Room 20 / The establishment and collapse of the Communist regime (1945–1990)
In the final section of the exhibition a series of interiors recalls the period from 1945 to 1990, until the political transition. This is how period of the early 50s, burdened with personality cult, excessive development of heavy industry, coercive collectivisation and show trials is brought to life. The Kádár regime is traced from the repression following the events of the 1956 revolution through the consolidation of the regime to the first free elections.
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Fun facts:
- The forced labour camp in Recsk, modelled after the Soviet GULAGs, operated between 1950 and 1953. Only one person managed to escape from there and get to the West, where he reported to the press about the existence of the camp, which had until then been kept secret.
- Between August and September 1989, despite the fact that more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers were stationed in Hungary, the government opened up the Austrian border to East German tourists. A piece of barbed wire separating the eastern and western blocks of European countries is on display in our exhibition.
Behind the prison uniform of Miklós Béla Dálnoki, 1944–45 Prime Minister's son the picture of the brutal Recsk labour camp, which was kept secret, takes shape.
The statue of Stalin (by Sándor Mikus) in the City Park was toppled in the evening of 23 October, the first day of the 1956 revolution. The statue was a prominent symbol of the overthrown regime, and was torn apart by popular anger. Our exhibition presents the "omnipotent" hand.
The pince-nez of Imre Nagy, the martyred Prime Minister of the 1956 revolution, which was with him in prison.
1960s
Next to the iconic photo of Imre Nagy's and his fellow martyrs' reburial is the Kádár regime's coat of arms, which was removed from the MSZMP (Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party) headquarters, and street signs crossed out in red on the wall. They all ended up on the waste dump of socialism.
The fountain pen belonged to József Antall, Prime Minister of the first democratic Hungarian government after the political transition (1990) The pen, placed in a wooden box with the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Spain, is black with gold decoration and a gold-iridium barrel, and was given as a gift to József Antall by Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzales in 1991. The cap of the pen also bears the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Spain.
