/ world today news/ Many things were said about the burning of the Party House.
There are also exaggerations or outright fabrications.
This is our standard – years have passed, the main participants or witnesses are gone, it’s enough to spew whatever you want.
Now, after the burning of the crane that was supposed to dismantle the monument in front of the NDK, it seemed appropriate to me to show something from the night of August 26, 1990 – without any pretensions, with small video clips – as filmed by Hristo Minchev from Pazardzhik, on whom the crowd called Kongo, for some unknown reason.
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In “Trophies After the Fire”, for example, it’s fun to see what the participants in the events – in this case, all young guys – marvel at.
It’s amazing how keenly they show the toilet paper they found in the Party House.
A young man says: “Hey, they had a good life!”
Others pile up the found sausages – that year was the time of the real shortage.
Someone says, with obvious astonishment, reading from the party chair’s menu: “Veal tenderloin – one lev and ten cents!”
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For these guys, that’s the immorality, that’s the crime.
The poor ones.
Years later, Kremikovtsi was sold for $1 – the same as the price of a beef tenderloin.
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In “Trophies” you can also hear a curious phrase.
It was spoken by Vice President Semerdzhiev, who had the courage, the only one among the leaders of the BKP, to mix with the crowd.
He says this: “Come with me to see that there are no people tied to the radiators to burn in the fire!”
Can you imagine what they suggested that night.
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The participation of Radoy Ralin in the drama is extremely curious.
For history, he and Yosif Petrov, whom Radoy brought with him to television, will probably remain as the unwitting instigators of the arson.
For the first time that Sunday I was not on TV, the “Every Sunday” program was made up of pre-recorded conversations and I stayed at home.
We struggled with the children with a library, we still couldn’t put it together, when Jenny, my wife, appeared – there was some problem, Velichko Skorchev insisted on contacting me by phone.
I tried to divert the conversation, but Velichko, who was one of the leading newsmen at the time, persistently insisted that we hear each other.
I picked up the receiver and he explained to me that Radoy and Bai Yosif Petrov, the oldest deputy at the time, had come to the television and insisted on making a speech.
I quickly understood what it was all about and asked, “What’s on the air right now?”
“The feature film” – replied Velichko.
“Cut it off,” I said, “and put them directly on the air.”
Nothing like this had ever happened before or since.
But I was the program director of the television and practically had all the power at that time.
Velichko did it – and literally in a few minutes the square was filled with thousands of people.
And it began…
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Later, I joked many times that they actually set fire to the party house because of a library that we couldn’t assemble for hours. Actually, we finally succeeded and then we saw that we couldn’t put a red drawer in its place – because it had to be put in beforehand.
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I later watched the recording with Radoy – and I was slightly surprised.
I thought he was a lot more upbeat, that’s how I’ve kept that episode in my memory.
It turned out that he was very restrained, and he hardly expected what would happen in a few minutes.
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Three days after the arson, Radoy found me in the parliament – we had a permanent studio there and I had come to see my colleagues on some occasion.
He was absolutely devastated, I’ve never seen him like this.
He told me he wanted to make another appeal.
That would be something really extraordinary.
But Radoy is Radoy, exceptions were made – so I immediately ordered that he be recorded, and the recording broadcast on the late news.
Then they were called “At the end of the day”.
Radoy’s speech was shocking.
He who had welcomed the change with all his heart and done the hard work of the New Democrats, whose prestige and prominence were nil compared to his own, had suddenly found himself an incendiary.
He was probably severely pressured by leftist circles.
And he himself was a subject of the leftist idea for years – but the pure one, not the violent one – before he left it irretrievably.
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In the short material that you will see under the title “The Fire”, there is also something truly unique.
It is the invitation to the Vice President General Atanas Semerdzhiev to dissolve the parliament.
Semerdzhiev wrote about this in his memoir, however, in general, this fact remained unknown.
But hearing it with your own ears is another.
And then you can reflect on the events of that night…
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#fire #invitation #coup
