Memento Park Phot-o' the Day: Béla Kun Memorial

The Béla Kun Memorial. In black & white.

And we end Memento Park Week with my absolute favorite of all the statuary in the park: the subversive Béla Kun Memorial.

It's not that the communist Béla Kun was a subversive, although he was. It is the monument that was subtly subversive toward the Communist elite. In 1919, Kun became the leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, the second communist dictatorship to come to power in Europe. The regime was short-lived and collapsed six months later. In the 1930s, Kun was arrested by Stalin on the serious charge of being a Trotskyite, a counter-revolutionary. He was executed in a gulag and never returned to Hungary. His image was rehabilitated in the de-Stalinization period of the 1950s.

The monument was built in 1986, in the latter days of the Communist Era. The artist was Imre Varga. I should have been more familiar with him as he was considered Hungary's greatest living artist at the time of his death in December 2019. This monument shows genuinely talent is not cookie-cutter workman-like "socialist realism."

At the center is Kun, exhorting the Hungarian people and transforming them from the decadent bourgeoisie Hapsburgs in the rear to the soldiers of international socialism in the front. The problem is that the decadent Hapsburgs in back, rather than looking forlorn and beaten, look like they're having a party. And next to Kun is a lamp post. Artistically, it's a symbol of death, specifically violent death, as in "hanging from the lamppost." Kun died violently, as he was executed by the Soviets.

This is most definitely not a celebration of Communism. It did not need to be removed from Budapest at the time of the fall of Communism. Fortunately, it has a new home. It is the centerpiece of Memento Park and, let's be real, the masterpiece of this fascinating and historic place.

The Béla Kun Memorial. In color.