In the late 1950s, Rakovski Street - known in slang as "Rucksy Street" - became a magnet for young people and youth gangs. The influence of rock and roll and the desire for the free Western lifestyle were reflected in their appearance, which the authorities deemed hooligan-like and indecent: tight pants, raincoats, "hooligan" shoes, duffle coats, and women's ponytail hairstyles. Mass arrests in early 1958, including of young people with an "indecent appearance" on Rakovski Street, sent nearly 1,800 people to the "Belene" camp.
BIAD Hall
108 Georgi S. Rakovski Street
This is where the first concert of the youth jazz orchestra "Jazz of the Young" was held. It was founded in 1946 by Lyudmil Georgiev, a student at the Second Men's High School. Lea Ivanova, one of the most popular jazz and pop singers, who was sent to the Nozarevo concentration camp several times, also sang at these concerts, and Ahinoora Kumanova, a jazz and pop singer who was arrested in the so-called Hooligan Action in January 1958 and miraculously avoided being sent to the Belene concentration camp. She later emigrated to West Germany. In 1949, a campaign against bourgeois influence was launched in the USSR, jazz was branded as bourgeois decadent music, and Lyudmil Georgiev was sent to the Chomakovtsi youth labor camp for performing American music.
Satirical Theater
26 Stefan Karadzha Street
The Satirical Theater was established in 1957. On October 1, 1962, the premiere of Improvisation by Radoy Ralin and Valeri Petrov, but the play was criticized and attacked by the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party for ideological reasons and, despite its enormous popularity, was only performed for one season. Radoy Ralin had been criticizing the authorities with his sharp satire since the 1950s.
Repeatedly censored, copies of his book Hot Peppers (1968) were seized from bookstores, and the remaining copies in the printing house were burned. On June 15, 1969, Georgi Markov's play I Was Him had a closed premiere at the Satire Theater, but it was stopped and Georgi Markov decided to go abroad. In 1978, State Security Service killed him in London because of his critical analysis of socialist reality in his Absent Reports on Bulgaria.
Maxim Bar
Bulgarian Army Theater, 98 Georgi S. Rakovski Street
After September 9, 1944, Maxim Bar became the representative restaurant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The most frequent visitor was Anton Yugov, Minister of Internal Affairs, with his entourage. The most frequent visitor was Anton Yugov, Minister of Internal Affairs, with his entourage. Despite the dominance of Soviet music, the orchestra of virtuoso violinist Alexander Nikolov (Sasho Sladura) performed only French chansons and tangos. Sladura told jokes even to those in power about themselves - an audacity for which he paid the highest price, as even listening to jokes was persecuted by the authorities. In 1959, he was sentenced to one year in prison for this, and in September 1961, he was sent without trial or sentence to the Lovech camp, where he was killed a few days later.
Crystal Garden
between Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, G. S. Rakovski Street, and 6th September Street
In 1987, mass protests broke out in Ruse against air pollution from the chemical plant in the Romanian city of Giurgiu, on the other side of the Danube. Citizens wore masks, and mothers with strollers took to the front lines. None of them sought a political career or publicity. These protests marked the beginning of the Ekoglasnost movement, which was later established in Sofia, at the House of Cinema. On October 14, 1989, Ekoglasnost began collecting signatures in the Crystal Garden against new hydroelectric construction in Rila.
On October 14, 1989, Ekoglasnost began collecting signatures in the Crystal Garden against new hydroelectric construction in Rila and urban pollution. By the 1980s, the place had already established itself as a hub of youth culture. A few days later, on October 26, the police dispersed the crowd with beatings and arrests of about 20 activists. A woman's shoe was left on the ground, remembered by the people of Sofia as "Sofia's Cinderella," a symbol of civic courage at the end of the regime.
St. Sophia Church and St. Alexander Nevsky Square
On November 3, 1989, several thousand people gathered at St. Sophia Church to submit the Ekoglasnost petition with over 11,000 signatures against the Rila-Mesta project, which would divert water from Rila to Sofia. In front of the National Assembly, the demonstrators chanted: "Freedom," "Democracy." This was the first mass demonstration against communist rule in the capital since the late 1940s.
