Boros Géza: Statue Park - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)
The endless promenade dedicated to the ideas and events of the labour movement
Association of Hungarian Journalists also toed the line when it installed several plaques devoted to the history of journalism in Budapest in 1955. The plaque on the wall of the building at Ráday utca 53 marked the spot where an illegal press was operated. It was here that issues of the party organ ifjú Proletár (Young Proletarian) were printed. 37- Memorial Devoted to the Memory of the Heroes of the People’s Power (Viktor Kalló, 1983) This twenty-metre long memorial wall decorated with reliefs was erected when the monument of those 'martyred during the counter-revolution’ was extended in Köztársaság tér. When the statue was originally raised in i960, there was a debate as to whether the names of all those who fell fighting on the side of the people's power should be inscribed or only of those who were killed defending the party headquarters in the square, but the issue was then left unresolved. The names of the latter were later inscribed on a plaque but this was not significant enough to be the focus of wreath-laying ceremonies, which is why the erection of a memorial wall listing the names was found indispensable. The memorial site was extended as part of large-scale restoration of the square to plans by architect Lajos Skoda. 38. Monument of the Martyrs of the Counter-Revolution (Viktor Kalló, i960) Commemorating the communist victims of the revolution of 1956 was a spin-off of a larger project called The Memorial Site ofi the Great Dead, which had been on the agenda since 1955. The dilemma was whether the memory of those newly promoted to martyrdom should be kept alive by a great common monument or they should receive a monument of their own. In the end the latter idea, that of a self-contained monument, was accepted. Köztársaság tér (where party militiamen were lynched by infuriated crowds during the siege of the party headquarters) was selected as the site, because this particular location of the events of the 'counter-revolution' was the easiest to be invested with a ritualistic status. The 1957 competition for the monument, which met with great enthusiasm on the part of Hungarian sculptors, was won by Viktor Kalló. The colossus of a working man collapsing in mortal agony (described by the contemporary inscription as The monument oft the martyrs who save their lives frr the freedom oh the workins people) was completed by i960. "It is a rare moment in the history of sculpture that a particular historical event and its sculptural representation are as close to each other as they are 47
