A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1981 (Debrecen, 1983)

Művészettörténet - Bíró Katalin: The History of Medgyessy Ferenc’s Petőfi Statue in the View of Contemporary Debrecen Press (1947–1948)

Katalin Bíró THE HISTORY OF MEDGYESSY FERENC'S PETŐFI STATUE IN THE VIEW OF CONTEMPORARY DEBRECEN PRESS (1947—1948) In the first part the author follows up the history of the statue almost week by week as in a diary, relying on the official records of the management of Debrecen, on the sculptor's letters and memories and on the articles of the three main contemporary Debrecen newspapers: the smallholders' party's Debreczen, the communists' Néplap and the social democrats' Tiszántúli Népszava. Debrecen had the poet's statute made for the centenary of the Hungarian War of Liberty in 1848—49. The plan of the statue was raised at the beginning of 1947 and the statue itself was set up in the August 1948. Meanwhile vast debates on the would-be site of the statue went on the town and polemic articles could be read in the newspapers. In the second part the author tries to find explanations for the unparalleled fact that the case of a statue could be in prominence in the local press for more than one year and a half. She seems to find three main causes for the fact. 1. This Statue was the first significant artistic business of the town after 1945. 2. The erection of the statue encountered numerous difficulties (lack of money, lack of bronze). 3. In Debrecen this was the most outstanding event of the centenary, and the contemporary political alterations layed stress upon the centenary. The author also tries to analyse the significance of the centenary in the view of the formation of a new national unity, as the cause of the fact that the centenary came into prominance. 469