POTD: Liberty, Sort of

Liberty, Sort of
Budapest, Hungary
2011

This bronze fellow carrying a torch was part of an original grouping of statues at the Liberation Monument on Gellert Hill in Budapest. The monument was constructed in 1947 to celebrate Hungary’s liberation from the Nazis by the Soviets. The Hungarians quickly soured on the Soviets and hence the monument. It was reconfigured in 1989 when the Soviets finally left. The most militant of the statues in the group (e.g. the Soviet soldier with the machine gun) where removed to another park in town where they serve a historical rather than memorial function. The original inscription on the Liberation Monument was changed from “Erected by the grateful Hungarian Nation in memory of the liberating Russian heroes” to “To the memory of all of those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and success of Hungary.”

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