The Lost World of Bulgarian Communism
In studies of the Soviet bloc and its afterlives, Bulgaria has attracted little attention. But the country’s history, from wartime partisan resistance to state socialism to postcommunist collapse, is essential to understanding the history of the 20th century.
Bulgarians, like other Eastern Europeans, have in recent years gravitated toward cultural artifacts from their country’s socialist past, like the Buzludzha monument in central Bulgaria. (Getty Images)
Bulgaria didn’t attract the same attention as other countries in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. It was never likely to be the cause of a hot war between the superpowers, and its leader, Todor Zhivkov, didn’t possess the same notoriety as figures like Enver Hoxha in Albania or the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. Yet Bulgaria has a fascinating history of its own, which sheds light on the experience of twentieth-century state socialism.
Kristen Ghodsee is professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s the author of several works about communism in Eastern Europe and Bulgaria in particular, including The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe and, with Mitchell Orenstein, Taking Stock of Shock: Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions.
This is an edited transcript from an episode of Jacobin Radio’s Long Reads podcast. You can listen to the episode here.
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