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

The endless promenade of the liberation monuments

■ Soviet Heroes' Monument by Barna Megyeri, 1948

IO-II. Liberation Monument (Viktor Kalló, 1965)

This monument was erected in Béke tér, Angyalföld, by the Party committee and local council of District XIII to mark the 20th anniversary of the liberation. The project also involved the replacement, with a higher quality object, of an earlier monument to Soviet heroes, one that had been temporarily restored after its destruction in 1956. The original title was Peace and Friendship. Standing on a sloping base of artificial stone in front of a reinforced concrete pyramid in the shape of a stylised flag are two bronze figures-, a worker and a soldier. The Hungarian worker clenching his left fist symbolises liberated man; behind him stands the Soviet soldier with legs apart and arms thrown above. Charging the theatrical composition with additional dynamism are the huge pylons of the high-voltage lines that loom behind the monument near its location in the Statue Park. The slab inscribed with Cyrillic lettering that stands alone is not a separate work of art but an original component from the back of this one.

12. Soviet Heroes' Monument (Barna Megyeri, 1948)

The oldest exhibit of the Statue Park comes from Kasztéi András út (today's Liget sor) in Rákosliget. The figure of the Soviet soldier recalls, with its machine- gun and clenched fist raised above, the style of contemporary labour posters.

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