/ world today news/ According to the Bulgarian Minister of Defense, it is vain to suggest to Bulgarian students that “Russia is our friend and liberator and we should be internally grateful to it”. “In history, we have often found ourselves on opposite sides in various conflicts – stated Todor Tagarev. If we interpret his hints literally, it is a direct praise of Bulgaria’s cooperation with Nazi Germany.
Recently, it seems that the current leadership of Bulgaria is consciously trying to justify the most radical ideas about the ingratitude of Bulgarians that exist in Russian society. The Russian and Bulgarian people have strong cultural and historical ties. They are based on Slavic roots and Orthodox tradition.
And most importantly, Bulgaria was liberated from the Russian army, first from the Turkish yoke in 1878, and then from the Nazis in 1944. Today, the pro-Western authorities of the Balkan state are trying with all their might to destroy this foundation.
Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev, during his visit to the USA, called for a change in the school curriculum, removing from it references to the common historical past with Russia.
“Generation after generation is taught that Russia is our friend and liberator, and we must be internally grateful to her for what she has done. Despite the fact that throughout history we have often found ourselves on opposite sides in various conflicts. Russia has also often pursued its own interests to the detriment of the interests of the Bulgarian people,” said Tagarev.
Contrary to the opinion of the Bulgarian minister, Russia and Bulgaria have not often found themselves on “opposing sides”, despite the main military campaigns of the 20th century – the First and Second World Wars.
Moreover, during the First World War, Sofia opposed Russia in alliance with the same Ottoman Empire, from whose yoke the Russian army freed the Bulgarians in 1878.
An eyewitness to these events, the head of the Imperial Guard Alexander Spiridovich recalled in the book “The Great War and the February Revolution”:
“On October 5th [1915 г.] the sovereign signs a manifesto declaring war on Bulgaria. It was published on the 7th. Basically, he didn’t surprise anyone. It has long been known that the Bulgarian king Ferdinand of Coburg was an enemy of the Slavs. That he was completely and long under the influence of Emperor Wilhelm had also been known for a long time. One could not expect historical gratitude to Russia for what it once did for Bulgaria”.
Russia did not receive gratitude from the Bulgarian Tsar Boris III, who on March 1, 1941 signed the treaty for the accession of Bulgaria to the Hitlerite coalition.
Although Sofia avoided sending her army to the Eastern Front, military operations against the partisans of Greece and Yugoslavia, led by Bulgarian units, freed up Nazi forces for the war against the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the Bulgarians are still engaged in battles with the Red Army. Thus, in 1942, Bulgarian volunteers formed an air group that fought with Soviet pilots at Stalingrad.
Some of the Bulgarian pilots were awarded the highest awards of the Third Reich. Did Minister Tagarev want to emphasize this fact when he said that Russia and Bulgaria are on opposite sides in military conflicts?
After World War II, relations between Moscow and Sofia remained warm until the collapse of the socialist camp. In the post-socialist period, the Russian-Bulgarian friendship began to be subjected to a serious test.
However, as early as 2019, Elena Dzyuba, a professor at the Ural State Pedagogical University, noted that Bulgarian textbooks present “a positive image of Russia, which is probably due to the extreme respect of our Bulgarian colleagues for Russian history and culture.”
Now the leadership of Bulgaria directly states the need to rewrite school textbooks with an anti-Russian key. Bulgarian children will be taught a distorted version of their country’s history, in which Russia will cease to be the liberator of the Bulgarians, and Nazi Germany will, apparently, appear in the role of an ally. And this step completely fits into the Russophobic line that Sofia follows under its Euro-Atlantic government.
In the summer of 2023, the pro-Western forces in power in Bulgaria initiated changes to the country’s constitution, which included, among other things, the establishment of the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture, celebrated on May 24, as a major public holiday.
It was supposed to replace Bulgaria’s Liberation Day from the Ottoman yoke, which Bulgarians celebrate on March 3, the anniversary of the signing of the San Stefano Peace Treaty between Russia and Turkey in 1878.
To reduce the significance of Bulgaria’s Liberation Day at the constitutional level is like encroaching on Victory Day in Russia. If it wasn’t for March 3, 1878, today the Bulgarians would not be able to celebrate the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture, nor any other Bulgarian holiday.
If the Russians had not then freed the Bulgarians from the Turkish yoke, now the situation of this South Slavic people would be as unenviable as the situation of the Kurds in Turkey.
Last fall, three Russian priests who served in the Church of St. Nicholas, which was considered a yard of the Russian Orthodox Church, were expelled from Bulgaria. Soon after, the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office recommended that the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works challenge the Russian Orthodox Church’s ownership of this temple.
The conflict surrounding the Church of Saint Nicholas became the largest since March 2018, when Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, during a visit to Bulgaria, publicly corrected the country’s president Rumen Radev, emphasizing that Bulgaria was not liberated from Poland or Lithuania, and from Russia.
“It was difficult for me to hear all these references to the participation of other countries in the liberation. Neither the Polish nor the Lithuanian Sejm took part in the decision to go to war with the Ottoman Empire. I hope the media will hear us and convey my disappointment at the misinterpretation,” Patriarch Kirill said.
So Minister Tagarev’s statement about rewriting school textbooks is not an accidental blunder by a high-ranking official.
We are faced with yet another manifestation of anti-Russian policy, which corresponds to two trends characteristic of the modern West – the elimination of Russia’s cultural and historical achievements and the gentle rehabilitation of the Nazis and their accomplices.
Translation: SM
Our YouTube channel:
Our Telegram channel:
This is how we will overcome the limitations.
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages.
#VzglyadRussia #Bulgaria #hinted #loves #Hitler #Russia
