In 2017 the world marks 28 years since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Many of the crimes and repressions of the regime still remain unrevealed. Bulgaria has been imprisoned within the vicious circle of its own past over these nearly three decades and any attempt for some change clashes with the fierce opposition of the status quo.

The Day of Remembrance and Respect to Victims of the Communist Regime gives us a reason to speak with journalist Hristo Hristov – a person who has devoted the past 6 years of his life to the fight for the revealing of the truth on this country’s communist past. His websites dese.bg and pamet.com are an encyclopedia which is constantly updated and which is a must read to everyone, willing to see the inconvenient truth within the darkness of communism. Mr. Hristov also comments the current problems in Bulgaria:

"Today Bulgaria is ruled by oligarchs and policy has turned into business, while business has become policy. We are a smaller replica of what we see in Russia. We need to be critical towards ourselves, as obviously we are not well enough organized in a civil society and there is not enough activity. Key moments of decommunisation have been skipped and now it’s a public secret that in Bulgaria those processes have been interrupted, with the exception perhaps of the former State Security files’ opening. However, the latter began with a delay of 16 years, so in fact the network of agents and the people who controlled it did their job."

Mr. Hristov says that we can’t chase away the ghost of the past until the currently blocked processes of decommunisation remain incomplete. The numerous half-truths or real lies, showing only the positive side of communism give some hopes to many that those times will be back. The ghost of communism once again reminds of himself, lying in a beautiful, but false manner.

An essential part of the puzzle is to hear the truth about the communist regime even at school. The journalist expresses his bitterness that the previous government found no strength and will to solve the problem with the study of communism during history classes at school. One can hardly point at the heaviest communist crimes, but still:

"Perhaps the labor camps or Chernobyl were the most serious crimes, as the camps copied the Soviet model and in 1986 when the Ukrainian nuclear power plant burst, the food and water of the communist elite were imported from Austria in secured vessels, while the average Bulgarians had to march on May 1 under the radioactive cloud. The consequences of Chernobyl will influence this nation’s future at least within one more decade."

A decree of the Council of Ministers ruled in 2011 that February 1 would be designated a Day of Remembrance and Respect to Victims of the Communist Regime. 72 years ago on this date the so-called People’s Court sentenced to death the three regents – Prince Kiril Preslavski, Prof. Bogdan Filov and Gen. Nikola Mikhov, alongside 22 ministers, 67 MPs of the 24^th National Assembly, 47 generals and high-ranking officers and 8 counselors of the tsar. The People’s Court issued a total of 9,550 sentences for its 135 trials. 2,730 people were sentenced to death and 305 would remain in prison for life. The number of those executed before the trials remains unknown. A huge amount of properties, objects and companies were confiscated by the state and the families of the sentenced persons were deployed across remote regions of the state.

We must remember the past and learn its lessons, as a nation which is unaware of its history is doomed to repeat it. We have too many and too dangerous mistakes in ours, in order to be able to afford making them again…

English version: Zhivko Stanchev