The Forgotten Communist-Era Monuments of Bulgaria

From the end of the Second World War until the fall of communism in 1990, Bulgaria was a communist state ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party. Then called the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the country allied closely with the Soviet Union and was heavily influenced by Soviet policies and politics. Like the rest of the Eastern Bloc, the leaders of the People's Republic of Bulgaria too were eager to leave the mark of communism by building hundreds of monuments across the country. After the end of the Soviet rule, these monuments became reminders to decades of tyrannical rule and of oppression—a period of history modern Bulgarians are keen to forget. Some statues, like those of Lenin and Stalin, were pulled down but others were left standing but neglected, defaced and ransacked. The Torch Monument, part of the Buzludzha Monument, sits at the bottom of the Buzludzha peak in the Central Balkan Mountains. Photo credit: Rob Schofield/Flickr Monument to the Soviet Army, Sofia The Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is one of the most famous communist-era monument and a popular place for the young crowd to gather. The monument portrays a soldier from the Soviet Army as a freedom fighter, surrounded by a Bulgarian woman, holding her baby, and a man. The monument’s fame lies in the fact that it’s frequently targeted by dissidents who use one of the secondary sculptural composition around the main monument as a canvas for making political statement . Photo credit: Damien Smith/Flickr Photo credit: Klearchos Kapoutsis/Flickr One of the sculptural pieces painted over with American pop icons in 2011. Photo credit: Michal Janček/Flickr Hillock of Fraternity, Plovdiv The Hillock of Fraternity, also known as Brotherly Mound, was built in 1974 to commemorate the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. The monument resembles a Thracian burial mound, and contains actual bones of partisans who fought to liberate Bulgaria.