Bulgaria is the East European country that is most sluggish in shedding its communist past - say observers inside and outside the country. Though there is ample proof and the lack of freedom, of pluralism, the fake morality and the brutal repression of dissenters are still fresh in collective memory, there are a great many people who say that in totalitarian times, life was better, safer and everything was cheaper. What the cost of this “security” is, is a question they prefer to leave unanswered.

Yet, the search for the answer to this and other such questions should begin at school. If you want to understand the world your parents, and their parents before them lived in, you have to know the past; if you don't you are doomed to repeat it.

That was the appeal launched at a conference held in Sofia on Monday: “Knowledge and values - studying (or not) totalitarian regimes at Bulgarian schools”. More about the motives for holding the conference from one of its organizers - journalist Hristo Hristov:

“First of all people from the “Truth and memory” foundation - we have been working on these problems for a long time, reevaluating the totalitarian communist past. With this civic organization we have been rallying efforts to stop the falsification of Bulgaria's history. With the silence the institutions have been keeping in recent years, this has not been happening. We do not want to be accomplices, we want young people to be well informed, we want the reform to be put through in Bulgarian education.”

At a meeting with Minister of Education Meglena Kuneva in May, representatives of the “Truth and memory” foundation presented a list of the most important facts and processes from the time of communism, which they think should be incorporated into the new history textbooks. They include: the bankruptcy of the country, the residence permits, the total control of media and the lack of freedom of speech, the confiscation of private property and many more. The sides agreed then that it is important to study the communist regime at school. Yet, inexplicably, the Ministry of Education did not send representatives to the conference. So, there is no way of knowing the position of the people who will decide whether to include this period in history textbooks. However, after the end of the conference, Minister Kuneva commented that what will be included in the history lessons about the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria depends on the authors of the textbooks.

People who are against the study of communism at school say there is no universal view of what Bulgaria was like over those 45 years. They say that for some the regime was a time of terror, humiliation and suppression, but that for others life back then was safe, well organized and predictable. A survey conducted in 2014, 25 years after the fall of the regime, showed that 55 percent of the respondents have a positive attitude to Todor Zhivkov as a person embodying the communist regime in Bulgaria, stated MEP Andrey Kovatchev at the discussion and added:

“History should not be left or right wing. It should be objective, based on historical fact. I was asked what the good things in communism we could borrow are, not everything was bad… Of course, there have been happy times under any regime for each one of us, but they cannot have anything to do with any gratitude we owe the Bulgarian Communist Party, they are part of the personal lives of us all. If one was to talk to people who have lived under Adolf Hitler in Germany, there are sure to be people who lived a happy life. That does not mean this can nullify the horrors of the regime. Bulgaria's isolation, the ruination of the economy, the offer to make Bulgaria the 16th republic of the USSR, not just once but several times. The act of treason with regard to Macedonia and our compatriots there and, of course the Pirin region cannot be ignored…”

The participants in the discussion agreed that giving young people knowledge of our recent past is essential if we want to have an active and educated rising generation. Unless that is done, there is always a risk that the aberrations of communism will be repeated.

English version: Milena Daynova