A Guide to Communist Bulgaria

"A Guide to Communist Bulgaria" with new edition in English. | „Пътеводител на комунистическа България” с ново издание на английски език.

'A Guide to Communist Bulgaria' meanders through the architectural, artistic and material heritage of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and puts it in context. The book features the must-visit locations and monuments for anyone with an interest in the triumphs and failures of Bulgaria's recent past: from Buzludzha and Dimitrovgrad to stalinist Sofia, the monuments of communist guerrilla fighters and soviet soldiers, the abandoned military barracks and cinema theatres, the failed megaprojects and the nostalgia for the idealised communist past and its funny street signs.

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Communist ideology permeated the living space. It materialised through it and it turned itself into daily life. This process disciplined the urban environment so that just inhabiting it was supposed to make you a faithful Communist subject.

- Georgi Lozanov, philosopher

"A Guide to Communist Bulgaria" is also a guide to the transition to democracy and to our present... It is also a diagnosis of the Bulgarian society at the beginning of the 21st century.

- Mihail Gruev, historian

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

PLACES

- THE ARCHITECTURE OF COMMUNISM

- SOFIA

- DIMITROVGRAD

- KOVACHEVTSI

- MADAN AND RUDOZEM

- PERNIK

- PRAVETS

- BUZLUDZHA

- CREATORS OF THE BULGARIAN STATE MONUMENT

- SMOLYAN

- TSAREVETS

- INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CENTRE, PRIMORSKO

- THE NORTHWEST

- BORDERS

- LABOUR CAMPS

MONUMENTS

- LAND OF MEMORIALS

- SEPTEMBER 1923 UPRISING

- PARTIZANI

- MONUMENTS OF NATIONAL HISTORY

- RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 1877-1878

- LONG LIVE THE USSR!

- THE RED ARMY

- LENIN

- POETS AND WRITERS

- WORKERS

- SCIENTIFIC-TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS

- LOVE ETC.

- SPACE RACE

- CHILDREN AND COMMUNISM

RUINS

- RUINS OF COMMUNISM

- INDUSTRIAL RUINS

- URBAN RUNS

- FORMER COLLECTIVE FARMS

- RURAL RUINS

- MILITARY RUINS

- CINEMAS OF COMMUNISM

- ABANDONED HEALTHCARE

- ABANDONED EDUCATION

- FAILED MEGAPROJECTS

- AIRPORTS

- RELIGIOUS RUINS

MEMORIES

- LIFE AMONG GHOSTS

- NOSTALGIA

- GROUNDED PLANES

- CARS OF COMMUNISM

- BURIED TANKS

- RESIDENCES AND HUNTING LODGES

- MURALS; MOSAICS, RELIEFS

- ROADSIDE SIGNS

- COMMUNIST ADS

- AMALGAMATIONS

- ANTI-COMMUNIST MONUMENTS

- GORUNYA MONUMENT

- THE FUNNY SIGNS OF SOCIALISM

FACES

- THE PERSONALITIES

- DIMITAR BLAGOEV

- GEORGI DIMITROV

- YOUTH BRIGADIRI MOVEMENT

- TODOR ZHIVKOV

- LYUDMILA ZHIVKOVA

- GEORGI MARKOV

- THE VANGA PHENOMENON

- MANIPULATING HISTORY

AFTERWORD

GLOSSARY