Tragically Explosive – Szilvestre Matuschka: A Fetish For Disaster (Part Three)

Twenty minutes after midnight on September 13, 1931 Szilvestre Matuschka stood in the cool autumn air close to the Biatorbagy viaduct just outside of Budapest. His nerves were on edge as he waited in worried anticipation to see if his bomb would detonate just as the Budapest-Vienna Express made its way across the viaduct. Matuschka was primed and ready for the potential calamity, an unnatural disaster that could wreak havoc on hundreds of innocent lives. This was the only thing that could bring him back to that state of demented euphoria he had felt just a couple of weeks earlier. That was when Matschuka had done the same thing, standing close to another viaduct west of Berlin in nervous anticipation of an explosion. Now standing in central Hungary, Matuschka could barely contain his emotions as the Express came into view. At that moment, he was the very definition of a madman, so nervous as to be almost at the point of collapse. A deeply disturbed man could no longer control his psychotic impulses.

Rails on top of Viaduct Memorial – Recalling the Biatorbagy tragedy (Credit: fabiolah)

Terrible To Contemplate – The End Of A Line
As the Express began to pass over the viaduct, Matuschka’s bomb detonated between the second and third cars, ripping them apart. Several of the cars went crashing down into the ravine. Several were engulfed in flames. A scene of violent chaos unfolded below the viaduct. While almost anyone would have been horrified at this scene, Szilvestre Matuschka was not one of them. He had reached a point of emotional euphoria, and as investigators would later state, perhaps even deviant gratification. The worst nightmares of everyone aboard that train, were the fantasies dreams of Matuschka. If anyone ever wondered just how insane Matschuka had become, they only needed to consider what he did next. Rather than flee from the scene of hell on earth he had just created, Matuschka could not resist the urge to go help rescuers try to save the lives of those he had just tried to destroy. His act of crazed mania would turn out to be a massive misjudgment.

There were people screaming, burning, dying. Then there was Szilvestre Matuschka reputedly laughing and crying.  Matuschka made his way down into the fiery cauldron to witness his demonic work up close and personal. 24 people would die, while another 14 were severely injured and over a hundred required medical treatment. It was a miracle that anyone survived at all. The locomotive and five cars that crashed into the ravine had fallen 25 meters (75 feet). In the immediate aftermath, it was a scene too terrible to contemplate. Passengers, who minutes earlier had been napping, reading or settling in for a midnight train ride to Vienna, were now suffering through unimaginable torment. Intently watching this horror was Matuschka. He would claim to the authorities to have been a passenger onboard the train. To add insult to incendiaries, “passenger” Matsuchka made a claim for compensation due to losses he incurred because of the crash. This brought him to the attention of those investigating the explosion. Matuschka had overplayed his hand.

A Nightmare Scenario – Biatorbagy after the blast (Credit: fortepan.hu)

A Life Derailed – Off The Tracks
It was not long before investigators closed in on Matuschka. Their investigation revealed that not only had Matsuchka blown up the Biatorbagy Viaduct, but that he was also responsible for the two failed derailment attempts in Austria, as well as the bombing west of Berlin. He was apprehended in Austria and first put on trial for his two failed attempts there. A sensational trial followed that garnered a great deal of media attention throughout Europe and North America. Correspondents from London and New York provided eyewitness accounts of Matuschka’s increasingly bizarre behavior. The upstanding businessman who had seemed relatively normal up to this point in his life became something altogether different before a courtroom audience. Matuschka began to reveal elements of himself that he had hidden for years. He talked about his possession by a carnival hypnotist years before and how it led to a demonic character named Leo the Ghost controlling him. At times he would begin weeping uncontrollably or start shouting at no one in particular. Other times, he got down on his hands and knees. Some commentators compared his behavior to that of an ape.

Matuschka claimed, among other things, that spirits caused his actions. Depending on the day, these ranged from God to his old nemesis Leo the Ghost. He also made the spurious claim that he was a radical socialist revolutionary who was providing an example that would somehow lead to worldwide liberation for the masses. This was patently ridiculous, since Matuschka had been a businessman most of his life. He tried comparing himself to Leon Trotsky, likely an attempt to gain credibility. His stories were as changeable as his emotions, everyday brought more strange revelations. Matuschka even offered up the suggestion that he had been infuriated into violent action because no one would take his invention to improve train signals seriously. It goes without saying that Matuschka’s defense was doomed by his own words and actions.

In Perspective – The Biatorbagy viaduct today (Credit: battabikee)

Missing In Action – A Prison Break
It was not a surprise to anyone when the Austrian court found Matuschka guilty and ordered him to serve six years in prison. In Hungary, Matuschka was sentenced to death for the viaduct explosion. After serving time in Austria, Matsuchka was transferred to Hungary when his death sentence was commuted to life in prison. It was imperative that Matuschka stay imprisoned. He had claimed during the trial that however long his sentence might be, he planned on blowing up more trains as soon as he was free. He would be confined to a prison at Vac (40 kilometers north of Budapest) until the waning days of World War II. Matuschka most likely wrecked trains to fulfill his disaster fetish.

It is interesting to note that several sources state that Matuschka was sprung from prison by the Germans at the end of 1944, providing knowledge and services on how to rig explosions. Matuschka was back to blasting away in another World War. A strange code to a very strange life. The First World War may have provided Matuschka with the initial impetus to follow his nightmarish fantasies. The second one, likely provided him a last horrific hurrah. Matuschka went missing at the end of the war and no one is certain what happened to him. It is safe to assume that whatever did happen, the details were much like his life, tragically explosive.

Unnatural Disasters – Szilveszter Matuschka: On The Brink of Insanity (Part Two)

Often the most fascinating and terrifying people are those that we would never suspect of committing violent crimes. Those rare individuals who outwardly portray normalcy, who are upstanding citizens in their community, who always conduct themselves in a professional manner, who focus on their family or faith and who keep their deepest, darkest secrets submerged until suddenly they unleash the demons that have driven them to the point of insanity. Szilveszter Matuschka was that kind of person. He was a good man with a fine family. To those around him, he seemed to be entirely dedicated to his wife and daughter along with his many business endeavors. A decorated war veteran, Matuschka was a smart, clever man. He could speak Hungarian, Serbian and German fluently. His mind tended towards the scientific. Unfortunately, he would eventually turn his intellect to evil designs.

Family Man – Szilvester Matuschka with his wife and daughter

Changing Trajectories – A Fine Man With Flaws
By the late 1920’s Matuschka was working on patenting several different inventions. He had an entrepreneurial spirit and a knack for business, but there were also hints that Matschuka may have had a less than savory character, such as accusations concerning arson on a home that he managed through one of his companies. A lawsuit inferred that he had set the house on fire to get insurance money. It was never proven though. There were also problems at home, but these were beyond Matuschka’s control. His wife suffered from pulmonary problems. Searching to find a cure for her had cost the family dearly. Speaking of costs, there was also the cost of several failed businesses. Life was not easy for Szilveszter Matuschka, but this was not out of the ordinary for Hungarians or Austrians or Serbians between the World Wars.

