The Soviet occupation of Bulgaria began in 1944 and lasted for three years. When will we learn the whole truth about the victims and abuses of the Soviet army? Let's take back our national memory on September 9.
In Bulgaria, the monument to the occupying Red Army has been in existence 35 years after the democratic changes. At the same time, there is still no monument in the country, nor a commemorative plaque to its Bulgarian victims - to those 120 who were shot or run over, which are known. State agency "Archives" published an (incomplete) list of the victims of the Soviet occupation on his new website "Soviet Occupation in Bulgaria (1944 – 1947)", compiled on the basis of three archival documents he keeps. The date for its launch was not chosen by chance - exactly 80 years ago, on September 9, 1944, the government of the Fatherland Front came to power with the help of the forces of the Third Ukrainian Front of the Red Army. During the three-year occupation, the number of Soviet soldiers in Bulgaria, together with those crossing over to the front, reached 600,000.
Hiding the truth. And the brainwashing.
For the fourth decade, the concealment of the truth about the actions of the Soviet occupiers continues, which is filtered thanks to the efforts of individual historiographers and researchers. New research by the State Archives team is part of the digital collection "The Archives Speaks". and, as explained by the institution, the goal is to fill "an important and essential gap in the knowledge of our entire society about the recent past".
In this gap, however, "sunk" several generations of Bulgarians. And the lack of clear public and institutional communication on the subject, together with educational deficits about the role of Russia in Bulgarian history, deepened the problem. After 1989, the history taught in schools was transformed by "eternal gratitude to the Soviet Army of Liberation"; to some facts, with great misunderstandings, lack of a wider context, telegraphically presented - and refracted through the teachers' personal prejudices.
On this slippery terrain, imbued with nostalgic sympathies for Russia and a fading memory of the recent past, all sorts of seeds of doubt in Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic choice and skepticism in the EU can be planted. And Russian propaganda sows and reaps processions with St. George ribbons, Russian flags, pro-Russian parties and sympathies for the Russian aggressor, presented as a savior.
A study by the non-governmental organization GLOBSEC, published at the beginning of the year, showed that there is almost no difference in the way the youngest and the oldest Bulgarians perceive Russia, considered a threat by 34% of those between 18 and 24 and 27% of people over 65. For 39.4% of young Bulgarians, Ukraine is to blame for the war. The Institute for Global Analyzes commented at the time that among the main reasons for these attitudes is the Bulgarian education system, which reinforces pro-Russian views - along with disinformation, "the lack of re-evaluation of the past, including a more critical presentation of the communist period".
At the expense of the "grateful Bulgarian people"
On the site about the Soviet occupation, original documents have been uploaded, including a government decree from November 10, 1944, approving a protocol of the BNB to leave "at the disposal of the Soviet military authorities - at the expense of the state - 1,500 000,000 leva and 129,000,000 dinars for maintenance". These 1.5 billion leva and 129 million dinars are a small part of the sums that, by virtue of the Armistice Agreement, Bulgaria must pay and provide fuel, food, etc. goods needed by the Soviet command.
For comparison, the revenues in the Bulgarian budget in 1944 were BGN 38.7 billion, and in the same year Bulgaria exported goods for BGN 11.4 billion. But the very next year, "the Central European countries were replaced in our foreign trade by the neighboring countries and mainly by the USSR." The latter participates with 80% in the value of imports and 95% - in exports", it is written in another original document - a report of the management of the BNB for the year 1945 (the central bank has published on its website its annual reports since 1884, b.a .).
"The Red Army entered Bulgaria with the sole purpose of helping the Bulgarian people free themselves from the German yoke, forever ending the German danger to the freedom and independence of the Bulgarian and all other Slavic peoples,'' reads a call from the command of the Red Army army, shown on the State Archives website. In reality, the army of the USSR "liberates" Bulgaria from national sovereignty, from freedom of speech and party pluralism, from the most valuable state archives, from private property - from all values inherent in democracy.
"The Volunteers" lepts for MOCHA
She left monuments and societies for Bulgarian-Soviet friendship, which began to swarm as early as 1946. For the monument in the Prince's Garden, the decision was made in 1949 by a government headed by Vasil Kolarov, but the funds for it were provided by the "grateful Bulgarian people". started collecting two years earlier. Documents testifying to how the sums were collected have been published on the archive website.
Letter from the Ministry of Public Education to the Chepelar Mixed High School "in connection with the procurement and payment of the funds for the "Monument of the Soviet Army" shows, for example, BGN 2,047 collected. In another letter from the Central Co-operative Union to its associations, the "magnificent work" about the monument and what kind of explanatory work should be done among the cooperating members, "in order to encourage them to voluntarily give their share for the realization of this grandiose work". On this… "voluntary" way, through people's committees created alongside those of the Patriotic Front, more than 20 million BGN were collected from the people. The 37-meter-high creation was opened in 1954 - at the end of the previous year, the Goryanism, the armed Bulgarian rebellion against the Moscow-imposed regime, was crushed, and the power ended with the Nikolapetkovists. The Red Army man with "Shpagin" raised to the sky marks the end of resistance against "people's power".
"[…] Even the first Soviet tank that crossed the Bulgarian border was turned into an object of veneration,", the chairman of the State Agency "Archives" states in the presentation of the project. Mikhail Gruev. He notes that only the most scandalous and serious cases of various robberies and extortions of Soviet troops in Bulgaria reach the Commissariat for the Implementation of the Armistice Agreement. "Hundreds of others remain for the information of only close relatives or the local authorities, who feel both shame and embarrassment and fear to report further up the chain,", explains the researcher.
On September 9, let's take back our national memory.
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This comment expresses the author's personal opinion and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and DV as a whole.