Marxism's Graveyard

Warren, Scott S., The World and I

As communist governments of the Soviet empire crumbled at the close of the 1980s, the most poignant images reaching the West were of celebrating mobs pulling down and destroying icons of their socialist masters. Statues of Lenin came crashing down. Lesser communist leaders became targets of the populace's discontent. Even the likenesses of workers and other everyday heroes of Marxist ideology found their days numbered.

In Hungary, however, this transition unfolded a bit differently. Yes, the nation was enthusiastic about its newfound freedom. And yes, the statues were removed from their places of prominence. But rather than winding up in the municipal landfill, forty-one of' these monuments to autocratic rule were stashed in Budapest's Szoborpark, or Statue Park.

Szoborpark was inspired by literary historian Laszlo Szorenyi, who mused in a July 1989 magazine article that there should be a "Lenin garden" for all the statues of the Russian revolutionary who was suddenly …

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Publication information: Article title: Marxism's Graveyard. Contributors: Warren, Scott S. - Author. Magazine title: The World and I. Volume: 13. Issue: 10 Publication date: October 1998. Page number: 152+. © 1999 News World Communications, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1998 Gale Group.

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