Most of those living in East-Central Europe during this time had grown used to hardship. Whether it was Subotica, Budapest or Vienna, those places Matuschka had called home most often up to this point in his life, each one of them had been changed irreparably by the Great War. The war had also changed the trajectory of Matuschka’s life. It had brought him into close contact with high powered munitions and advanced weaponry. The kind that could inflict human carnage on an unprecedented scale. What impression these had made on Matuschka we have no way of knowing, but because of the crimes he would later commit, it has led to rampant speculation. A deadly secret lurked inside Szilveszter Matuschka, until one day it exploded outward. He had been waiting for just such a moment several months before his fantasy became reality.

The Biatorbagy Viaduct in 1931 (Credit: fortepan.hu)

An Ominous Obsession – Imagining The Unimaginable
During the Christmas holiday of 1930, Matuschka returned home to the town of his childhood, Csantvar, which was now located in Yugoslavia. He brought his family with him, but on Christmas Eve he left them to spend some time by himself walking along the railway tracks that ran through the town. The idea of train wrecks now possessed him. He found this demonic idea so enthralling that he would soon no longer be able to hide his urge to cause one. Other clues to his sinister obsession would later become apparent. There was the time he gave his young daughter a toy train for Christmas. An odd gift for someone to give their daughter during that era. There was his invention of a signaling system to alert trains when an obstacle was blocking the tracks.

In retrospect, Matschuka’s associations with trains or train related items seems deeply disturbing. At the time, no one suspected what he might be planning. He was a man quietly compelling himself towards an unimaginable crime. Matuschka could not control his personal demons any longer. They manifested themselves in what is known as a disaster fetish. In other words, Matuschka longed to cause a major disaster that would provide him emotional and sexual gratification. In his case, the disaster would involve his fascination with trains. Matuschka decided to target a train for derailment that was traveling along a line near the village of Aschbach, Austria on New Year’s Eve. He tampered with the track, loosening bolts on a section of rail so it was no longer secure.

Matschuka then waited in a suspended state of angst. Caught somewhere between hope, nervousness and euphoria. His planned disaster turned out to be nothing of the sort. The train passed over the rails without a problem. Matuschka went home disappointed and deeply depressed. The only evidence he left behind was a three word note that said, “Assault! Revolution! Victory! This was a paltry attempt by Matsuchka to fool the authorities into believing that his sabotage was the work of radical revolutionaries.  It turned out to be a non-event as the note baffled Austrian authorities and Matuschka decided to try again elsewhere.

Trial by fire – Szilvester Matuschka in court

Murderous Intent – Points of Attack
A month later, during the dead of winter, Matuschka made his second attempt to derail a train when he affixed an iron bar across the rails. The obstruction was spotted by a keen-eyed train engineer who braked just in time to prevent an accident. This second failure made Matuschka realize that he was going to need something much more powerful to derail a train. It did not take long for him to devise a clever ruse to procure the necessary equipment to carry out his diabolical plan. Matuschka, the erstwhile businessman, arranged to purchase a disused quarry. This front allowed him to acquire explosives, not for mining minerals, but to wreck trains. Matuschka had realized that causing a disaster took more than spur of the moment, deviant spontaneity, it called for a great deal of planning and forethought. This included procuring explosives and selecting a target to terrorize.

By the summer of 1931, Matuschka’s preparation and planning for his next attack were complete. It would occur in Germany, just 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Berlin. A bomb Matuschka planted exploded beneath a train near the town of Juterborg just as it was crossing a viaduct. The engine, dining car and seven passenger cars tumbled into a ravine. Incredibly, not a single person was killed though over a hundred were injured. Matuschka was able to escape from the area without anyone noticing him. The success spurred him on to attempt yet another attack. He looked towards the east for his next target. He found one on a line he had traveled many times before. The Vienna-Budapest express crossed the Biatorbagy viaduct just west of the Hungarian capital. This was where Matuschka looked to reenact his most recent success with murderous intent.

Click here for: Tragically Explosive – Szilvestre Matuschka: A Fetish For Disaster (Part Three)

A Train Wreck Of A Man – Sinister Speculations: Szilvestre Matuschka (Part One)

The aftermath of World War I brought many things to Hungary and most of them were not good. Economic depression, governmental dissolution, communism, fascism, revolution and counter-revolution were among the more notable ills that the war brought home to Hungarians. The legacy of the war was felt most acutely in the postwar Treaty of Trianon where the Kingdom of Hungary lost two-thirds of its population and territory. Tens of thousands of ethnic Hungarian refugees fleeing the partitioned lands arrived in Budapest, many of whom spent months or even years living in railroad boxcars. There were other more hidden maladies that the war brought which would take many years to manifest themselves. Soldiers who had managed to survive the maelstrom of conflict, now tried to somehow readjust to civilian society while suffering from what is today known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Many Hungarian combat veterans had been witness to unspeakable events. Others had experienced the effects of industrialized weaponry and saw the mass violence it caused for the first time in their lives. Fortunately, most were able to compartmentalize their battlefield experiences. There were a few eerie outliers from those who learned some very bad lessons during the war. Lessons they applied many years later to create mayhem. No one can say exactly how much the war affected such men, but it must have served to further destabilize their fragile psyches. For one man, the experience would have profound implications that are as good an explanation as any for the mass murder he committed in Hungary on one horrific night on the outskirts of Budapest during the autumn of 1931.

Szilveszter Matuska

A Mad Spirit – Hypnotically Haunting
The other day I asked my Hungarian wife if she had ever heard of Szilvestre Matuschka. She replied in a matter of fact manner, “Of course.” When I mentioned that he was a famously bizarre serial killer, she looked at me a bit puzzled. A man who blows up a viaduct in order to cause a train wreck is not the usual definition of a serial killer. When my wife reminded me that the Police Museum in Budapest had exhibit materials about Matuschka I was a bit surprised. I remembered many things from our visit to the museum a couple of years ago, but Matuschka was not one of them. Today Matuschka would be labelled a mass murderer, a terrorist or a mentally deranged deviant and serial killer. He was also many other things, a successful businessman, mechanical engineer, an Austro-Hungarian officer, a loving husband and devoted father. He lived a normal, upwardly mobile life until one day he succumbed to the silent demons that had insidiously stalked him for years. It was then that Matuschka became something unimaginable to everyone but himself.

