MONUMENT TO THE HUNGARIAN SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
"SIR, YOU FORGOT YOUR SCARF!"
(István Kiss, 1969. cast in bronze)
Photo taken on August 12, 2012, a hot and cloudy afternoon.
Here we are back at Budapest's fabulous Memento Park, with the other major work there by our good sculptor friend István Kiss (see previous post).
The main thing you need to grasp about this frankly AMAZING statue is the sheer size of it. The Accidental Cloakroom Attendant dude is HUGE. That's the reason I have included a rather unflattering photo of my merry self perched jauntily on his giant whopping foot there - that photo is for perspective and is purely for your benefit. I usually look much... classier. Anyway...
It's potted-history o'clock!
At the beginning of the 20th century, Hungary was an integral part of the central power - the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy/Empire. However, the internal tensions of the multicultural state, the upcoming nationalistic movements and flawed foreign policies, all helped to precipitate World War One. After four years, they came out on the losing side and, as a result of this, the monarchy collapsed.
The country was thrown into political and economic crises and mass movements became radicalised. In the autumn of 1918, the "Aster Revolution" brought about a change in power to an independent republic. But the new government was short-lived, its demise brought about by the difficult economic situation, their inability to deal with social tensions and the significant losses of Hungarian territory following the war. The civil revolution failed because of its lack of popular support, internal social tensions and failures in foreign policy.
Béla Kun and his group of activists - Hungarians who had been prisoners of war in Russia and who had there been introduced to communist ideology and desired to bring it home - made use of the ensuing anarchy to take power. They announced a proletariat dictatorship, and on March 21st, 1919, they proclaimed the Hungarian Socialist Republic, based on the Soviet model.
The proletariat state quickly got to work. They gave the right to vote to all, introduced the eight-hour working day, nationalised the banks, large factories, transport and education, and took over large land holdings. They expanded the social security system, introduced a child protection service, gave equal rights to women and declared rights for minorities. So far so utopian or what, right?
However, alongside these positive actions, they also introduced and increased to state level the Red Terror and the institutionalisation of the merciless reduction and elimination of "political enemies". The proletariat state was in constant battle with its internal enemies, its own people.
Because of the great fear of the international spread of communist ideology, the powers of Europe and Hungary's neighbouring countries formed political and military alliances against this new Hungarian Socialist Republic.
An army had to be assembled to defend them! The era's outstanding artists were drafted in to design posters aiding the mobilisation. One of the most famous of these was the work of Róbert Berény, one of the influential group The Eight, who had been particularly influenced by Cezanne. He came up with "To Arms! To Arms!", which was a favourite image in the cause.
Ultimately the regime lasted for just 133 days. An army of intervention - primarily from France, with Romanians and Czechs supported by the Entente - soon broke up the Hungarian Socialist Republic. But hey - nice poster guys!
Fast-forward to the 1960s, when the Russians (oh, them again) wanted to erect a monument to honour the first workers' state. Bereny's iconic art was dug out, re-fashioned as a gargantuan bronze colossus, and parked in Felvonulási tér, on the edge of the Városliget (City Park). Sculptor István Kiss did a magnificent job - it really is fabulous - but the statue soon became the subject of jokes to locals. The sight of it was truly shocking - if you looked at it from the right (wrong?) angle - a huge giant was running out from among the trees of City Park. Inevitably the statue quickly became known as "The Cloakroom Attendant", who was forever dashing after someone calling "Sir, you forgot your scarf!".
