---
title: 'Lenin, Rákosi and Stalin portraits: Innovation and Invention Exhibition, Budapest'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hungary-lenin-rakosi-stalin-exhibition-1949/
description: 'A curtained exhibition hall entrance. Above the door hang three side-by-side portraits: Lenin, Mátyás Rákosi and Stalin.'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Lenin, Rákosi and Stalin portraits: Innovation and Invention Exhibition, Budapest](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hungary-lenin-rakosi-stalin-exhibition-1949.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hungary-lenin-rakosi-stalin-exhibition-1949.jpg)

# Lenin, Rákosi and Stalin portraits: Innovation and Invention Exhibition, Budapest

A curtained exhibition hall entrance. Above the door hang three side-by-side portraits: Lenin, Mátyás Rákosi and Stalin. A lettered frieze reads 'Following the example of the Soviet Union we build socialism.' Placing the Hungarian party leader between the two Soviet figures transfers their standing to him, and the frieze offers 'socialism' as a virtue word.

- **Date:** 1949
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** Organiser of the Újítási és találmányi kiállítás (Innovation and Invention Exhibition), Műcsarnok, Budapest, not named in the record; photo donor UVATERV (Fortepan)
- **Region:** [Eastern Europe and Eurasia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=eastern-europe-eurasia)
- **Country:** [Hungary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=hungary)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Hungarian Peoples Republic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=hungarian-peoples-republic)
- **Leader:** [Matyas Rakosi](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=matyas-rakosi)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics), [Science and technology](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=science-technology)
- **Event:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=cold-war)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Source:** [Fortepan (donor: UVATERV), ID 9287, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lenin-R%C3%A1kosi-Szt%C3%A1lin_fortepan_9287.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY-SA 3.0 (Fortepan release; Commons file page states the licence) FOTO:FORTEPAN / UVATERV, ID 9287 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

## Text on the object

Original (Hungarian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
A SZOVJETÚNIÓ PÉLDÁJÁT KÖVETVE ÉPÍTJÜK A SZOCIALIZMUST

[wall text visible through the doorway: illegible]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF THE SOVIET UNION WE BUILD SOCIALISM

[wall text visible through the doorway: illegible]
```

The portraits carry no captions on the object; the identification of the three men as Lenin, Rákosi and Stalin comes from the Commons/Fortepan file title.

[← À qui le crime profite-t-il? (Viet Minh leaflet on the back of a French Indochina one-piastre note, 1948)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/viet-minh-piastre-leaflet-1948/) [Atlantic Pact float in a peace demonstration, Leipzig →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-leipzig-atlantic-pact-float-1950/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)