Szilvestre Matuschka was born in Csantaver (present day Cantavir), a town now located in northern Serbia, but at the time of his birth part of the Hungarian Kingdom. Matschuka’s father died while he was a child, but his mother soon remarried. His upbringing seems to have been relatively normal. Matuschka’s stepfather insisted that he take up the same trade as his birth father, manufacturing slippers, but the teenager wanted to join the priesthood. He would eventually focus on becoming a teacher. It was also during his teenage years that Matuschka had an experience that he later said haunted him throughout his life. Supposedly, at the age of fourteen he underwent hypnosis at a carnival. During the session, a demonic spirit by the name of “Leo” was inserted into his mind. The spirit could make him do unimaginable things. Matsuchka also claimed that this was when he started becoming obsessed with train wrecks. Of course, no one learned any of this until after he committed mass murder thirty years later.

The Golden Age – Szabadka (Subotica) in 1914 before World War I

A Change In Plans– From Battlefront to Homefront
Nine months before the First World War broke out, Matuschka joined the Hungarian military, enlisting in a regiment formed in the nearby city of Szabadka (Subotica, Serbia). This gave him a head start on a military career. The training and education would come in useful after war broke out. Matuschka, like tens of thousands of other Hungarian soldiers, was wounded in combat in the early months of fighting. This proved strangely advantageous as he soon found himself teaching at an officer’s school. He was also trained to lead a machine gun squadron in battle on the Eastern Front. Though Matuschka avoided getting wounded again, the question arises of how combat might have affected his mental stability.

World War I was the first time that Matuschka saw firsthand the effects of industrialized weaponry. He would have witnessed up close and personal its use on the battlefield. Whether this fascinated Matuschka, we have no way of knowing, but the effects must have been considerable. He would have gained valuable knowledge of how munitions and explosive devices were utilized. By war’s end, Matuschka was a decorated veteran, gaining two medals for his exploits at the front. As with so many, the First World War was a formative experience in Matuschka’s life. Unlike his fellow soldiers, he go on to commit acts of mass murder during peacetime.

One of the more interesting aspects of Matuschka’s life is how he seemingly slipped back into civil society without any discernable problems. While many soldiers suffered from debilitating mental and physical issues, Matuschka set about building himself a career. First, he returned to his old job of teaching, then transitioned into agriculture and commercial services by selling goods imported from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1922, business interests brought Matuschka and his wife to Budapest with their newborn daughter Gabriella. During this time, Matuschka was involved in a range of enterprises, everything from running a spice shop to managing housing units to the natural resource trade. Then only four years after moving to Budapest, he uprooted his family once again when he started speculating in Viennese property.

Proving ground – Austro-Hungarian soldiers at the battlefront during World War I (Credit: National Museum of the U.S. Navy)

Wild Fantasies – Waking Up To A Nightmare
The fact that Matuschka moved so often in his postwar life – at least five times in the first six years of the 1920’s – raises questions on whether he had reason to be on the run so much. Perhaps he was trying to run away from the demons that plagued him, perhaps not. One thing is for certain, Matuschka could not run escape from his mental problems. Soon they would overwhelm him to the point that he felt compelled to act out his wildest fantasies. For society, Matuschka’s fantasies turned out to be a terrible nightmare.

Click here for: Unnatural Disasters – Szilveszter Matuschka: On The Brink of Insanity (Part Two)

Visions Of Beauty & Fury – Csontvary: The Lonely Cedar (Part Two)

There are endless ways to look at Csontvary’s paintings and just as many ways to interpret his work. Ironically, the perspectives on his life are much more limited. His life can be viewed as a tragic journey from a successful, but rather run of the mill professional life to artistic greatness that sadly ended in squalor. During his final years he was plagued by schizophrenia. He would end up dying penniless, alone and anonymous. It would be four decades before his work was rediscovered. An alternative perspective recognizes that because of, rather than despite, mental illness, Csontvary (Mihaly Tivadar Kosztka) was blessed with an almost supernatural self-belief that led him to attain artistic excellence on innumerable occasions over the last twenty-five years of his life. During the periods when he was painting, Csontvary achieved a level of artistic nirvana that very few artists have ever experienced. It was then that Csontvary lived in a world only he could create, one where imagination overwhelmed reality. To attain such a level of creativity, Csontvary had to sacrifice everything to his painting, even if that eventually included his own mental health.

Self-Portrait – Csontvary circa 1893

The Power Of Place –A Style Forged In Solitude
Csontvary’s obsessive search for perfection in subject, location and light pushed him to travel further and further south, first in Europe and then to the Middle East. His art was infused with the power of place. His paintings took him through Italy, along the Adriatic, into the Balkans, to Greece and onward to the Holy Land among other exotic locales. Pompei, Mount Etna as seen from the ruins in Taormina, the Roman Bridge in Mostar, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the cedar trees of Lebanon were among the subjects of his paintings. Csontvary believed he was destined to be one of the greatest artists of all-time, he selected places and settings that could match that greatness. There was nothing mediocre or matter of fact about his pursuit of perfection. It was intense, focused and razor-sharp. Here was a man with a personal sense of mission, driving himself with utter disregard for everything but attainment of his own personal artistic goals.

The greatest artists – whether painters, writers or musicians – all have developed their own unique styles. These are so distinct that it is impossible to separate the artist from the style. Csontvary enjoys this advantage to a greater degree than most artists. There are several reasons for this. The first is that he spent most of his time in solitude. Perhaps that was how he had to work, without the distraction of others. Artists are known to be cut from a very different cloth than most people, but Csontvary was a very peculiar human being even by those standards. He was never married and did not enjoy close relations with other painters. The lack of close colleagues may have helped keep potential distractions at arm’s length. The absence of formal art education meant he learned and perfected his style independently of contemporary art world trends. He had little regard for such trends, unlike other artists who were well connected to patrons and the art market.

Springtime in Mostar – Csontvary

A Stimulus For Creativity – The Delusion Of Grandeur
Csontvary’s schizophrenia also distanced him from society. It is doubtful if anyone could have endured a long-term friendship with him very long due to the oddities of his personality. Besides suffering from mental illness, he abstained from smoking, meat and alcohol long before it was socially acceptable in Europe. His demanding travel schedule would have put off others who had less stamina. It took an astonishing amount of energy for Csontvary to travel and work with such intense dedication. Some of his most important paintings were done in areas that were not easy on travelers. These included the exotic locales of Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. It was an exhausting way to work, but also seems to have acted as a stimulus for his creativity. At the same time, it took a heavy toll on his mental stability. With his goal to be one of the greatest painters of all time and the fact that he did not begin this pursuit in earnest until middle age, Csontvary was forced to become an obsessive in his focus and a loner. At the same time, these traits allowed him to develop a style all his own that led to the creation of exceptional works of art, the likes of which have not been seen before or since.

