Cultural Heritage Research Journal

                            

What surprised me in the National Museum of Hungary? or

 the various statuses of Lenin’s & Stalin's statues in Hungary and Armenia

My interest in the current condition of communist period statues or their remnants in Hungary and Armenia started from the moment I visited the National Museum of Hungary in 2013. Upon entering the Soviet section of the museum, I was surprised very much when seeing remnants of Lenin’s statue - a hand and an ear displayed among the other objects of the communist period Hungary. It was completely new for me as I had never imagined them being represented in the museum context.

The remnants of Stalin's statue

        National Museum of Hungary,  2013

I found myself getting surprised at how Lenin’s statue can be represented when visited The Statue Park in Budapest this year.  After the end of the Communist regime in Hungary, the monuments of communist leaders (Lenin, Stalin, and others), as well as all the other communist theme monuments were demolished from Budapest and other parts of Hungary. Then, Statue Park was created, and all of them gained a new life in there. They were musicalized or were represented as museum objects. While having a walk in the park my reaction gradually turned from surprise to understanding and analyzing. These cases showed how societies can deal with their past and the material evidence of it such as monuments. Instead of rejecting, destroying and trying to forget, they just removed the symbols of the communist regime from daily life and made them museum objects. In this way, they both acknowledged the past as well as placed it at a distance trying to control its influence on the present.

                                        The Statue Park/Memento Park, 2019

Why I was surprised by seeing socialist period monuments or remnants in the National museum or in the Statue Park? Because I immediately made comparisons with the cases in Armenia and found the different situation there.

After the collapse of the USSR, the statues of communist leaders in Armenia were treated not as a respectful manner as in Hungary. Trying to reject the Soviet past and forget it, the statues were destroyed or put into storage. The most popular statue of Lenin located at the main square of the capital city Yerevan was demolished and taken to the storage within the yard of the National Museum. It is there till now left as if unnecessary objects in storage. Only one statue of Lenin “survived” in one of the remote villages. The statue appeared in the land of a family after land privatization, so the statue got owners who liked it as a work of art and did not destroy it.

                       Lenin’s statue, Arin village, 2015

                      Lenin’s statue, the yard of National Museum of Armenia

                                                 from pinterest.com, 2019

There is a more interesting case in Armenia about dealing with Lenin’s statue. In my hometown called Artik, the pedestal with Lenin’s legs seemed hard to destroy, so while removing the statue, this part remained in its place. As a result, the inhabitants have been living with these remnants until nowadays. The site has become a popular place to ask someone to meet “under Lenin’s legs’ or to ask taxi drivers to come and wait nearby “Lenin’s statue”. I would always see people sitting on the pedestal and having a chat. For young people, it is just a comfortable place to have a sit and sometimes use the pedestal surface for graffiti or love confessions such as Aram + Sima = Love. As for the older generation who experienced Soviet years, this place has many more meanings. For instance, when passing by the pedestal I would hear a group of aged people nostalgically recalling the Soviet years when the statue was “alive” and their lives seemed better. What I can state from these practices around the statue remnant is that it is still part of the daily life of the town, part of people’s meeting points and talks.

          the pedestal and legs of the former Lenin’s statue, 

                      2015, 2019

When comparing how the statues were officially treated in Armenia and Hungary, the following conclusions can be done: in both countries, the statues were demolished. However, in the case of Hungary we can notice a more organized and conceptual approach to the statues. They all were removed from urban and village landscapes and were musicalized. In case of Armenia trying to forget the past they “fought against the monuments” demolishing them, then destroying or hiding. However, it seems they did not do the task of knocking all the statues down successfully as the pedestal with the legs was left in one town and the whole statue in another village. They continue being part of people’s daily lives and memories.