A top 10 of Communist Budapest’s remains

This post takes a quick look at 10 of the highlights of communist Budapest. If you’re interested in these, my book Communist Budapest: The Guidebook features about 100 sights in more depth.

The House of Terror

In the 1940s, the communist ÁVO/ÁVH secret police were based on Andrássy út in a building that is now a museum to the horrors of the communist regime. The exhibitions cover the Red Army’s conquest, the imposition of communist rule, the various persecutions, and resistance to the regime, among other themes.

Kerepesi Cemetery

Many of the regime’s big names ended up six feet under in Kerepesi Cemetery. Its standout sight is the Pantheon of the Workers’ Movement, which features the graves of many leading communists. János Kádár, who dominated the communist government for more than three decades, is buried in Kerepesi although just to the side of the Pantheon. Kerepesi is also the final resting place of communist minister Dr Sándor Zöld. He murdered his wife and children and then killed himself due to his fear that the regime had an even worse fate in store for them.

Pioneers’ Railway

The Pioneers’ Railway took its name from the communist youth organisation, which displaced the banned boy scouts and girl guides. The regime built the narrow-gauge line in 1948-50 as a gift to the nation’s children. It runs between Széchenyi hegy in District XII and Hűvösvölgy in District II. Children did most of the jobs apart from driving the trains. They still staff the line, now renamed the Children’s Railway.

Metro Lines 2 and 3

The Soviet Union helped to build two of Budapest’s metro lines – the M2 (red) and M3 (blue). Sections of the lines also doubled as atomic shelters designed to hold 220,000 people in the event of the Cold War turning hot.

Soviet War Memorial

The memorial in Szabadság tér dates from 1945 and commemorates the Red Army’s ousting of the German forces. The occupying Soviets put it up when the buildings around the square were still in ruins. On the obelisk the main inscription reads ‘Glory to the liberating Soviet heroes’. All the other communist statues were removed after the change of system. This one, however, must stay according to the provisions of a treaty with Russia.

Corvin köz

The Corvin Cinema and surrounding Corvin köz (Corvin Alley) was one of the main locations of fighting in 1956. Hundreds of rebels took part in the battle here, a well-protected location, using weapons looted from various armouries. The Corvin Cinema now features what surely must be a record number of plaques on its outer walls commemorating 1956.

1 May parades and the Stalin statue

Party leaders reviewed 1 May march-pasts at Felvonulási tér (Parade Square). It now bears the name Ötvenhatosok tere (56ers’ Square) in honour of the insurgents of the 1956 Uprising. The square was in fact just a part of the longer Dózsa György út that was widened in 1949-51. It was the location of a statue of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1878-1953). Stalin’s figure was eight metres tall but the huge pedestal gave the monument a total height of around 25 metres. On 9 March 1953, 100,000–300,000 mourners gathered here while the tyrant’s funeral took place in Moscow. Insurgents tore down the statue on the first day of the 1956 Uprising. Wisely, the regime never replaced it.

Rákosi’s grave

Farkasréti Cemetery contains the remains of the dictator Mátyás Rákosi and Gábor Péter, the head of the secret police. They were too nasty even to bury with the other leading communists in Kerepesi and were discretely disposed of here. In Rákosi’s case, his name doesn’t even feature on the niche where his ashes are interred.

Liberation Monument

The statue of a woman holding aloft a palm frond was originally known as the Liberation Monument. It commemorated the storming of Budapest by Soviet forces in 1944-45. The statue atop Gellért Hill is visible in much of the capital. The statue of the Soviet solider is no longer there and it has an updated inscription to make it acceptable in post-communist Hungary. It also has a new name – the Liberty Statue.

Memento Park

What do you do if you have a city full of communist statues that you don’t want anymore? You build a park for them on the edge of town and charge tourists to look at your scrap metal. Lenin, Marx and Engels are all here along with a bunch of more obscure ones. Among the figures familiar only to locals is a statue of Osztapenko. He was a Soviet soldier who died during the Battle of Budapest in 1944. Hitchhikers going to Lake Balaton often met at the statue back in the day.