On September 28, 1987 Tsonka Bukurova, Vyara Georgieva, Dora Bobeva , Stefka Monova, Evgenia Zheleva and Albena Velkova, leave their homes with baby carriages and lead the first spontaneous ecological demonstration in Bulgaria. She is against the almost decade-long gassing of the Danube capital by the chlorine chemical plant in Giurgiu and against the grandiose projects of the Ceausescu family.
Today, none of these mothers continued in big politics and was not tempted by big power, recalls "Marginalia".. However, with their position, they turned the air of Ruse into the first civil weapon against the totalitarian power of the communists.< /p>
On September 23, 1987, in front of the Freedom Monument in Ruse, a red ribbon tying ceremony was held for the pioneers. And from the Romanian city of Giurgiu, the cloud with the suffocating smell of chlorine is creeping again.
The children begin to pass out, some take off the ties and use them as gas masks. No one dares to cancel the ominous ceremony, BNR recalls. This is the final straw, and the Ruse mothers plan an organized peaceful protest so that the authorities can no longer turn a blind eye to the problem. The chlorine plant in Gyurghevo, built a few years ago, operates 10-12 times over its capacity and causes a strong concentration of the poisonous gas in the air. Residents of Ruse are subjected to constant “gas attacks", diseases of the respiratory system are increasing dramatically, many of the people are forced to move to other cities in order to preserve their health.
The first civil protest at the end of socialism took place precisely in Ruse in November 1987 as demonstrations against gassing and protection of natural human rights for a healthy living environment. A few months later, the first and largest informal organization in Bulgaria was created – The Public Committee for Environmental Protection of Ruse. On the evening of March 8, 1988, at the House of Cinema in Sofia, after an almost illegal screening of the documentary “Breathe” with director Yuri Zhirov, 400 people establish this committee – the first serious formation that protested against the communist regime in our country.
However, the Public Committee for Environmental Protection of Ruse is the first white swallow after decades of totalitarian rule. Its appearance is a sign of the end of an era and the beginning of a new period in the country's history. The following year marks the birth of several more dissident organizations – The club for support of glasnost and reconstruction in Bulgaria on the idea of Zhelyu Zhelev, the Independent Society for the Protection of Human Rights of Ilia Minev, “Civil Initiative” of Lyubomir Sobadzhiev. After 45 years of totalitarianism, the time of democratic changes and transition to democracy and market economy is coming.