More Soviet era statues

After my previous post of Socialist Realism and the statue park in Budapest, here are a couple more communist era statues.

Marx and Engels, in the Alexanderplatz in Berlin. In the background stands the partially-demolished Palast der Republik, the former parliament building of the DDR which also housed restaurants and a bowling alley. It stands on the site of the Stadtschoss, the Prussian-era royal palace in Berlin, which was badly damaged during the war and what was left was pulled down after the war. There are now plans to rebuild the palace at the same location.


Lenin, in October Square in Moscow. Apparently this is the last remaining public statue of Lenin in the Russian capital.


There is also a statue park in Moscow with various Soviet era works. I'll post some pictures of that in due course.

Socialist Realism

Like many other cities in eastern Europe during the communist era, Budapest was filled with socialist realist statues. These works glorified the proletariat and the Red Army "liberators" of Hungary, as well as the usual statues of Marx and Lenin.

Most of these statues were pulled down quickly after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Hardly surprising after Hungary's experience under Soviet domination, including the Russian invasion of 1956.




Most cities destroyed their old communist statues, melting them down to make something more useful. However, Budapest had the foresight to preserve the old sculptures and put them on show in a statue park outside the city.

The park is marketed as pure communist kitsch, but I think that sells it short. There is a certain grandeur to these statues -- many of them are huge. But some of them are also successful as works of art, despite the political message that inspired them. I think my favourites are the first one shown above, which is an incredibly powerful image, and the last one below, with the repeating characters of the proletarian militia.