While the solitude in which Csontvary toiled was understandable, it was a drawback to gaining him the recognition he so badly craved. To make up for this lack of notoriety, Csontvary took to self-promotion with the same kind of zeal that characterized his sketches and paintings. This led him to pen autobiographical and philosophical works where he dramatically set forth his story. He cast himself as a genius. To give but one example, he once wrote, “Going to Paris in 1907 I oppositely stood alone in front of millions with only the result of the divine providence, and I beat the vanity of the world hollow, but I haven’t killed 10 million people, only sobered them.”

Such delusions of grandeur became greater as the years passed, a sign that his schizophrenia was getting worse. While Csontvary gained a bit of fame in western Europe, he was either unknown or viewed as a hopeless eccentric in his homeland. He found the lack of recognition in Hungary debilitating. In the last few years of his life he stopped painting, only completing sketches. His erratic behavior isolated him from society, his pursuit of perfection through painting led to depression and downfall. He spent the final years of his life in Budapest impoverished and anonymous. When Csontvary died in 1919 he had been all but forgotten.

The Lonely Cedar – Csontvary

Illuminated By A Radiant Light – Reflections Of An Artist
Csontvary’s rediscovery came many decades after his death. The recognition that had eluded him in life was finally forthcoming. Beginning in the late 1950’s, interest in his work began to grow to the point where he is acknowledged today as one of Hungary’s greatest painters. While such posthumous accolades are well deserved, they do nothing to alleviate the sadness and tragedy that stalked the final years of his life. This gives rise to the question: Was Csontvary’s quest to be one of the greatest artists of all time worth it? After all, the price of his pursuit likely cost him his sanity. To answer such a question may seem impossible, but a closer look at one of Csontvary’s most famous paintings, The Lonely Cedar, offers a resounding response.

The Lonely Cedar stands weathered and austere, it has managed to survive despite the harshness of the climate. Its skinny trunk and even skinnier branches are tough yet fragile. There is a wildness to the scene, the viewer can almost feel the hot blasts of wind that have buffeted the cedar since the very beginning of its precarious existence. The sky that can be seen through the clouds mimics the aqua colored sea. Both sky and hillsides are illuminated by a radiant light. Amid this beauty and fury, the cedar stands. The scene is transcendent, eternal and timeless, a reflection of the artist. The masterful brushstrokes of a singular genius, the ultimate in autobiographical art.

The Ghostly Terminal – Refusing To Die: Istvantelek (Part Five)

Time stood still while Attila and I roamed around the main workshop of Istvantelek. We were vaguely aware that lingering was not a good idea, but the site was so spectacular that we could hardly contain ourselves. We climbed in and out of one train car after another. We spent minutes inside some of them, amazed as to how much was still intact. We saw toilets that had not been used in years, workers quarters, showers and even beds. Some of these cars looked as though they were ready for a long awaited renewal. Many were the property of the adjacent railway museum, but they would likely continue to deteriorate. We were fortunate to have a look at them before they fell into a state of ruin. At some point in the not too distant future, there would be more glass panels missing on the roof than ones remaining. Perhaps a final decision would then be made on what to do with the workshop and all the locomotives and railroad cars left inside. I am not optimistic about Istvantalek’s future preservation due to benign neglect.

Hell On Wheels – The MAV 301 Series Locomotive

Absurd Attractions – From This World Into The Next One
Before deciding to quietly make our way out of the main workshop, we stopped at one more set piece, a hulking MAV 301 Series locomotive that was impossible to miss. I counted no less than five wheels on each side. This was a locomotive built for brute strength. When I later researched the MAV 301, it was not surprising to learn that it was used to pull trains over the mountains of Transylvania. The massive relic at Istvantelek was one of only two of its kind left in the world. The MAV 301 pulled massive loads with its 1350 horsepower steam engine, fueled by up to 8 tons of coal or wood. Constructed at the Royal Hungarian Iron, Steel and Machine Iron Works it was in service for over fifty years. The size, craftsmanship and sheer power of the locomotive was awe inspiring. The MAV 301 was more than a work of industrial art, it was the will to power on steel rails. Even now, long since decommissioned and resigned to this ghostly terminal, the MAV 301 still communicated some of its awesome strength.

Soon Attila and I decided to leave the train workshop. We walked outside into the late afternoon sunshine which burned with feverish immensity in a bottomless blue sky. Sunset was not far off and the slanting light made the rust around Istvantelek begin to glow. What remained of the glass on the workshop windows turned to molten fire and the tall yellow grass blazed gold in the sunlight. There was a furious beauty to be found here, the emotive intensity of a place refusing to die. The light had sharpened everything it touched, including an immaculately restored water tower that rose above the site, its lower brickwork and octagonal pinnacle honed to perfection. The tower looked as though it had been built yesterday. That was true to a certain extent since it was recently restored. It acted as a brilliant counterpoint to the rest of Istvantelek. The tower’s magnificent symmetry acted as an absurdly attractive opposite to the ruined kingdom of railroading a stone’s throw from it. As we were leaving, the site stood before us in a spectacle of decrepit sensuality. This was what I had come searching for, not facts or photos, but a feeling. I would carry this world with me into the next one.

A Window To The Past – On The Inside Looking Out at Istvantelek

Exit Strategy – What Really Matters
We finally headed back towards the main gate after spending an hour and a half on the grounds. Time had hardly mattered to us while we were on the inside. There are attractions in this world so magnetically seductive that they cause time to collapse, Istvantelek was one of them. The idea of seconds, minutes and hours had meant nothing. The world outside the walls of Istvantelek did not exist during our visit. The only thing that could bring us back to everyday reality approached the car as we pulled up to the main gate. The gentleman who had allowed us inside came out of his guardhouse as we approached. As the gate raised up to let us pass, he came out to say a few words to Attila. I could not understand anything that was being said. The man’s voice was low, but serious. He talked for some time, allowing Attila only a few words. I could not decide whether he was irritated, angry or just wanted to talk.

After a couple of minutes, Attila thanked him one last time and we went on our way. I then asked, “What did he have to say?” “He said that someone who worked there had seen us walking around. They told him that he should not have allowed us to go inside. Now he is worried that they will report him and say that he accepts money from people who want to visit. This could get him into trouble.” Attila said this with complete dispassion. His nonchalance mirrored that of the man at the gate who in my mind had put on an exceptional performance. He had made his point without ever raising his voice. I would not have been able to stay that calm if a couple of total strangers had gotten me in trouble.  A little later I learned what had really upset the man was how long we stayed inside. He had said, “I give you a finger and you take my whole arm.” I could not argue with that logic because it was true. I felt a twinge of guilt until Attila said, “Well we got to see it. That’s what matters.” My guilt suddenly melted away.

