Historical Figures under the New Regimes: ‘Monumental Propaganda’ in Soviet Russia and in the Soviet Republic of Hungary in 1917–19

Abstract

The article examines the details of ‘Monumental Propaganda’ in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Republic of Hungary in 1917–19. It gives an overview of the Bolshevik leadership activities aimed at the visual concealment of monuments, the removal of which under the new regime was considered undesirable, and at the erection of new monuments to historical personalities particularly appreciated by the Bolshevik leadership. It shows how the Hungarian Communists who lived in Soviet Russia took part in the process of honouring of historical personalities, and describes in detail how, under the Soviet Republic of Hungary, a visual concealment of the old and the erection of new monuments were carried out according to the Bolshevik model in Budapest on 1st May 1919. All this gives us an opportunity to conclude that the ideologists of the new powers sought to legitimize both dictatorships in the eyes of the masses by creating traditions associated with the monuments to historical figures, presenting both regimes as the realizers of the revolutionary en-deavours of outstanding personalities of the past. There are many common features between the ‘Monumental Propaganda’ in Soviet Russia and in Budapest, such as, for example, certain devotion to conventional pre-revolutionary models.

Keywords

• soviet russia
• soviet republic of hungary
• marx
• lenin
• monuments
• invention of tradition
• legitimation
• symbolic occupation of space
• 1st may
• budapest