Stalin Monument (Budapest)
The Stalin Monument was a statue of Joseph Stalin in Budapest, Hungary. Completed in December 1951 as a "gift to Joseph Stalin from the Hungarians on his seventieth birthday", it was torn down on October 23, 1956, by enraged anti-Soviet crowds during Hungary's October Revolution.
The Stalin Monument in 1953
The Stalin Monument in Budapest
The badly-damaged head of the statue sitting on Grand Boulevard.
The remains of the monument after its destruction in 1956.
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 4 November 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country.
The Hungarian flag (1949–1956) with the communist coat of arms cut out was a revolutionary symbol
Stalin's man in Hungary: Mátyás Rákosi addresses an audience in Budapest, 1948.
In the Eastern bloc, Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy (centre) proved too progressive a Communist in his government's pursuit of the Hungarian road to Socialism, taking it too far out of the Soviet Union's orbit. (October 1956).
In Budapest, anti-communists and nationalists place a Hungarian national flag atop a demolished statue of Josef Stalin.