September 9 marks 73 years since one of the most controversial dates in Bulgaria’s modern history. On that day in 1944 the Fatherland Front led by PM Kimon Georgiev seized political power in Bulgaria. Soon after that the communist regime took over and the communist party stood at the helm of the country until 10 November 1989.

September 9 is celebrated today by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and various communist formations, while the centrist and right-minded parties see the date as the beginning of communist outrage.

Bulgarian society too, is still divided in its assessments of September 9. For some, this is a bright date because they see it as the day of the country’s liberation from something perceived as a fascist regime, and for others it is the fall of Bulgaria under the Soviet boot.

“I still believe in what I wrote years ago on the occasion of this date. In our society September 9 has always drawn a line of division. Both sides have their irrefutable motives”, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev wrote in his account on Facebook answering the question, “What is September 9, a date of a revolution or a coup?”

“To me”, he writes, “ït is neither of the two. It is an occasion for reconciliation, an occasion to demonstrate wisdom and finally make the step to a constructive reconciliation with the past. We owe that to ourselves”, the President points out. “Let us pay homage to all innocent victims before and after September 9, to all who died with a mission for Bulgaria”, Rumen Radev also writes.