On July 21, 2004, Radoi Ralin died 20 years ago. He is the Bulgarian poet, satirist and dissident who inspired generations of Bulgarians for the values of freedom during the dark persecutions of the communist regime.
During the totalitarian system in Bulgaria, the poet Boris Hristov said of him: “He is the only one different among so many identical people.“
Radoi Ralin was born in the city of Sliven on April 23, 1922
He is the great-grandson of Tanyo Voivoda, who is an associate of Vasil Levski and a friend of Stefan Karadzha.
His father is a bookseller and printer, owner of the "Modern Art" bookstore. His mother, Kina Stoyanova, is an extremely pious woman. Radoi graduated from high school in his hometown in 1941, then enrolled in law at Sofia University. At the 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 hunt him down under the aliases “The Evil One” and “Goat“.
In July-September 1941, together with Ducho Mundrov and Sht. Skubarev, he wrote and edited the illegal anti-fascist newsletter "The Truth about the Anti-Soviet War". In 1942 he was arrested. In 1944, for three months, he led the “Agitation and Propaganda“ in the Neighborhood Committee of the Patriotic Front in Sliven, but due to disagreement with the “revolutionary“ actions of the communist leadership, he volunteered at the front. 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 in Bulgaria jazz was considered a heretical art, Radoi Ralin was one of its zealous supporters; together with Milcho Leviev, in 1965 he created the band “Jazz Focus“.
Famous as a dissident and 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 the satirical miniature, which became the center of anti-cult satire. From 1946, he worked successively for the "Literary Front" magazine, the "Strashel" magazine, the "Literary News" magazine, the Feature Film Studio, the Chronicle and Documentary Film Studio, where he created the series of documentary satires “ Focus“. He is also an editor in the "Bulgarian Writer" publishing house. (1967 – 68), in Bulgarian Cinematography (1976 – 87), in the “Literary Front” (1987 – 90).
From 1992, together with Boris Dimovski and his son Kin Stoyanov, he briefly published the magazine “Shtastlivets“.
Prayer
Freedom is like bread.
Every day gets involved,
bake,
eats.
Freedom must
to be fresh every day,
warm,
cute,
enough to share with others.
Don't eat snacks,
don't eat yesterday's bread,
don't eat gift bread.
Involve yourself
and bake
bread,
to have it,
so you don't beg for it.
Stuck in the throat
yesterday's bread,
the gift of bread.
Our daily bread, give it yourself.