Talpra Magyar

A statue of a Hungarian Freedom Fighter. His rumpled coat and tousled hair show that he is in the heart of the Revolution. His rising, genuflecting posture was inspired by the Hungarian National Song "Talpra Magyar" or "Arise Ye Patriot". The sculptor and the commissioners wanted a piece that reflected the ecstasy and agony of the Hungarian people during their Revolution. His face screams with those emotions as he proudly displays the Hungarian flag with a hole in the center: a symbol of Revolution. The statue was commissioned by the American Foundation for Hungarian Youth and Culture in Florida to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, but a copy was made for the Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel.

When the Soviets took over Hungary in 1949, they placed a Communist Red Star in the center of the flag. During the Anti-Soviet uprising of 1956, the Hungarian people cut the symbol out of the center and used the red, white, and green flag with a hole in the center as the symbol of their revolution.

Harrison Covington was a Lieutenant Colonel and Air Force Pilot in the Philippines during the Second World War. During the 1956 Revolution, the US (among other nations) promised to send help to Hungary, which they never did. Covington enthusiastically agreed to work on this project as a sort of reparation to the Hungarian people, because he couldn't help them then as a soldier.