The “Monument of Freedom” is being restored in Budapest — EADaily, August 17, 2024 — Politics, Russia

On the eve of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (15 August) and St. Stephen’s Day (20 August), Hungary’s national holidays, the country’s ruling conservative regime issued a reminder of “national values” in light of plans to restore the city and country’s most symbolic monument in Budapest – the “Freedom Monument” on Gellért Hill in the Hungarian capital.

The chairman of the Christian Democratic Party (KDNP) faction, which governs in a coalition with Fidesz, Istvan ShimichkoIn his post on the social network, he described the statements of the left-wing Hungarian press against the placement of the sign of the cross, the most important Christian symbol, on the restored “Monument of Freedom” on Gellert Hill as wrong and simply double standards.

The chairman of the KDNP faction sees speeches in the left-wing media against the cross as an insult to Christians and a mockery of “our faith”. In this context, Istvan Shimichko stressed that the Citadel and the “Monument of Freedom” on Gellért Hill are among the iconic symbols of Budapest and Hungary.

In addition, the chairman of the KDNP faction Shimichko recalled in his speech that the monument of the Hungarian sculptor Zsigmond Kisfaludi-Strobl (1884-1975) on Gellert Hill was erected in 1947 in honor of the Soviet troops who expelled the Nazis from Budapest. During the “Hungarian Revolution of 1956” the statue of the Soviet soldier, which was part of the sculptural group, was toppled, but was restored after the “communist restoration”. After the change of regime, the symbols of the socialist era were removed, so that the sculptural ensemble acquired its current appearance.

Shimichko added that both the Citadel and the Freedom Monument on Gellért Hill had unfortunately deteriorated significantly over the past three decades and that the ongoing reconstruction was “the repayment of an old debt and the elimination of an undignified state”.

In accordance with the visual design of the reconstruction, a cross will be placed on the base of the “Monument to Freedom”, which, according to Shimichko, is “the main symbol of our Christian faith”.

“In some circles, this idea was so disliked that signatures were collected to prevent the installation of the cross. It is the cross that disturbs the spiritual world of some people, it is seen on the Holy Crown and thus on the coat of arms of Hungary, and it symbolizes the almost two thousand year old religious heritage of Europe,” wrote Shimichko.

Shimichko further stressed that Hungary and the Hungarian people have made it clear in every election over the past 14 years that they “are not asking for the support of the left and Soroswho finances them.” Hungarians believe in a Europe of strong, sovereign nation states based on Christian culture and underline this commitment with one of the oldest symbols of the country, stressed the KDNP parliamentary group leader.

According to Istvan Szymiczko, the cross on the Freedom Monument on Gellért Hill “will symbolise not only our thousand-year-old past, but also the Hungarian people’s faith in the future. It will take its rightful place, because all this springs from the history, culture and spirit of Hungary.”

* * *

The height of the central statue of the “Monument of Freedom” – a female figure – is 14 meters, which together with its base rises 40 meters above the 235-meter-high Gellért Hill. The monument literally floats above the Hungarian capital.

As we can see, the centre-right coalition governing Hungary intends to give a new identity to the old monument, which was originally intended to visibly embody the Soviet ideology of liberating the European peoples from Nazism.

The “Liberation Monument”, as it was originally called, was erected on the second anniversary of Hungary’s Liberation Day on April 4, 1947.

In September 1945, the National Assembly of Hungary, then still a kingdom, signed a law to erect a monument to commemorate the Soviet soldiers who had fallen during the liberation of the Hungarian capital Budapest.

Initially, these works were supervised by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence and later by the Ministry of Construction and Public Works. However, the personal supervision was carried out by Marshal Voroshilov (1881-1969), who was Chairman of the Allied Control Commission in Hungary from 1945 to 1947. It was Klim Efremovich Voroshilov who personally identified the Hungarian sculptor Zsigmond Kisfaludi-Strobl as the creator of the “Liberation Monument.” The costs for the landmark, which was built in a very short time, were borne by the Hungarian state.

