My thanks to William Barletta for this and all the B&W conversions in this small B&W sub-gallery.

The Stalin Monument in Budapest was completed in December 1951 as a "gift" to Joseph Stalin from the Hungarian People on his 70th birthday (December 21, 1949). It was torn down on October 23, 1956, by enraged anti-Soviet crowds during Hungary's October Revolution. Only the boots remained.

These are a life-size model of the boots from the monument; we measured their height against my husband, and they were about six feet high. The actual boots are here http://www.pbase.com/helenpb/image/147287657

The large monument stood 25 meters tall in total. The bronze statue stood eight meters high on a four meter high limestone base on top of a tribune 18 meters wide. Stalin was portrayed as a speaker, standing tall and rigid with his right hand at his chest.

On October 23, 1956, around 200,000 Hungarians gathered in Budapest to demonstrate in sympathy for the Poles who had just gained political reform during the Polish October. The Hungarians broadcast 16 demands over the radio, one of them being the dismantling of Stalin's statue. A hundred thousand Hungarian revolutionaries demolished the Stalin statue, leaving only his boots, in which they planted a Hungarian flag. The bronze inscribed name of the Hungarians' leader, teacher and "best friend" was ripped off from the pedestal. Before the toppling of the statue, someone had placed a sign over Stalin's mouth that read "RUSSIANS, WHEN YOU RUN AWAY DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND!" The revolutionaries chanted "Russia go home!" while pulling down the statue. “W.C.” and other insulting remarks were scrawled over the fragmented parts of the statue. (From Wikipedia)