Communist Statue Park, Hungary

This park is located near Budapest (but barely: it seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere). It consists of all the Communist-era statues and monuments that weren't destroyed after the 1956 Revolution.

And now for a little history...

Hungary was occupied by Germany during WWII. It was "liberated" by the Soviets in 1945, but it wasn't long before corrupt Communist leaders made the situation in Hungary even worse than it had been under the Germans. However, when the Soviets first came to power in Hungary their presence was celebrated.

The next ten years saw drastic reductions of freedom, corrupt leaders at every level, and eventually a completely terrorized populace. 

Revolution broke out in 1956. While it was not successful in overthrowing the regime, it did change a "hard" dictatorship into a "soft" one, with slightly more freedoms. 

Hungary continued in this state until 1989, when Communism finally fell. 

The first free elections in Hungary were held in 1990, and the last Soviet occupying soldier left Hungary in 1991.

The park isn't much to look at, but it's packed with symbolism. (What's missing from the photo is a giant five-pointed star in red flowers in the middle of the park.) For example, the figure eight, as the symbol of infinity, means that the paths lead back into each other without end, but in reality they lead to nowhere.  Also: the red brick wall at the far right represents the dead end of Communism. From here you must turn back and try a different road.

Stalin's boots

This is a replica of a statue of Stalin that stood in Felvonulasi ter, one of Budapest's main squares. On Communist national holidays, ceremonies and parades were held here. Marching crowds were forced to not only salute but celebrate their Communist leaders. People who weren't "enthusiastic" enough could be jailed.

During the 1956 Revolution, a crowd sawed off the statue at the knees and pulled it down.
The boots became a mockery of Stalin.

The Liberating Soviet Soldier, 1947

Monument to Soviet-Hungarian Friendship. There are some indicators that the relationship is not quite equal!

Bela Kun, the main figure in this tableau, turned out to be a really bad dude (responsible for the ethnic cleansing of 60,000 Crimean Turks, for example). 

But the governing Communist party commissioned a statue of him anyway.

The crowd, hovering like ghosts above the ground, symbolize those who were executed during the Communist years of terror.

War Memorial to the Buda Volunteers Regiment, who joined the Soviets in 1945 to help liberate Hungary from Germany.

This is, for Hungarians, the most recognizable symbol of the Hungarian Socialist Republic. It started out as a drawing on posters that went up everywhere in the 1960s. Then it was decided to, in the words of my guide, "put it into space".
By which she meant render it in 3D form, not launch it into the final frontier.

The famous Trabant -- a pretty crappy car, but still a car -- for hundreds of East Germans and people of other Communist countries in the 1950s through '80s.

This is "One Sentence About Tyranny", by the Hungarian poet Gyla Illyes, on the front gates of the park. Here's just a part of it:

...even in dreams
you’re not free
of his eternal company
in the nuptial bed, in your lust
he covers you like dust

because nothing may be caressed
but that which he first blessed,
it is him you cuddle up to
and raise your loving cup to

In your plate, in your glass he flows
in your mouth and through your nose
in frost, fog, out or in
he creeps under your skin

like an open vent through which
you breathe the foul air of the ditch
and it lingers like drains
or a gas leak at the mains

it’s tyranny that dogs
your inner monologues
nothing is your own
once your dreams are known