Restoration & Preservation – Water Tower at Istvantelek

Passion & Intrigue – Deeper Meanings
Visiting Istvantelek was about passion and intrigue rather than rules and regulations. We did not go inside to break past a forbidden barrier. We went inside to get up close and personal with history. Istvantelek was more than just abandoned locomotives and derelict train cars. It was about the rise and fall of industry, about World Wars and the Holocaust, about harnessing steam power to defeat time and distance, about bringing the power of a forgotten past back to life. Most of all, it was about two middle aged men searching to find the power of the past in an abandoned wreck of a train yard and within themselves.

A Question Without An Answer – The Holocaust In Hungary: Istvantelek Train Yard (Part Four)

It is not sufficiently well known that the greatest number of Jews murdered at Auschwitz came from Hungary. In one of the most lethal actions in European history, 475,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz, approximately 75% of whom were immediately killed. When we think of Auschwitz, gas chambers and crematoria usually come to mind. Yet many historic photos taken while the camp was in operation show something else, hundreds of Jews standing on the platforms at Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the background can be seen the train cars that helped deliver hundreds of thousands of innocent victims into the hands of the Final Solution.

To make the Holocaust at Auschwitz possible, it took much more than Nazi malevolence and industrialized forms of killing, it also took locomotives, wooden railroad cars and cold steel rails to deliver Jews from Hungary and other parts of Eastern and Central Europe to the camp. And if there was one experience each of the Hungarian victims at Auschwitz had in common, it was being packed into a railroad car and transported to their deaths. In the main workshop at Istvantelek Train Yard in Budapest, I stumbled upon some of the same cars that might have transported Hungarian Jews on their final journey. It was a sobering reminder that dark secrets can lurk in even the most fascinating places in Hungary. Shedding some light on that darkness is difficult, but not impossible.

Deutsche Reichsban – The Logistics Of Genocide

Final Boarding Calls – Journey To A Nightmare
Before going to Istvantelek Train Yard I had read that several abandoned wooden railroad cars still sitting there may have been used to transport Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. My brother in law Attila had read on a Hungarian language website that these cars had actually been used in a movie as replicas to show Jews being deported to that infamous death camp. We had no way of really verifying these claims, but either way I made a mental note to look out for these while we were on the grounds. The biggest giveaway for me was the wooden train car painted red with white lettering that said “Deutsche Reichsbahn”. This sure looked like something that might have been used by the powers that be to carry out their insidious plans. It certainly caught my attention, leaving me staring at it for quite some time. Photographic comparisons I would make after my visit would confirm my suspicions that this train car was similar to those used during deportations.

Mass genocide on the scale of the Holocaust would not have been possible without railroads. It made the logistics of mass murder possible on an unprecedented scale. Whereas the Nazis at first had attempted to carry out their plans in Eastern Europe by having Jews rounded up and murdered by death squads, this proved highly inefficient, not to mention the fact that most soldiers began to buckle under the psychological weight of committing innumerable atrocities. Commandeering the railways and getting assistance from the occupied nation’s railroad authorities were crucial to Nazi plans for carrying out the Final Solution. By the time Hungary was invaded and occupied by German forces in the spring of 1944, the techniques to carry out mass murder had been refined to lethal precision. Trains and cars like the one that stood before me at Istvantelek were essential to this plan. The standard car used for the deportations were 10 meters in length. On the bottom right hand side of the car at Istvantelek, the numbers 10 58 m were painted in white.

The Final Journey – Hungarian Jews just after arrival at Auschwitz Birkenau

Numbers Game – The Logistics Of Genocide
According to the Nazi SS manual which provided the rules and regulations governing these cars, 50 people were supposed to be packed inside a car. Each standard train would have 50 of these cars. Thus, 50 cars with 50 people meant 2,500 Jews transported to Auschwitz at a time. This carrying capacity would often be exceeded as much as twofold with deadly consequences. People would be packed inside with little water, food or light on a train that was just the beginning (and in some cases the end) of a terrifying experience. Adding to their humiliation, the Jews were forced to pay for their own tickets. The proceeds from the sales of what was little more than a death warrant went back to the Deutsche Reichsban. All of this was carried out with breathtaking efficiency.

During the Holocaust in Hungary, on average of two of these trains left each day. This was how hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were taken to meet their doom in southern Poland. The first train left for Auschwitz on April 29, 1944, the last one a little over two months later on July 8^th. There was a good chance that the train car I was looking at had played a role in the deportations. There were other similar cars both inside and outside the main workshop. The paint left on the wooden exterior of these had chipped, cracked or faded to a sea foam green. Seeing these cars made me recall the article I had read that mentioned these might have been used in deportations.  None of these cited a source, but sometimes standing so close to the real thing offers a sixth sense of understanding that trumps anything found in a history book. Whatever the case, these cars did not look so quaint or rustic after I realized what might be lurking in their past. Instead, they looked as menacing as everything else associated with the Holocaust.

Sinister Indifference – Abandoned railway car at Istvantelek

Coming To Terms – A Sinister Indifference
The question might be asked: What is so special about finding an old railroad car that might have been used in the Holocaust? After all, many of the same ones can be found at museums throughout Europe. While that is certainly true, there is something both shocking and sinister when you find such an artifact abandoned and forgotten amid an old industrial site. It is like going into the attic and discovering a terrible family secret that has suffered from years of neglect and casual amnesia. The indifference with which the railroad car had been treated spoke volumes about trying to come to terms with the Holocaust. The fact remains that we never can and probably never will.

Click here for: The Ghostly Terminal – Refusing To Die: Istvantelek (Part Five)

 

 

A One Way Ticket To Oblivion – Abandonment: Istvantelek Train Yard (Part Three)

“See that glass”, Attila said as he pointed at the ruined roof of Istvantelek Train Yard’s main workshop, “that could slice your head right off.” We were standing outside the workshop looking at the ruined roof. As many of the glass panels were missing as those that remained. The panels had been battered and broken after years of neglect, falling and shattering without anyone there to notice. The roof was a rather ominous warning of the dangers that lay inside the main workshop. I now realized why visitors were hardly ever allowed inside Istvantelek. Even when the rare guided tour was given, the workshop was off limits.

Of course, passion, mystery and intrigue were working in our minds to defeat the inherent dangers of entering an industrial site strewn with a minefield’s worth of hazards. Both Attila and I peered in through an open window to see what ruined treasures stood inside. That was when I noticed a scene that had first caught my eye on the internet. Inside were graffiti covered carriages, too many to count. This was a train enthusiast’s heaven, an urban explorer’s dream. It made my heart skip a beat. I felt the kind of longing usually reserved for a long lost, unrequited love. I wanted to get inside, but how. That was when Attila said, “let’s go in and have a look.”

