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History winds through Memento Park
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Telecommunications production major Jack Smith created a video of his visit to Memento Park.
More than two decades after the Soviet Union fell, remnants of the empire remain across Europe. In Hungary, Soviet souvenirs take the form of statues around an outdoor museum called Memento Park.
The front of the park is a large brick façade, but as tour guide Akos Batorkeszi-Kiss said, the façade is a representation of the meaning behind the museum.
“And then if you take a look back, then you see the main façade of the museum, which actually looks like a façade of a building, right? But it’s a façade without the building. Just the façade. That’s what communism was. Just a façade, without anything behind.”
Kiss said that for decades, they would hear propaganda about the victory of communism over the evils of capitalism. The entire museum is a symbol of the Communist Party. Stalin’s boots, the last remaining part of his 26-foot-tall statue, cast a shadow over Witness Square, the area before entering the museum.
“The main entrance is always closed,” Kiss said. “And this was our way of life in communism. You couldn’t get in by the main door because it was either corrupted or difficult.”
On this closed door is a poem called “A Sentence on Tyranny.” It is technically one sentence, but the words cover the entire front door of the entrance. The poem details how every aspect of a person’s life was surrounded by tyranny.
“Every single voice you hear and also in the light and also in your heartbeats, you feel the tyranny,” Kiss translated.
The museum itself is controversial. Some wanted to destroy the statues. Others wanted to leave them where they stood. The city finally agreed to build the park, but it is still unfinished.
“It’s all about financials. They ran out of money, so this is always the case, by the way,” Kiss said. “Always running out of money, and, I don’t know, maybe it stays like this. It remains like this, but there are plans to complete.”
The path of the museum is symbolic as well.
“Two interpretations: according to the Communist Party, this was the only way,” Kiss explained. “According to the opposition, this was a dead end.”
Three figure eights lead people through the path of the statues, which is “a symbol of infinity,” according to the tour guide, “but also a symbol of a never-ending process.”
The first path has statues that represent Hungary’s liberation from capitalism. The second figure eight has statues of the Worker Party’s heroes. The third path has statues that represent the ideas of communism.
For people like Kiss, the park is not just a museum, but a reminder of what life was like under communist rule. He describes the lyrics of a children’s liberation song that plays near the entrance of the museum exalting the Communist Party.
“’We have been liberated thanks to the Soviet heroes,’” Kiss translated. “’We are so thankful.’”
These are songs and words that are engrained into Kiss’ memory. As a child, he was a pioneer, which meant he was taught to be a faithful communist student. He learned the most important principles of the party and was given a red scarf to wear with his black pants as his pioneer uniform.
“Nobody enjoyed, but there was no way out,” Kiss said, laughing with an undertone of bitterness.
Memento Park may have statues from communist heroes, but the true meaning behind the park is to serve as a memorial to those who died fighting for the country’s freedom and as a tribute to democracy.
Story by Lisa Ryan
