Comrade Stalin's Statue on the Day of his Death

Official mourning ceremony and guard at the Stalin Monument taken on the day his death was officially announced, 5 March 1953.

The periodical Magyar Rendőr (The Hungarian Policeman) was launched in January 1947 by the Political Section of the Department of Public Order of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, exclusively for internal distribution.

The photos in Magyar Rendőr show that the reporters literally covered the whole country to document the work of the police and agents of the ministry of interior, the procedures and action taken against citizens. While the focus of the collection is life inside the police force (training, briefing, practice at the range, holidays, patrolling, scene of crime officers at work), there is a great number of intriguing photos of the city, of sport events, of everyday life and amazing images of godforsaken lands. What thus becomes visible amidst the innumerable artificially set and false pictures is the reality of communism, as it existed.

The processing of the photo archive of Magyar Rendőr, started in spring 2008, is an on-going project at OSA.