Boros Géza: Statue Park - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)

The endless promenade of the liberation monuments

■ Liberation Monument by litván Kin. igyi

activists and martyrs of the labour movement in Zugló, to the nameless heroes who gave their lives in the fight against fascism". Unknown hands toppled the statue in the last days of August 1991. (The head broke into pieces, so the one in its place is a reconstruction.) The inscription daubed with red paint on the wall can still be made out: The ÁVO biood&hed of Oct. 1956 (ÁVO was the acronym of the state security department of the police, the feared terror brigade of the 1950s.) A 1956 memorial with a tomb in the shape of a cross and featuring ancient Hungarian wooden grave markers was created on the spot by the National Association of Political Prisoners in 1990.

6. Liberation Memorial Stone (i960)

The memorial stone represents a simple but frequently used type of monument. It was installed by the Pioneers of District 1 opposite the Monument of the 1848 Freedom Fighters in the Castle District to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the county's liberation. The flag carved into the stone was the symbol of the Association of Hungarian Pioneers, a communist youth group, and the inscription Forward for people and country! was their motto. The slab was, of course, not laid by the Pioneers themselves but in fact ordered by the local council. It was common practice in the Kádár era for local councils and party units to carry through their ideas ’on the initiative’ and on behalf of various mass organisations.

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