The extraordinary in an ordinary book* – 2024-02-13 20:43:08

/ world today news/ In the book “STANDING ON THE HILL ALYOSHA…” everything is ordinary. Because it speaks in a delicate and accessible way about the innermost things in the life of a person who remembers the horrors of the Second World War and feels a sense of reverence for the feat of all those who died or survived in the cruel struggle with the fascist beast.

The heroes are the most ordinary people from the last decades and nowadays – sculptors, stonemasons, composers, poets, writers, teachers, soldiers, journalists, workers, nameless residents of Plovdiv, the country and beyond.

All of them, with their actions and expressed thoughts, have written a true and close history.

The characters are all people from the people’s lowlands: those who see in the standing granite Russian soldier at the top of Plovdiv’s Bunardzhik not the Soviet Army – according to some a liberator, and according to others not, but an ordinary and at the same time great brother and friend who sacrificed himself for to rid the world of fascism in World War II.

Mothers from the countries of the former Soviet Union see their dead or missing son in “Alyosha”.

Orphaned children recognize in him their heroic father, brother or grandfather.

Citizens of Europe and America consider him a friend of John or Pierre, of Andrzej, Lubisha or Manolis, a comrade-in-arms of one of their close compatriots whom they know or assume fought side by side with the Russians in the armies and partisan formations for the defeat of fascism.

The power of the impact of the speech increases due to the wonderful combination of documentary with artistic-journalistic interpretations and summaries, which is an undeniable highlight of the author.

He himself is part of the living history of the birth, construction and spreading of the name “Alyosha” across borders, generations and years as the secretary of the Committee for the construction of the monument, and he is also a long-time journalist who has written hundreds of articles and several journalistic books.

Perhaps this is the reason why the reader feels deeply moved by the story close to his soul about how hundreds of thousands of citizens of Plovdiv and the region, people from all corners of the country parted ways and built “Alyosha” in the difficult post-war years, how they christen him with this caressing and close-to-the-heart name, swear fidelity and love to each other, or silently lay flowers before his strong figure.

And how, decades later, they did not allow it to be destroyed, despite the demonstrative determination of the city authorities to erase the monument from the face of the city.

The author is convinced that with this respectable civil act of protecting the honest name of our Motherland, the ordinary people of the city under the hills will remain in history not only as builders, but also as guardians of what was built before them.

Our people are good, and they will soon forget the measures of the unrealized destroyers – creators of a time-denied ideological confrontation and a policy of dividing the nation, who with their grotesque, insane and fruitless efforts can produce nothing but indignation and ridicule in the people of today and bewilderment and shame among future generations. Probably many of their descendants would not want to be identified with the deeds of their ancestors.

If we follow one of the noblest traditions of our ancestors, we could say, as the khan also said in the long-ago days of the first construction of the Bulgarian state: let the last born remember those who built and protected from evil hands this monument of the simple and genuine appreciation of the Bulgarian for the feat and self-sacrifice of the unknown soldier in the name of goodness.

The extraordinary in an ordinary book is what grabs the reader, because it tells casually and precisely about the simple but timeless common humanistic values ​​and thus becomes a dream for every author.

In the work that Vasil Naydenov presents us, we see perhaps such a dream realized.

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* The essay is a preface to the book “Alyosha stands on the hill…”(IC “Zhanet-45”, 2002)

It was written as a sign of fulfillment of the last testamentary will of the wife of the author Vasil Naydenov – Elena, addressed to her husband a few days before he moved to the afterlife: “You must write the book about Alyosha!”.

I became an unwitting witness to this moving and touching conversation between the two. And I spontaneously asked what was so powerful about Alyosha that it would occupy an important place in these moments.

Elena said that in his youth, Vasil was one of the enthusiastic creators of “Alyosha” and since then the fate of the monument became an integral part of his life, and later of their family.

At the border between the 20th and the 21st century, anxiety naturally covers the two spouses, as well as the thousands of Plovdiv residents and citizens of our Motherland, when evil forces are about to destroy the monument.

After a few days, Elena left. Despite his advanced age, Vasil worked on the book persistently: day after day he went to the National Library, looked for material after material, rattled away on his old and faithful typewriter. I took the excerpts one by one and typed them into the computer. He read the printouts and changed what he thought was necessary. When he took the finished text in his hands, Vasil asked me to write the foreword. I accepted after much persuasion on his part.

The book can be taken as a worthy response to malicious intrusions. And perhaps there is a contribution to the preservation of the monument. As well as for enriching the Bulgarian memory of the past dramatic historical events.

The work was presented at the Russian Cultural and Information Center on May 8, 2002 as part of the Program for the 57th Anniversary of Victory Day. I think it was met with interest and approval.

In the present publication, the difference with the original text of the preface is the transmission of its content with more new lines, as well as with some minor abbreviations.

I decided to offer this essay now to the attention of the intelligent readers of Pogled Info – a whole 22 years after the publication of the book, because the problem of “Alyosha” acquires a new and special relevance today due to the evil will of the destroyers of Bulgarian memory.

The verses of Grandfather Vazov apply to their insane efforts: “Tyrants, let the seas rise! It doesn’t go out where it doesn’t go out! The flame you put out today will grow like a volcano!”

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