Photo: archive, BGNES
Russia may consider moving Soviet monuments from Bulgaria to its territory. This was stated by the Russian ambassador in Sofia, Eleonora Mitrofanova, in an interview with RTVI television, quoted by TASS.
“I think it is possible to put the question in this way, of course,” Mitrofanova said in response to a question about whether the Russian Foreign Ministry assumed that if the situation worsened, it would have to take the monuments away from Bulgaria. “As for the monument to the Soviet Army, it was cut to pieces and it takes a lot of money and a lot of work to put it back together,” she added.
The monument to the Soviet Army is at the disposal of the regional governor of the Sofia region in his capacity as a state body, which, according to the Law on State Property, manages the property – private state property, according to a decree of the Council of Ministers dated December 8, 2023.
Mitrofanova stated that the current situation with the monuments in Bulgaria originates from the Monument to the Soviet Army, which, according to her, they have been trying to remove from the center of Sofia since 1992. “In the end, they managed to “solve” this issue. Then in Plovdiv, two MPs from a pro-European party announced the removal of the Alyosha monument. This was not supported either in the City Council or the City Hall, not to mention the people , who were ready to go to defend this monument,” said the Russian ambassador in Sofia.
Mitrofanova added that the situation with the removal of the “Alyosha” monument “is pending”.
At the beginning of the year, municipal councilors from the group “Continuing the change – Democratic Bulgaria” submitted a proposal to the Municipal Council of Plovdiv to relocate “Alyosha” by the end of 2024. The arguments of the proposal say that the monument is a symbol of the occupation of Bulgaria between 1944-1947 by the Red Army and is a symbol of suppressed national dignity, as well as that it misrepresents the historical reality. According to the petitioners, the removal of the monument is a moral act that aims to honor Bulgarian history, national dignity and the victims of the totalitarian communist regime.
In mid-December, the dismantling of the Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, erected in 1954 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the entry of Soviet troops into Bulgaria during World War II in 1944, began. The fate of the monument was the subject of heated debates since the beginning of the transition to democracy and market economy in 1989. In the end, the Bulgarian authorities made the decision to move it to the Museum of Socialist Art.
The monument to the Soviet Army has its place in the Museum of Socialist Art. He has no place in the center of Sofia. This was stated by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov to journalists on December 18 in a comment on the dismantling of the monument.
“This is a propaganda monument, it has no cultural value. It is not a military monument. This is part of the control of the Bulgarian state with the removal of democracy in it by the relevant occupying Soviet troops and then by the totalitarian state. It is high time to part with this past. It should go to museums, we are not saying it should disappear. It should be studied as part of our history,” Denkov pointed out. (BTA)
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2024-02-05 17:00:00
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