On the Outside Looking In – Workshop at Istvantelek

Positively Apocalyptic – A Veil of Grime & Dust
Getting into the main workshop was much easier than getting into the site. There was no guard or anything else to bar entry, only an opening where a door used to be. This opening was slightly obscured by an encroachment of ivy. Such greenery was a strange counterpoint to the rust, ruin and broken glass closing in around it. Upon entering through the open doorway, we were immediately confronted with another world. The scene before us was positively apocalyptic. Everything was in a state of semi-ruin. Locomotives and passenger cars were lined up in a procession that had gone nowhere for decades, a motley assemblage of industrial detritus was scattered about. It was as though we had walked on the set of a zombie film. Any minute I expected to have some otherworldly creature lunging for me. I have never been stalked before, but I cannot imagine a worse place for that to happen.

The entire place looked as though it had been shot to pieces. Shafts of light penetrated through the many openings in the roof.  The railway cars colors looked incredibly vivid, especially those covered with graffiti. There was beauty to be found amid the ugly reality of these cast-offs. The rust and graffiti were powerful artistic counterpoints to one another. One the work of time and neglect, the other created by the mind and hand of man. Everything was cloaked in a veil of grime and dust. And throughout the workshop all that could be heard was an empty silence. The main workshop was the end of the line, the end of an age, the end of history for over one hundred locomotives and railway cars. We were at a station inhabited by ghosts with a one-way ticket to oblivion.

Hazards of the Job – Inside the Main Workshop at Istvantelek

Magnificently Creepy – An Irresistible Invitation
Inside the main workshop we walked down one row after another, between passenger cars that managed to all look different and somehow the same. From time to time, the most eye-catching relics would cause us to pause and ponder how they had arrived at this place. Doors were flung open, offering an ominously irresistible invitation to step inside. And that is just what we did. One carriage was of especial interest after Attila informed me that it was used to deliver the mail. Upon entering we found the mail slots empty except for an inch or two of dust. It had been a post office riding the rails that delivered to small, remote villages. This mail car did not deliver to other postal facilities. Instead, it delivered straight from the car.

The excitement that once accorded the mail car upon its arrival must have been dramatic. This was the traveling messenger of the early 20^th century delivering happiness and sorrow in unequal quantities across the Great Hungarian Plain and the hills, mountains and valleys of northern Hungary. To get a letter from this car must have been an event in of itself, rivaled only by the postal car’s appearance. It was an essential connection between Hungarian villages and the larger world. The stories this postal car could tell would have been unbelievable, but just as it was always on the move from one village to the next, so was time and progress, creating a distance from the past that could never quite be recovered.

Mail Call – Inside an old mail car at Istvantelek

There was also a multitude of empty passenger cars, many of which I recognized from my own travels across Hungary’s railways. Several of these had been festooned with eye popping graffiti. One had the phrase 420 Hurts painted on it just below four windows without a single pane of glass. Hurts was painted in blood red that had slowly crawled down from the letters. The graffiti was redolent of a murder scene and looked more like the work of an urban gang than random vandals. Speaking of vandals, I did not doubt that some of the cars had been vandalized, but this only added to their post- apocalyptic aesthetic. Here was a world that looked as though it had been subjected to a nuclear attack. I could imagine giant cockroaches and lethal alien beings lying in wait for the unsuspecting urban explorer. The fact that much of the railway stock looked familiar made the workshop seem magnificently creepy. For some reason, I had the feeling we were always being watched. Perhaps this fear arose from being surrounded by abandonment.

The Last Time – Oil Change on December 12th 2001

A Dark Secret – Lost In Translation
A constant source of curiosity and perplexity for me were the letters and numbers that had been painted, etched or stenciled on so many of the locomotives and cars. These were written in an unintelligible language that I had no idea how to decipher. Attila remarked that a train enthusiast would have a field day with such terminology. They could disseminate the make and model, where and when for each of these relics by translating such coded messages. Attila was able to translate one of these. Written on the side of a badly beaten up wooden railway car was OLAJCSERE. Db.2001.12.11. This meant that an oil change had been done back on December 12^th, 2001. We found this particularly amusing since preventive maintenance was not exactly the strong suit of Istvantelek.

Another wooden train car, one that was still sporting much of its red paint, had more ominous terminology stamped on it, among which I immediately noticed the words “Deutsche Reichsban.” This was a reminder of a horrific artifact that was said to still be located at Istvantelek. One that made these abandoned cars suddenly seem menacing. There was a very dark secret said to lurk among these cars, one which is known by a single word, Auschwitz.

Click here for: A Question Without An Answer – The Holocaust In Hungary: Istvantelek Train Yard (Part Four)

The Rustbin of History – Where A Red Star Still Shines: Istvantelek Train Yard (Part Two)

There was a feeling of unreality that came over me inside the ruined kingdom. One that I could scarcely have imagined even in my most fevered dreams. Being allowed into Istvantelek Train Yard was like leaving the world behind in search of the starkest reality. And then the strangest thing happened, for the next few minutes Attila and I discovered the train yard looked much like any other old industrial site. There were random buildings that looked ever so slightly occupied with a few cars scattered about the premises. These were the few signs of life in an otherwise lifeless landscape of muddy roads, overgrown weeds, bare trees and an alarming amount of rust growing on any substantial surface.

We did notice one area with a warehouse door closed and a large truck parked outside of it. Whatever kind of work was going on at Istvantelek these days was hidden from view. It was odd seeing scattered traces of human activity, but with no discernible signs of what might be taking place inside the many buildings. This was an area plagued by neglect. That aesthetic was most noticeable with the first major railroad relic that came into view. Sitting on a small segment of rusty rails was a gigantic locomotive with the ominously iconic Soviet red star painted upon the front of it. At this point, Attila decided to park the car so we could get a better look at several of the locomotives and carriages strewn about the site.

Built To Last – The MAV Class 424 Steam Locomotive

“Nurmi” – An Indestructible Workhorse
Sitting on a small section of track amid encroaching brush was a MAV Class 424 steam locomotive. The very definition of a hulking beast. Weighing in it at a colossal 137 tons, the behemoth stood silent and omnipotent, a singular, immaculately crafted set piece from the age when locomotives were shrinking time and distance. Forged with intensity and magnificent craftsmanship, the amount of work that went into creating this monster must have been incredible. A total of 514 MAV 424 locomotives were constructed between the mid-1920s and late 1950’s. It was nicknamed the “Nurmi”, after the famous Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi, due to its speed and endurance.

