Today’s heirs of the former communist party, who draw red lines, should not first of all give up the past of their ancestors, who are the main culprits of what is happening today between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, asks the President of Bulgaria (1997 – 2002)
“The shadow of State Security was everywhere.” This was stated by the President of Bulgaria (1997-2002) Petar Stoyanov and told specific stories from his biography in which he was stopped in various directions because of his father’s file.
“Until I graduated from high school, my family didn’t talk about my father’s background. Of course they protected me. almost immediately after 9th September he was tried. The main charge was nationalism. He went to the central prison in Sofia. Ironically, years later, my grandmother told me how lucky he was to go to prison, because after 9th September many people were killed without a trial. And there is still a known rule in prison. After his release from prison, he was sent to a concentration camp. By the way, Dimitar Talev and Professor Mikhail Arnaudov were also there. Also Dimitar Talev was tried for nationalism.In the questionnaire he filled out, he was obliged to write a foreign language – “Macedonian”.I wonder a lot about today’s heirs of the former Communist Party ta, who draw red lines, if they should not first denounce or renounce the past of their ancestors who are the main culprits of what is happening today between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia.
But – the shadow of State Security was everywhere.
I had just graduated from law school. I entered a contest. I had very fresh knowledge, I performed very well. The commission of three professors left me after the exam to tell me: “You are one of the people who is clearly winning the competition”. It was about specialization in Western Europe. “We don’t have qualified specialists in insurance law, so we want to send young and good specialists to learn this subject. I waited, waited, waited, I asked once or twice. They answered me quite evasively. My mother, who is quite ambitious , I was able to find contacts to understand that it would not happen. Go, but what is this uncle stefan’s file? What did he do?” She asked me about my father. By dossier I mean those Communist State Security files where everything is well explained, who you are, where you come from and so on.
Months before November 1989, Plovdiv television was broadcasting an interesting program “Address 4000” and I was invited to occasionally give short interviews related to marriages, divorces and so on. One of the presenters at one time became party secretary. And they almost didn’t invite me as a co-host. Empty vanity – I agreed. And suddenly – silence. Before that we communicated twice a week. I understood what it was. Much later, the husband of one of the presenters almost at midnight in a Plovdiv pub in a state of frankness said: “You know, brother, everyone wanted you to stay, to be part of this show, but they came from the Security of State and they said, ‘No, it can’t.’ They defended you, they said the show was taped, it could always be stopped, that it was about marriage and divorce. ‘No, no – not a word. With this past, he can’t go on.
I say all this with a clear awareness that I have not been repressed. I was even less of a hero under communism. I would compare our life with the life of those herds that today’s breeders surround them with the so-called electronic shepherd. If you move into the designated territory, your pasture, you survive, you are alive. However, if you touch the electronic shepherd, if you try to get out of this territory, it takes you back, because the current flows through it,” Petar Stoyanov said in an interview with “Nova News”.
According to him, in January 1996, the SDF held a conversation about the presidential candidacy, but given the dominance of the BSP, there weren’t many interested parties. “I failed to convince Petar Konstantinov, and Yordan Sokolov also liked me. One day Ivan Kostov told me that his wife and daughter thought I was suitable. Wandering about what to do, SDS – Sofia nominated me as a candidate, and from Since then, things have developed according to a clear scenario,” Stoyanov said.
Talk about communism, transition, crises.
In three days it will be 26 years since the events of January 10, 1997. Bulgaria was then on the verge of civil war. The savings of Bulgarians burned in failed banks. Hyperinflation devalued the leva to the point that a loaf of bread cost 400 leva. And only in the morning.
In the evening, this same bread already cost 450 BGN. Some may have forgotten what calamity had befallen the country. Then, in 1997, Petar Stoyanov had just been elected president and had become the only head of state since the days of the tsar who was not a member of the BKP. The greatest crisis in modern history caught him even before he crossed the threshold of the presidency.