The place where the “Liberation Monument” was to be erected – Gellért Hill – was specifically determined by the Soviet staff of the Allied Control Commission. At the Soviet request, the size of the monument was increased from 8–10 to almost 40 meters. The Hungarian authorities had originally proposed Horváth Park for the erection of the monument in the Hungarian capital. Marshal Voroshilov insisted on Gellért Hill, inadvertently giving the monument certain meanings. Eventually, the “Liberation Monument” was erected in front of the citadel that the Austrians had built in Hungary after the suppression of the 1848–1849 revolution. The Austrian cannons of this citadel were aimed at the potentially rebellious Hungarian Buda and Pest, which were located below it. As a result, the “Liberation Monument” visibly defeated the symbol of German (Austrian) control over the Hungarian capital, which stood in front of the citadel and closed it off from the main view.

It should be noted that due to Soviet influences, the “Liberation Monument” was created by Zhigmond Kishfaludi-Strobl in different styles, which, we note, predetermined the fate of the monument in 1956 and 1991.

A young farmer from the village of Visak in the Vash region Erzebet Gaal (1917-1989) posed for the central figure of the “Liberation Monument” by Kishfaludi-Strobl. According to legend, the central Statue of Liberty was originally erected as a monument to the eldest son of the Hungarian regent. Miklos Horthy, Istvan Horthywho died in a plane crash on the Eastern Front. But this is just a legend. The sculptor himself was aware of this and protested by questioning it.

Be that as it may, the central female figure of the “Monument of Liberation” and the statues on the sides – the “Torchbearer” on the left and the “Slayer of the Serpent” on the right – correspond to the spirit of European revolutionary romanticism or, more generally, the pursuit of progress and belief in it. These statues of the monument are a replica of ancient classical meanings – the palm branch raised high is a symbol of victory and peace and the fire of Prometheus directed at the people.

At the same time, the statue on the right is also a replica of the popular Christian legend of the victory of Saint George over the snake – the symbol of the devil.

Further away, however, is a six-meter-high bronze sculpture of a Soviet soldier with a PPSh-41 machine gun on his chest and a banner in his hands. It was created in the style of Stalin’s victorious post-war empire, and thus stands in visible and obvious contradiction to the rest of the “romantic” sculptural part of the monument.

Significantly, the statue of a Soviet soldier was overturned and smashed by a rebellious crowd in the October days of 1956. The same fate awaited the central female figure of the monument at that time. However, a group of students who were in a kind of “Revolutionary Law Enforcement Battalion” managed to convince the crowd not to touch the rest of the “Liberation Monument”. Two years later, the statue of a Soviet soldier in the Liberation Monument group was restored by the Hungarian authorities according to the preserved forms.

Likewise, the “public” initiative to destroy the “Liberation Monument” after 1989 met with considerable resistance from the Budapest population, because the monument, which radiated peace and its appearance, had long since become a symbol of the Hungarian capital. The sculptural group was preserved by giving it new content and new meanings.

In 1993, the reconstruction of the monument on Gellért Hill was completed. The “Liberation Monument” simply became the “Statue of Liberty” (Veng. Szabadság-szobor).

Inscriptions in Russian and an inscription thanking the Soviet Army in Hungarian were removed from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty’s sculptural group. The original inscription on the pedestal read: “In memory of the Soviet hero-liberators from the grateful Hungarian people. 1945”This inscription on the monument was replaced by another: “In memory of all those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom and prosperity of Hungary.”

At the same time, in 1992, the 15-meter-high statue of a Soviet soldier was removed from the group on Gellért Hill and moved to Memento Park, a common gathering place for monumental art from the socialist era in Hungary.

In 2018, the television channel Kultura reported on this story in its documentary “The Russian Vasily” in Budapest.

In 1946 Lieutenant Vasily Mikhailovich Golovtsov (1919-1991), participant in the storming of Budapest, served as a model for this sculpture of a Soviet soldier. Golovtsov himself later said the following: “One day I received a call from the company commander. He explained to me that I was to serve as a model for a future statue of a Soviet warrior. The sculpture workshop would be my temporary place of duty. That’s all!”

Kisfaludi-Strobl, in turn, remembered his “role model”: “He was a brave guy. A real soldier. After all, it’s not easy to stand in the same position for hours. Yes, even in this one. He stood firm. Very well-groomed, fit, just quiet. I was shy. He defended Russia, liberated Europe, but didn’t say a word about himself. He didn’t pose in my workshop either, but performed the duty – ‘there is’, ‘I obey’.”

As we can see, the story of the “Russian Vasily” continues. 32 years after the removal of the statue of the Soviet soldier from the monument on Gellért Hill, the remaining empty space on the pedestal of the central figure is to be filled with a Christian symbol – the sign of the cross.