On November 9th, 25 years ago Berliners destroyed the hated wall - a symbol of divided Germany and divided Europe; a boundary between two worlds. Germans literally broke it down with hammers and pickaxes, piece by piece. The spontaneous attack against the wall came as a surprise, but not the collapse of the workers' republic. For months, thousands of East Germans had been protesting in Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, and Rostock. Day after day their number grew as well as their requests - free travel to the West, free elections, change of the current system. And it all happened - one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany.
In Bulgaria, the news of the fall of the Berlin Wall came unexpectedly. Even more unexpectedly the 10th of November came. Just a day after the collapse of the wall the regime of Todor Zhivkov also collapsed. Internal party coup toppled the longest-ruling communist dictator in Europe. Bulgarians were so shocked that even spontaneous outbursts of joy were rare. On that Friday evening the news on the national TV probably became the most watched news program on the Bulgarian National Television of all time. People stayed at home and could not believe their eyes - after 35 years in power Zhivkov was not longer the head of state and the Party. Few expected such a twist. Despite "glasnost and perestroika" and despite the demonstrations in GDR, there were no mass protests in Bulgaria, but environmental protests in Rouse and Sofia on the eve of November 10 were nothing more than demands for freedom and democracy.
So, the date of a plenum of the Communist Party has turned into a symbol of democratic changes in Bulgaria and that was why they happened this way. In the autumn of 1989 a popular souvenir on the market was an empty rose oil vial labeled "last breath of communism." Very soon it turned out that communism was far away from taking its last breath. The first democratic elections in Bulgaria were won by the already renamed Communist Party. However, we all thought that it was on November 10 when democracy "exploded." A strange verb, as according to the dictionary, the figurative meaning of "explode” is used with negative connotation to describe the start of events such as war, fire, epidemics, etc. Bulgaria actually became truly democratic years later, in the dark winter of 1996/97. It was then when people truly wanted a change of the system. They hit the streets and suffered in order to win their civic liberties and rights. Perhaps that is why the fall of the Berlin Wall is remembered in Bulgaria, but the anniversary of the start of democratic changes in this country is not celebrated.
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