, on the museum wall, are sailors and the ’rounding’ of the figures makes them out to be burly, muscle bound bruisers and the exaggerated cheeks bones make them out to be the picture of health.

This style also appears to make the figures less serious in their demeanour. In the first group along the long wall, nearest the museum, we have a group of sailors marching in formation. Some of them are looking at the viewer and seem happy that they are going off to war.

In the centre of the long wall (now partially obscured by an Christian cross, part of the monument to the Russo-Georgian War of 2008) is a group of three soldiers, giving a clenched fist salute – the sign of victory.

The Soviet symbol of the the Hammer and Sickle appears underneath the dates 1941-1945 (the duration of the war) and stars surround the figures of the left side of the wall.

Everything changes on the right of the dates where we see a celebration of peace, a child being protected from its fall by open, outstretched hands with images of doves flying around behind.

A few metres in front of the central part of the long bas-relief is a small stone circle that, at one time, would have housed the Eternal Flame. When this ceased to be in use I don’t know but seems to represent a denial of the sacrifice of Georgians in the struggle against Nazism in the 1940s – because it was the Soviet Union for which they fought. This is also reflected in the manner in which the War Memorial in Vake Park, in Tbilisi, has been allowed to go to rack and ruin.

Related;

Stalin Museum – Gori

Gori – Rediscovered statues of Joseph Stalin

Museum of the Great Patriotic War – Moscow

Location;

19 Stalin Avenue (between the Stalin Museum and the Town Hall square)

GPS;

41.98387º N

44.11199º E

Opening times of the Museum;

Tuesday to Sunday (closed Mondays) from 10.00 to 17.00

Entrance;

3 GEL

More on the Republic of Georgia

The Stalin Society – publications

Stalin and the people of the Soviet Union

Stalin and the people of the Soviet Union

More on the USSR

The Great ‘Marxist-Leninist’ Theoreticians

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

The Stalin Society – publications

The Stalin Society was formed in 1991 and for many years had regular meetings which often involved a formal presentation related to the life and work of JV Stalin but also topics about the history, social and economic aspects of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Some of those presentations, which were published in a printed format, are reproduced below.

It is not clear what the current situation is with the Society. There does not seem to have be any activity, either on the website or with public meetings, since 2020.

The pamphlets are listed in order of when they were presented to the Society.

The truth about the so-called ‘Hitler-Stalin Pact’ of 1939, translated from Roter Morgen, No 9, September 1989, Roter Morgen is the organ of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). Published by the Stalin Society, 5 pages.

The German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact of 1939, Bill Bland, presented in London in February 1990, 14 pages.

The Spanish Civil War, Ella Rule, London, March 1991, 44 pages.

Lenin and Stalin on Opportunism, C and K Majid, London, January 1993, 15 pages.

Nikita Khrushchev – his role in the anti-Stalin campaign, Cathie Majid, London, June 1993, 18 pages.

The origin and development of Revisionism in the CPGB, Part 1, London, September 1993, 23 pages.

The enlightenment’s roots in Socialist Realist Theory and aspects of Revisionism in the late twentieth century, Helena Stevens, London, November 1993, 24 pages.

Let us salute the Soviet workers, translated from the Iraqi Review ‘Al-Marxi’, No. 30, November 1993, distributed by the Stalin Society, London, 8 pages.

The origin and development of Revisionism in the CPGB, Part 2, London, February 1994, 24 pages.

The truth about Stalin, Wilf Dixon, a talk given to the Secular Society in Leicester, October 1994, 12 pages.

Albania and China, Kamal Majid, London, April 1995, 35 pages.

The importance of forming a Party, Kamal Majid, London, July 1995, 26 pages.

The role of the revolutionary newspaper in the struggle today, John Green, London, July 1995, 10 pages.

Education in the Soviet Union, Ella Rule, London, June 1996, 8 pages.

George Orwell – anti-Communist, champion of Trotskyism and State informer, Joti Brar, London, February 1998, 16 pages.

Women in the USSR, Ella Rule, London, March 1998, 16 pages.

Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union, Mario Sousa, translated and presented by Ella Rule, London, March 1999, 31 pages.

Marxism-Leninism and the arts, Bill Bland, London, September 1999, 14 pages.

Health in the USSR, Carlos Rule, London, February 2000, 15 pages.

Marxism and law, the struggle over jurisprudence in the Soviet Union, Bill Bland, London, March 2000, 22 pages.

Bourgeois democracy and Fascism, ‘Social democracy objectively represents the moderate wing of Fascism’. JV Stalin, ‘Concerning the International Situation’, September 1924, Harpal Brar, London, May 2000, 37 pages.

The Soviet novel, Ella Rule, London, July 2000, 26 pages.

The role of the individual in history, Ivor Kenna, London, October 2000, 11 pages.

The fight against bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Carlos Rule, London, September 2001, 48 pages.

Imperialism’s interest in Afghanistan, Ella Rule, London, October 2001, 19 pages.

The Ukrainian famine-genocide myth, John Puntis, London, June 2002, 27 pages.

The Katyn Massacre, Ella Rule, London, July 2002, 25 pages.

A brief history of the Working-class Internationals, Ella Rule, London, October 2002, 37 pages.

A personal account of experiences in the German Panzers at the Battle of Stalingrad, Henry Metelmann, 60 years after the Soviet victory at Stalingrad – the turning point in the war against Nazi fascism, London, February 2003, 20 pages.

The purges of the CPSU in the 1930s, edited by Ella Rule from ‘The class struggle during the thirties in the Soviet Union’, 2005, 20 pages.

Robert Conquest dies – but his lies live on! Grover Furr, August 2015, reproduced by the Stalin Society, 4 pages.

Housing in the USSR, Katt Cremer, London, October 2016, 10 pages.

More on the USSR

The Great ‘Marxist-Leninist’ Theoreticians

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told