On November 18, 1989, the first mass demonstration of the political opposition against the regime takes place in front of the cathedral. However, the organizers do not allow Ilia Minev, who spent decades in Bulgarian prisons because of his political beliefs and is the chairman of the first anti-communist human rights organization in Bulgaria, to speak. The long-standing efforts of the DS to profile and isolate him bore fruit. On December 10, 1989, between 50,000 and 100,000 people took part in a rally of the newly formed SDS, an alliance of all opposition parties. The philosopher Zhelyu Zhelev was the leader of the democratic movement. The square became a symbol of democratic change in Bulgaria.
At the end of 1984, the communist regime launched a large-scale campaign of forced assimilation of Turks and Muslims under the shameful name “Revival Process.” Within two months, the names of 822,588 people were forcibly changed. In May 1989, Turks and Muslims took to the streets in peaceful protests, remembered in history as the May Events. These demonstrations were brutally dispersed by the militia, resulting in deaths and injuries.
On May 29, 1989, Todor Zhivkov announced the opening of the border with Turkey, which led to a mass exodus cynically called the “Great Excursion.” By the end of August 1989, 309,592 people had left the country before Turkey closed the border. Bulgaria fell into even greater international isolation, and the issue of human rights became central to the opposition and public debate.
After the changes at the top of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) on November 10, 1989, Turks and Muslims in Bulgaria raised an even stronger civic voice. With their presence in the square in front of the National Assembly on December 29, 1989, they forced the BCP to restore their names.
National Assembly
On May 29, 1947, the leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BZNS) and the united opposition, Nikola Petkov, rejected the Communist Party's draft of a new constitution because it did not guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens.
Until then, the BZNS had been part of the Fatherland Front, but the increasingly open and brutal actions of the Communist Party against all its opponents left no room for compromise. Until then, the BZNS had been part of the Fatherland Front, but the increasingly open and brutal actions of the Communist Party against any of its opponents left no doubt that a totalitarian regime based on the Soviet model was being imposed. Nikola Petkov declared: "Only a constitution based on political and economic freedom and equality of rights will create the pure and holy republic of the greatest idealist, Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski.
"The trial of Nikola Petkov and the legal opposition was prepared for nearly a year. On June 5, 1947, the National Assembly received a request from the prosecutor to lift his immunity. Prime Minister Georgi Dimitrov threatened him: "This may be your last chance to speak. These are your last words here." Petkov replied: "And my last words as a human being will be: long live freedom!" He was arrested in the hall of the National Assembly by armed militiamen.
As part of the measures to eliminate the opposition and clear the way for one-party rule, the BZNS was banned.
On December 14, 1989, the National Assembly postponed the vote on removing Article 1 of the Constitution on the leading role of the Bulgarian Communist Party, and thousands of people, mainly students, formed a human chain around the parliament building. Tension mounted and the crowd was ready to attack the National Assembly building, but the leaders of the Union of Democratic Forces (a coalition of opposition parties) called on the protesters to disperse peacefully.
Booed, the then head of state Petar Mladenov, one of the leaders of the self-proclaimed internal party opposition to Todor Zhivkov (former foreign minister), says: "It is best for the tanks to come." This phrase became a symbol of the communist leadership's inability to think according to the rules of democracy and the non-violent exercise of power. After intense public pressure and protests, these words led to the resignation of Petar Mladenov as president in the summer of 1990.
The Fate of Ari Leshnikov
Entrance Ariana
Asparuh Leshnikov was an operetta and pop singer, one of the founders of the German vocal sextet "Comedian Harmonists" in 1928, which gained worldwide fame, touring extensively around the world, and whose performances can be heard in dozens of films starring the great cinema legends of the time. When the Nazis came to power, their performances became unwelcome, and some of the group members, who were Jewish, emigrated. The members who remained in Germany formed the group "Meistersixet," but due to censorship and restrictions imposed by the Nazi regime, they did not enjoy the same success as before. In 1938, Ari Leshnikov returned to Bulgaria, where he was also extremely popular. After the communist coup, Ari Leshnikov sang his urban hits at the Europa Circus, but they contradicted the socialist spirit. There are unconfirmed reports that he was briefly deported and forced to load coal. To make a living, he sang in restaurants, at balls, and at parties. In 1953-1954, he worked as a porter. From 1954 to 1958, he was a general worker in a metal construction company. From 1960 to 1965, he was a cleaner in Borisova Garden, the Park of Freedom. It was not until the late 1960s and 1970s that restrictions were lifted, but by then he was already elderly, and the time for his music had passed.
