THE socialist period of development in Hungary lasted from April 1945, when the Red Army liberated the country from Nazi occupation, to October 1989 when the People’s Republic was renamed the Republic of Hungary.

Today there are few visible signs of this over 40 years in Hungarian history, which have been systematically rewritten or eliminated. The casual observer would not know that it ever existed. But there are still some remnants that are well worth seeing.

The most obvious place to start is war memorials as these are the least likely to be tampered with or removed. The Soviet Army Memorial at the top end of Szabadsag Place commemorates the liberation of Budapest from the Nazis, with bas reliefs of Red Army troops and tanks advancing on Ferenciek Square and parliament.

The Soviet Military Plot at Kerepesi Cemetery is where Red Army soldiers who died in 1944-45 during the 100-day siege of Budapest are buried. The cemetery also contains the Pantheon of the Working Class Movement, inaugurated in 1959, where party leaders and members who “lived for communism and the people” were laid to rest.

Janos Kadar, the Hungarian Communist Party leader from 1956-88, was buried nearby in 1989. The party members killed during the 1956 counter-revolution are in a special plot near the entrance and Communist Party ministers were buried close to the grave of Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the 1848 revolution.

Farkasreti Cemetery holds the remains of Matyas Rakosi, the first secretary of the Magyar Communist Party from 1949-1956, his police chief Gabor Peter and Andras Hegedus, the politburo member who asked the Soviets to intervene in 1956.

The next most logical place to look for vestiges of Hungarian socialism is museums, archives and libraries. But these have become highly contested cultural spaces, with political narratives that change according to the party in power.

A case in point is the House of Terror at 60 Andrassy Utca, the beautiful tree-lined boulevard with lavish residences and stately apartment buildings that connects downtown Budapest to Heroes Square.

In 1937 the “national socialist movement” — the fascist Arrow Cross Party — rented space in the building. In 1941 Hungary allied with Nazi Germany and supported its invasion of the USSR.

When Hungary tried to end its involvement in the war in October 1944 the Nazis forced the collaborationist government to resign.

This was the beginning of the short and bloodthirsty reign of the Arrow Cross when its members tortured and killed hundreds of people in the cellar at 60 Andrassy Utca.

After the city was liberated by the Red Army, the Department for Political Police took over the abandoned Arrow Cross HQ which later became the State Security Office and then the State Security Authority. Today the museum seeks to draw parallels between Nazi and socialist Hungary, with the message that fascism and communism are two sides of the same coin.

The same simplistic narrative is deployed at the Hungarian National Museum where the Nazi period is rationalised as Hungary’s attempt to regain the territory that it lost at the end of World War I, when it was also on Germany’s side.

The Soviet period is contained in a single room of this huge building with exhibits that include the right hand and left ear of Stalin’s statue that was torn down in 1956.

There are displays on Matyas Rakosi, Imry Nagy, who was executed for his role in the 1956 counter-revolution, and Janos Kadar, who implemented “goulash communism” in 1968 when the planned economy was relaxed with a focus on modernisation and consumerism.

The National Museum and the Military History Museum both have interesting sections on the Hungarian socialist republic that was proclaimed by Bela Kun on March 21 1919 and governed by local soviets. It lasted 133 days before being overthrown by a foreign army of intervention.

The Hospital in the Rock is a system of caves that was converted into a military hospital in readiness for World War II, though it didn’t open until 1944, doubling as an air raid shelter during the siege of Budapest.

It was put to use as a hospital again during the counter-revolution of 1956, after which it was repurposed as a nuclear bunker during the cold war.

In common with other former socialist countries, Hungary has its own Soviet Theme Park, where busts and statues of communist leaders were relocated after 1989.

The Cubist-style monument of Marx and Engels stood next to the HQ of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, while the figure of Lenin once graced Parade Square where the capital’s mass political and military rallies were held.

There is also a rare statue of Lenin as a child (based on a photo taken of him aged four) from the Soviet Pioneers camp in Balatonszemes.

The flag-carrying statue of the Liberating Soviet Soldier (based on a serving Red Army private) was ordered in 1945 by the Soviet commander Marshal Voroshilov, who liberated Budapest from the Nazis. It formed part of the Liberation Monument on top of Gellert Hill until it was removed to Memento Park in 1990.

Other notable monuments in the park include the Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Memorial, a bust of Giorgi Dimitrov and a statue of Lenin that stood outside the Csepel Iron & Metal Works. When the statue was threatened in 1990, the factory workers hid it in a cellar.  

The Ervin Szabo Library was expropriated during the Hungarian Soviet Republic and designated the Museum of the Communist Proletariat, with artefacts seized on May 1 1919.

It was damaged during the siege of Budapest in 1944-45 when German and Soviet troops took shelter in the building.

The library was renovated in 1964 and became a centrepiece of Hungary’s socialist public library system.

Bestsellers, Budapest’s best English language bookshop, has copies of Battle for Budapest: 100 Days in WWII by Krisztian Ungvary which tells the story of one of the longest and bloodiest sieges of the war which raged over the heads of 800,000 non-combatants; no-one was evacuated and over 38,000 civilians perished.

The Budapest Poster Gallery has a wide range of original vintage posters from between 1885 and 1990, with some fine communist-era propaganda posters, such as one for the 1955 Tractor Day.

Tisza Shoes started production with its distinctive T-shaped logo at the Martfu-based factory in 1971. The brand has taken on an iconic status for generations of Hungarians that grew up in the late socialist era.

Today Budapest is a bustling vibrant European city. Yet it feels the need to hide its socialist past. Of course, this is not possible. The Hungarian people remember that past and continue to talk about it. Some of them conduct guided tours of Budapest.

They point out that Hungarians did not have to speak Russian, it was very rare to meet a Soviet soldier during everyday life and it is a myth that everybody was an informer and that members of the Communist Party had privileges.

They are also clear that during the socialist period, the standard of living of the majority of the population improved; there was full employment, secure housing, free education and health care, social benefits and a wide range of cultural and sports facilities. History shows that there is more to Hungary than the 1956 “uprising.”