The MAV 424 was used for both passenger and freight transport. It could pull up to 1,400 tons of freight at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour or up to 500 tons of passenger carriages at 90 kilometers per hour. This indestructible workhorse looked as formidable as any locomotive I have ever seen. Over 70% of the MAV 424’s were either sold or given to communist countries. 15 of them were sent to North Korea in the 1950’s. A few may still be in use by that hermit nation today. In Hungary, the last ones were resigned to museums, outdoor exhibits in provincial cities or in the case of the Istvantelek Train Yard. While the MAV 424 at Istvantelek was in nothing like prime shape, it was certainly built to last. The components looked as though they could survive a nuclear blast. I was quite surprised that the locomotive was in such good condition, especially considering that it had been exposed to the elements for many years.

MAV (Magyar Államvasutak) – Hungarian State Railways

A Fiery Magic – The Industrialized Sauna
We climbed inside the hulking brute and stood awestruck in the same space that engineers did for decades. Most of the knobs and dials were still in working condition. We got a feel for just how difficult it would have been to drive the locomotive. The coal furnace was within arm’s length of the driver’s space. The only windows were on the side. The smoke and heat must have been ferocious. All the romanticism of train travel suddenly melted away. Only a person within an iron constitution could have stood in this industrialized sauna for hours on end. We also saw where the coal shoveler would have worked their fiery magic within arm’s length of the engineer. The shrill noise, infernal heat and brutal physicality of such jobs must have taken a terrible toll. The MAV 424 may have been state of the art, but for those who worked on this locomotive, I imagined it had all the appeal of a blast furnace.

The iconic emblem painted on the MAV 424 locomotive resulted in the area being nicknamed the Red Star Train Yard. This is misleading and causes many train enthusiasts to think that Istvantelek is a communist era creation. In fact, the site has a long history that predates communism in Hungary. Officially, the train yard was known as the Istvantelek Main Workshop (Istvantelki Fomuhely). Its storied history goes all the way back to the turn of the 20^th century when train travel was booming across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. To deal with the many maintenance issues for its expanding fleet of locomotives, passenger and freight cars, Hungarians decided to construct a workshop in the northern part of Pest. Development of the site took place from 1901- 1905. Construction included the main workshop which was the largest building anywhere in Budapest at that time.

Vagabondage – An abandoned railroad car outside a ruined workshop at Istvantelek

Going Nowhere – A Different Kind of Museum
The site continued to expand in the years after its opening, especially during World War I when two thousand workers were on-site servicing trains for the war effort. The Second World War was less kind to Istvantelek as it became a target of aerial bombing and sustained a great deal of damage. Nonetheless, it somewhat recovered after the war. What really sounded the death knell of Istvantelek was when the age of steam came to an end. By the mid-1980’s regular operations had ceased. The site’s future became the past, as it was tied to the Vasuttorteneti Park (Hungarian Railway Museum), adjacent to its grounds.

Many of the locomotives and carriages that were now resigned to the rustbin of Hungarian railroad history had been possible exhibit items for the museum. The problem was that the museum already had quite a collection, plus there was only so much money for restoration and room for storage. Thus, Istvantelek had become a different kind of museum. One where the locomotives and carriages were left to speak for themselves, austere reminders of a golden age that had turned to rust. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the main workshop which we would soon stumble upon.

Click here for: A One Way Ticket To Oblivion – Abandonment: Istvantelek Train Yard (Part Three)

Heading Nowhere Fast – Budapest’s Railway Ruin: Istvantelek Train Yard (Part One)

Befitting the major transit point for an entire nation, Budapest has three main train stations that take in most points of the compass. There is Keleti Palyudvar (Eastern station), whose frontal approach has just undergone a badly needed upgrade, Nyugati Palyudvar (Western station), a spectacular late 19^th century Eiffel creation that has slowly succumbed to eloquent dilapidation and Deli Palyudvar (Southern station), a functionalist concrete concoction that was built to replace the original station which was shot to smithereens in the Battle of Budapest. Each of these stations counterintuitively services various points of the Hungarian compass. For hundreds of thousands each year, they are still the palaces of transport.

Trains originating from Nyugati Palyudvar often go east and those starting at Keleti Palyudvar head west. The most notable instance of this twisted logic occurs when trains head west to Vienna from Keleti. While such turns of the tracks have perplexed me on occasion, another question regarding the train stations of Budapest looms much larger in my mind. Specifically, why is there no northern station (Eszak Palyudvar) in the city? After all, if you have east, west and south stations then why not have a north one as well. I have heard various explanations, the most convincing of which is that all the other stations cover potential destinations. Also, the fact that the area north of Budapest is quite mountainous, with rugged terrain and comparatively few populated places would have made a railway station servicing it a needless waste of money.

Rustic Charm – Istvantelek Train Yard

The Last Joyride – A Train Trip Back In Time
The fact that there is no northern station in Budapest does not mean that railways have avoided this part of the city. On the contrary, many of the great treasures of Hungarian railway history can be found in the area at two places. The first one is Vasuttorteneti Park (Hungarian Railway Museum), which attracts tens of thousands of tourists every year. Visitors come to look at an amazing array of old locomotives and railway carriages that evoke the increasingly distant golden era of railway travel in Hungary. The other area filled with railway treasures bumps up against the Vasuttorteneti property, but hardly anyone is aware of it. This is the now defunct Istvantelek Train Yard, also known by its colloquial name as the Red Star Train Yard.

Istvantelek is off limits to tourists, but not to wily urban explorers who are willing to chance a visit. Many railway enthusiasts are aware of the rusting treasures to be found throughout the train yard. It has everything from hulking locomotives emblazoned with the communist red star to pre-World War I monsters that stand in silent, stolid testimony to the engineering achievements of a lost industrial age. A visit to Istvantelek is difficult, but not impossible. My Hungarian brother-in-law Attila, set out with me on a brisk winter’s day in January to see if we could get inside and take a look at some incredible railroad history.

A Living Museum – Istvantelek Train Yard

Controlled Access – A Not So Grand Entrance
Access to the site was somewhat controlled, but Istvantelek was not heavily guarded. Research on the internet showed that the train yard could be accessed one of two ways. Either by sneaking into the train yard or asking for access from someone manning a lightly guarded main gate. The latter method seemed more promising if it was done on a Sunday. That’s because Istvantelek is still home to several small industrial concerns that have handfuls of staff working there on weekdays. On Saturdays and Sundays the site was said to be mostly abandoned, offering the most opportune time for a visit. The fewer people around, the better the odds of having a look. Attila was up for the adventure as well. He contacted a friend of his who had a bit of knowledge about the site. They planned to go with us, but other commitments forced them to back out at the last moment. From what we were able to learn, it was likely that we would have to find a hole in the fence or scale a wall in order to get inside. I did not enjoy the thought of climbing over a wall, especially when I first saw what would face us.

