Radoy Ralin is the Bulgarian poet, satirist and dissident, who inspired generations of Bulgarians for the values of freedom.
During the totalitarian system in Bulgaria, the poet Boris Hristov said about him: “He is the only different one among so many similar people.“ Radoy Ralin was born in the city of Sliven on April 23, 1922.
He is the great-grandson of Tanyo Voivoda, who was an associate of Vasil Levski and a friend of Stefan Karadzha. His father is a bookseller and printer, owner of the bookstore “Modern Art“. His mother Kina Stoyanova is an extremely devout woman. Radoy graduated from high school in his hometown in 1941, after which he enrolled in law at Sofia University. At that time, the police were following him under the code name "The Philosopher" and recorded his expulsion from school for reading leftist poems. Later, the communist State Security would persecute him under the pseudonyms "The Evil One" and "The Goat".
In July-September 1941, together with Ducho Mundrov and Sh. Skubarev, he wrote and edited the illegal anti-fascist bulletin "The Truth about the Anti-Soviet War". In 1942 he was arrested. In 1944, for three months, he headed the "Agitation and Propaganda" department in the District Committee of the Fatherland Front in Sliven, but due to disagreement with the "revolutionary" actions of the communist leadership he went to the front as a volunteer. He participated in World War II (1944 - 45).
Between 1945 and 1946 he was an editor in the magazine “Slavyani“. Brigadier in Yugoslavia in 1947. In the 1950s, when jazz was considered a heretical art in Bulgaria, Radoy Ralin was one of its ardent supporters; together with Milcho Leviev he created the formation “Jazz Focus“ in 1965.
He became famous as a dissident and an awkward satirist after the burning of his book of epigrams “Hot Peppers“ in 1968.
One of the creators of the Hornet Satirical Theater in 1953 – the first Bulgarian theater of satirical miniature, which became the center of anti-cult satire. Since 1946 he has worked successively for the newspaper "Literary Front", the newspaper "Starshel", the newspaper "Literary News", at the Studio for Feature Films, the Studio for Chronicle and Documentary Films, where he created the series of documentary film satires "Focus". He is also an editor at the publishing house "Bulgarian Writer" (1967 - 68), at Bulgarian Cinematography (1976 - 87), at the newspaper "Literary Front" (1987 – 90).
Since 1992, together with Boris Dimovski and his son Kin Stoyanov, he briefly published the newspaper “Štastlivets“.
Prayer
Freedom is like bread.
Every day it is kneaded,
baked,
eaten.
Freedom must
be fresh every day,
warm,
sweet,
enough to share it with others.
Don't eat crumbs,
don't eat yesterday's bread,
do not eat bread given to you.
Knead it yourself
and bake it
the bread,
so that you may have it,
so that you may not beg for it.
A trap in the throat
yesterday's bread,
the bread given to you.
Our daily bread, give it to yourself.