On August 21, 25 years ago in 1999, the demolition of the mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov in Sofia began.
The detonation operation was personally led by Deputy Prime Minister Evgeny Bakardjiev. Next to him is Prime Minister Ivan Kostov. With bated breath, the leading politicians are waiting for the detonation from the roof of the State Archives, reports "Nova TV".
The mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov withstands 2 detonations. After the first failed attempt to blow it up with 300 kilograms of explosives, the building just tilts.
„What is wedged to one side should have been a pile of waste! But, as you can see, it is currently standing like a box at 40 degrees", said the then Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy Teodor Dechev after the first attempt at an explosion.
„This will never become a mausoleum! The children will have nothing to separate themselves for in 5-10 or 50 years,” commented the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development Evgeniy Bakardjiev.
„This is a disgrace for the government!", commented Georgi Pirinski from the BSP at the time. The first jokes were born: "The tomb did not collapse because Velko Vulkanov and Zhan Videnov propped it up from the inside," said the joker.
p>It was not until August 27 that the mausoleum was completely destroyed. Then the people christened Yevgeny Bakardjiev - Bucky the Bomb.
The mausoleum was built in 1949 to preserve the embalmed body of the communist leader Georgi Dimitrov. It was built in a record 6 days.
The curious thing is that the destruction of the mausoleum - the center of the totalitarian cult of Georgi Dimitrov as “leader and teacher of the Bulgarian people” it takes as many days as it takes to build it.
On February 25, 1992, the Municipal Council of Sofia decided to demolish the mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov.
On July 17, 1990, the government of Andrey Lukanov decided to remove the mortal remains from the mausoleum and bury them. The decision was carried out the same night and the body of Georgi Dimitrov was buried in the Central Sofia Cemetery.
After the removal of the mortal remains from the mausoleum, there have been debates over the fate of the building for nine years. Defenders of the right to its existence launched all kinds of ideas – from an art gallery or a pantheon of the people of Sofia who died in the wars to a discotheque.
The prevailing opinion is that the mausoleum should be destroyed so that it does not become a symbol of totalitarianism and a place of communist worship.
Controversies continue to this day as to whether the most striking communist symbol in the center of the capital should have been removed.