HFP reader István Zöld responds to our piece on “Kádár kocka” architecture:
This is beyond ridiculous. For a start, these houses are not cubic. Then their architecture has nothing to do with the Kádár era. They are typical East European rural homes, and they were around well before World War II. So it’s wrong to imply their structure was somehow imposed by the Communist rule, and therefore they begged for subversion. One does not subvert one’s own home, and one doesn’t subvert a regime with house painting. Especially in the Kádár regime, the most liberal in all the Soviet block, where you could have any number of more effective ways to be subversive if you felt so.
Hungarian radio was making fun of Kádár’s ministers on a monthly basis (Rádiókabaré), there was no need to be that cryptic. If these houses express something, it’s their owner’s typical Hungarian self-assuredness in doing the wrong thing, and betraying a poor education and an oversized ego in the meantime.
István Zöld