As we drove around the streets surrounding the train yard, I was unable to see much inside. That was because a cement wall, at least six feet high topped with three strands of rusty barbed wire, surrounded much of the perimeter. Thoughts of trying to straddle the wall while tangled up in barbed wire came to mind. We were a couple of guys in our late 40’s who were decently fit, but not exactly in prime shape. Climbing walls and suffering barbed wire wounds was not exactly an appealing idea. Fortunately, while driving around the perimeter we began to see some chain link fencing that looked more easily scalable, including one area with a gaping hole in it. The fence could be overcome, but perhaps there was a more promising option.

Lasting Presence – Abandoned Locomotive at Istvantelek Train Yard

Twenty Nos & One Yes – A Ticket To Ride
We were finally able to find an entrance to the site with a guardhouse and gate. The gate was up, but the guardhouse was manned. We pulled up to the guardhouse where a man of medium height and build with graying hair and soft eyes greeted us. Attila decided to get out of the car and talk with him. I stayed in the vehicle, trying to look as disinterested as possible. The guard’s voice always maintained a level tone and there was very little discernible emotion on his face. He seemed to be relaxed. This was a good sign. It has been my experience in Eastern Europe that if you are to be told no, a negative answer is almost always immediately forthcoming. In this case, I was cautiously optimistic, but a bit unsure as their conversation lasted several minutes. When Attila returned to the car, he started the engine and said, “after about twenty nos I finally got a yes. The man said we could look around, but not to linger for too long.” I was elated. We were in.

Click here for: The Rustbin of History – Where A Red Star Still Shines: Istvantelek Train Yard (Part Two)

 

A Fatal Distraction – Bela Kun Memorial: The Masses & The Movement (For The Love of Hungary Part 50)

It has been my experience that the most meaningful art exhibitions are those where I find myself drawn to a singular work that personalizes the experience and leads to a deeper connection. This connection is something that is hard to explain. It is that moment when you feel something transcendent and unexplainable. This happened to me in the least likely of places, Memento Park in Budapest. My first reaction to most of the statues and sculptures on display was one of curiosity and opposition. Curiosity, because I always wondered how the supersized statues and sculptures from the communist Eastern Bloc countries looked up close and personal. After making the rounds in the Statue Park portion of the site, I realized just how impersonal communism and the remnants of its propaganda were. Each piece was like ideology on steroids. It was hard to feel a personal connection with something so harsh and unforgiving. Communism was a force to be reckoned with and that force was applied to its extremity.

A Fatal Distraction – The Bela Kun Memorial in Memento Park

Radical & Revolutionary – An Opportunist Extraordinaire
Amid all the thrusting fists, muscular chests and exacting expressions, I searched increasingly in vain for something to which I might feel a connection. Communism as a governing ideology and socialist-realist art were just not my thing. Trying to find the humanity amid concrete, bronze and granite that had been shaped and sculpted into scowls was nearly impossible. I had trouble finding any semblance of humanity amid the sterility of Statue Park. That was until I found myself standing before the Bela Kun Memorial. Humanity and Bela Kun would usually be viewed as diametrically opposed ideas. Kun founded the Hungarian Communist Party, then later declared and led the Hungarian Soviet Republic. This short lived “Red Republic” lasted only 133 chaotic days. That period was long enough to convince most Hungarians that Kun was not the answer to their problems. If anything, he was the cause of further calamities.

Kun, the son of an alcoholic Transylvania notary, grew up on the edge of poverty. He pursued a less than successful career as a pseudo-reform minded journalist prior to the outbreak of World War I. It was the war which made him into a professional revolutionary. After being captured on the Eastern Front, he spent time in a Russian prisoner of war camp becoming completely radicalized during the process. Once freed, he fought with the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. After proving his revolutionary credentials, Kun was sent back to Hungary with a large sum of money in November 1918 to foment revolution. He soon got himself thrown into prison, but the Social-Democrat Karolyi government was such a disaster that Kun was plucked from his cell and given control over the levers of power. The consequences of communist rule would turn out to be worse than that of the Socialists.  Kun was an opportunist extraordinaire. He took advantage of the chaos and confusion that beset postwar Hungary in his rise to power.

Red Tide Rising – Bela Kun in Hungary during the 1919 Revolution

Red Tide Rising – Toeing The Party Line
Kun’s short-lived reign is best known for Red Terror, collapse on the military front and administrative incompetence. Kun’s government tried to nationalize nearly everything, expropriated land and businesses while managing to alienate most of the population. He was forced to leave the country when his government crumbled. It was a calamitous start for communism in Hungary. Kun’s legacy was a chaotic one that most would have liked to forget. He ended up back in the Soviet Union, where he first presided over the killing of thousands of anti-Bolshevik prisoners of war and then became a point man for oppression of the Crimean Tatars which resulted in more death and destruction. Kun ended up an official in the Comintern (Communist International) before he was arrested during Stalin’s purges in the late 1930’s. He was secretly executed in Moscow. In a dark irony, Kun was consumed by the same violence he had conjured throughout his life.

Kun was persona non grata until rehabilitated by the communists after the De-stalinisation campaign during the Khrushchev era. He was the closest thing to an iconic Hungarian communist founding father. As such he was venerated in many circles all the way up through the waning days of communist rule. A monument meant to glorify Kun was commissioned on the 100^th anniversary of his birth. The artist selected to create it was Imre Varga, one of Hungary’s greatest sculptors. Varga was not the usual ideologue chosen for rigid adherence to the party line. He was skilled in the use of a variety of materials portraying a wide range of historical figures. His Bela Kun Memorial was less an honorific than a commentary on Kun and the effect of his ideals on the masses. It also happens to be the most memorable work of sculpture I have ever seen.

An Opportunist Extraordinaire – Bela Kun

Lethal Roles – A Fatal Distraction
Varga’s sculpture captures the essence of Kun and his power to persuade others to action. He is portrayed as both a leader and strangely detached figure. He seemingly floats above the workers and soldiers set out below him. His left arm is outstretched and in it he holds his hat in hand, using the hat to implore the men onward. These men are packed closely together. They only look forward, taking no notice of Kun. Amid the metal clad soldiers, there are grim workers moving along with the mass. These men are headed off to war. A lamppost rises close to Kun. Some have seen this as a reminder of the gallows, the possibility of death looming above the entire scene.

The sculpture astonished me. I felt the magnetic pull of men headed off to do battle, thrust forward by a figure they do not even notice. The power of being swept up in a historical moment has overcome the men and it overcame me. For once, I felt the true power of a revolutionary movement. It was quite extraordinary that the sculpture could make me feel this way, since I believe everything Kun stood for to be horribly wrong. Subsequent history bore this out. That truth did nothing to take away from the Memorial’s attraction. I felt the power of the man, the masses and the moment. This was more than a Memorial it was the essence of a movement. Kun was the lead actor in this movement, while the soldiers and workers played a vital part. Tragically, these roles ended up costing them their lives.