The 20th century created two monsters: nazism and communism. While no sane person today would dare to defend nazism, many still justify communism, a regime that killed over 100 million people worldwide. In 1944 communism was forcefully introduced in Bulgaria. Terror followed overnight and lasted a very long time. Thousands were murdered or sent to prisons and concentration camps for being wealthy, educated, skilled, politically “dangerous” or for no pretext whatsoever. There they became victims of fierce, indescribable cruelty. Many died or had their spirit crushed. Some managed to survive...
Communism in Bulgaria began to collapse in 1989. A popular singer (Vasko “The Patch”) wrote at the time: “Communism is departing: sweet dreams, children!” Children today are blissfully unaware of the past. Their ignorance is happy but also dangerous. For they need to know and remember what happened in the name of their “bright future”, so that the history of communism may never repeat itself. So that the children of tomorrow may have sweet dreams.
Authors: Greta Nedialkova and Nora Dimitrova
More than 20 years after the fall of communist regimes in Europe, Bulgarian society failed in its attempt to adequately evaluate the period of communist rule in Bulgaria. The lack of an objective historical evaluation of Bulgarian communism is a major obstacle in front of unbiased scholars and citizens aspiring for knowledge of their own past. We adopted a policy of addressing this problem by examining it in depth, painful as this may be. Acquiring knowledge about this most painful side of the totalitarian regime, the repressions, will undoubtedly have a therapeutic effect that will make it possible for our entire society to realize the political nature of the communist system.
The archive of State Security, the repressive apparatus of the Bulgarian Communist Party is now almost entirely accessible. New collections of documents and historical works on its structure, goals, and activities are being published. Nevertheless, these documents only permit us to understand repression superficially. We are only able to gain an actual insight into the character of this system by acquiring information about the very people who were persecuted, i.e., from the anvil upon which the hammer of repression made its blows. This kind of information can be found in the archive of the Istina (Truth) Union, kindly consigned to us by the brothers Dyanko and Georgi Markov. This extremely valuable archive contains documents (sentences, court rulings, death certificates and other evidence) and personal testimonies by repressed Bulgarian citizens. The integration of the archive with the internet portal will allow for the virtual memorial to become the first Bulgarian electronic and freely accessible archive of victims of communism.
Author: Marian Gyaurski
This site is a virtual memorial, archive and prosopography of all known victims of the communist regime in Bulgarian territory.
VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM IN BULGARIA
Photo: Eran LupuIn Washington, DC, not far from the Capitol, a monument commemorating the victims of communism was erected, representing a statue of the goddess of Democracy. The funds for it were gathered by the American Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Among the biggest donors are immigrant communities from Eastern Europe. The bronze figure resembles the one made by Chinese students on Tiananmen Square.
