About that time - exactly 30 years ago - an excited colleague entered the office:
“They killed Lukanov!”
Culturally known for “Comrades, I'm appointing you as millionaires!” and thus gave the beginning of the Transition with the so-called “red briefcases” - he is truly its Architect.
His main role was to implement on Bulgarian soil the Russian frontal experiment according to the script of Yuli Andropov for Transition from Communism to Capitalism without losing political control. Which - in order to be realized - required economic control. In order to guarantee … Russian control over Bulgaria.
In the failure to fulfill precisely the last task - Russian control - we must look for the reasons for his tragic demise.
The beginning was good - Lukanov held the levers firmly and directed the creation of a “multi-party system” in Bulgaria - with a key bolt until very recently - the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
The Bulgarian Communist Party became the Bulgarian Socialist Party. It reformed the Bulgarian Socialist Workers' Party - headed by a cult figure of the Transition in the future. And it helped organize the UDF - by providing a building and … paper for the newspaper “Democracy”. And dozens of State Security agents became Democrats.
He managed to expel his competitor Petar Mladenov - coincidentally or not - leading figures of the student occupation that led to his resignation on July 6, 1990 - ended up with cards.
He managed to decapitate the fragile UDF - by helping to elect its chairman as president, and the next one - turned out to be a State Security agent. And so he sowed the first divisions.
But then the failures began - as I saw it:
(1) He was unable to hold on to power and was forced to resign - and thus fulfill the commitments he had made to the Kremlin
(2) He was unable to push through Russian interests for control over the Bulgargaz infrastructure with the failure of Chernomordin's mission
(3) He began to lose his weight in front of the Kremlin - the Russians began to isolate him from their Top Energy gas project, led by their new deputy - Ilya Pavlov - who had told him: “Andrey Karlovich - now I drive the train!”
(4) In order not to remain a capo - Lukanov began to forge ties with the USA, already created along the promotion of the Run-Out doctrine for a shock transition in Bulgaria.
The day after his death, he was supposed to fly to the USA.
The lesson:
Serving a foreign master ends tragically. And serving two masters - fatally!