Hungarian Soviet Republic memorial, Szentes

What it is

This is a photograph of a bronze sculpture by László Marton, made in 1969 and placed in Apponyi tér in Szentes, Csongrád County. The sculpture stands on a concrete Y-shaped pedestal in a park. A tall figure raises one fist high and extends the other arm sideways, and a second figure in a cap stands beside him, reaching out with one arm. The photograph was taken in August 2019 by a Wikimedia Commons contributor.

Why it matters

The memorial commemorates the 1919 regime that Béla Kun led, and its later date shows how the Hungarian state of the 1960s chose to remember that period. As a later monument, it reflects the views of its own time rather than of 1919. The sculpture is an interpretation made decades after the events, so it should not be read as direct evidence of what happened.

Look closer

• What do the raised fist and reaching arm suggest about how the figures were meant to be seen?
• Why might a monument from 1969 be built to honour a regime that ended in 1919?
• Whose experience of the 1919 regime might this bronze figure leave out?