/ world today news/ During the time of socialism, there were talented poets-patrons of power. One such, a former partisan, Veselin Andreev was a deputy and at one time secretary of the Union of Bulgarian Writers. Another – Georgi Jagarov, was even a member of the Central Committee of the BKP. Third – Stefan Tsanev was not a member of the BKP, but he was printed in mass circulations, in 1960 the communist authorities sent him to study drama in Moscow, after which he became a playwright in prominent capital and provincial theaters, and he repaid her with suitable poems .
But democracy came and everything in the state and in the souls of the three poets turned upside down. The proud and honest partisan poet, Veselin Andreev could not survive the shame of the failure of the ideas he had fought for and committed suicide. Georgi Jagarov, scared that he was about to fall from a height and hurt him badly, disgraced himself by throwing away his party ticket. The third, Stefan Tsanev, the following month after November 1989, published the poem “Project for a Monument”, in which he described how Lenin had gazed into the distance,
“and below,
of covenant under his huge heel
sleeps a smiling beggar
and dreamed of communism.”
Of course, there were still no beggars in December 1989, they would appear on the streets later, but it was important for Tsanev to float on top of the anti-communist wave in a flash and thus pass to the other side of the barricade. And on January 11, 1997, one day after the storming of the parliament by the Blues to overthrow the government of Jean Videnov, he published an appeal: “Communists, go in peace!”. He even published a novel “Ants and Gods”, glorifying the mountaineers, in which the communists committed atrocities, such as shooting, those who did not want to enter the TKZS – a historical untruth, there was indeed violence, but no shootings.
Here and now, Stefan Tsanev did not fail to appear in his new role as an active fighter against socialism and communism. He published an open letter to the Minister of Culture, Vezhdi Rashidov, in which he says that he does not want to accept the “Golden Century” award on the occasion of his 80th anniversary, because Dimitar Ivanov (professor, journalist and historian), a former university an official of State Security, “the most sinister repressive institution of the former totalitarian regime”. What a valiant moral act…. unless one has read one of his poems “To the Chekists” from the time of totalitarianism, in which, among other things, he writes:
“And Chekists are walking –
with sharp profiles
and attentive full face,
in Moscow and Sofia –
invisible fronts
on the streets
everywhere
in ourselves…”
By the “chekists” in Sofia, the poet naturally refers to the employees of the “sinisterly repressive” DS.
The interesting thing is that Stefan Tsanev is in a hurry to refuse an award that no one has yet offered him, there was such an offer, but it has not yet reached the desk of the Minister of Culture. In a written reply to the poet, Vezhdi Rashidov explains that the award proposals are approved by a committee, according to the proposals received, and kindly reminds him that in the recent past he himself, as the Minister of Culture, proposed and signed Tsanev to be awarded the National Award “Christ G. Danov”, along with cash. And the writer Hristo Ivanov, on the occasion of Tsanev’s refusal to accept the award, sent him an open letter in which he reminded him: “He complied with the Party’s orders and as the Chief Playwright of the Sofia Theater… And the Chief Playwright was also the chief censor of the theater that Kolyo Georgiev, the youngest, only sixteen years old, sentenced to death by the fascist court before September 9, and then, when Kolyo was trying to turn this theater into the Bulgarian “Taganka” and a dissident hangout, you wrote: “When you speak boring about Communism, so you’re talking against Communism.”
But let’s go back to the creative past of the anti-communist poet during the times of socialism and communism. In 1965, he published the collection of poems “Chronicles”, which contains two interesting poems. One is entitled “Etude”, in which Stefan Tsanev expresses his admiration for socialist construction.
“Under my window
children built Bulgaria…
TPP “Maritsa-Iztok”.
Kremikovci.
And the new
new-
cities unknown to us…
The children built the homeland
of his future.”
It is known that the children then built communism.
In the collection of poems from 1965, there is another poem – “Museum of the Revolution”, dedicated to his visit to the museum, which was located on the former “Ruski” Blvd. and dedicated to the communists who died in the fight against fascism and capitalism. The poet looks at their photographs and writes:
“I came to steal
The fire from your mass graves.
He needs the living more.”
and further on:
“You did not die for us to sigh
for you
in the impression books…”
and to the finale with pathos:
“People and stanzas may be crossed out,
but the revolution – no!”
In 1967, in another poem, “Tradition”, dedicated to Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Tsanev wrote:
“A poet writes poems about communism
on Stolypin’s desk.
The desk is nice.
And the verses are nice.”
Five years later, in 1972, Tsanev created the poem “I ask!”, in which he stated with unyielding determination:
“Our faith cannot be hanged, nor shot.
It cannot be locked behind any locks.
Our faith – I swear to you: watch! –
can
in words to drown”.
When democracy came, after November 1989, the poet turned the tables and was reborn as an anti-communist from a poet of the communist system. Like all anti-communists, Moscow graduate Stefan Tsanev is also a Russophobe. In 2013, he stated that Boyko Borisov fell from power “because he threatened Russian interests”, and about Russia he said that “we are her strategic territory and she will never let us out of her arms”.
It must be admitted that Stefan Tsanev has his reasons for hating the communists, they shot his aunt, Tsenka Stefanova Georgieva, after September 9. She was the leader of a Highlander detachment, participated in battles against the Ministry of Internal Affairs and received a death sentence, which was carried out after she was captured. But if the communists killed your aunt and you hated them for that reason, and let’s assume because of your convictions, then why didn’t you become a dissident, but went to sing about the sacrifices these communists made and the new system they are building, while at the same time drawing on the benefits that the communist government provides you? The same thing happened again after November 1989, when Stefan Tsanev suddenly became an enemy of communism and on this basis he once again drew benefits from the new rulers. What else could this be called but colloquialism and duplicity? He was a full-time dramatist at the Sofia Theater from 1996 to 2008, the director of which is his wife Dorothea Toncheva, and in 2007 he staged his play “Life, These Are Two Women” in the family theater, especially for the 60th anniversary to his wife. Today, three of his daughters live abroad, the hated communist government has given him a luxurious apartment in a block of cultural figures in the prestigious “Iztok” district in Sofia, and he also has a villa in Balchik.
It cannot be denied that Stefan Tsanev, excluding his prose works, is an outstanding Bulgarian poet. Now 80 years old, there is nothing more to achieve than to wisely put aside the unseemly political acrobatics he continues to perform. But old age does not guarantee that one will become wiser, and as they say, it is never too late, even in old age, to trim oneself.
#active #fighter #socialism #capitalism #Stefan #Tsanev
