After September 9, 1944, the Directorate of the People's Militia was located here. Some of those detained in the first months were killed without trial or sentence, others were killed during the investigation or were brought before the so-called People's Court and in subsequent political trials. On May 24, 1945, Mara Racheva, the 24-year-old secretary of G. M. Dimitrov, leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union "Pladne," was brutally murdered here. the 24-year-old secretary of G. M. Dimitrov, leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union "Pladne," and in October 1948, the social democrat Lyudmila Slavova was doused with boiling water and died a few days later.
Passport Department of the Ministry of Interior
44-46 Knyaginya Maria Luiza Blvd.
The Ministry of Interior Passport Department in the 1970s and 1980s. The severely restricted right to travel was an element of total control, a means of isolation from the free world, of recruitment through blackmail, and of harassment of emigrated Bulgarians and their relatives.
Lenin Monument
Lenin Square (now St. Nedelya Square)
The Lenin Monument in Sofia, located near the site of the current statue of Saint Sofia opposite the former Party House building, is a symbol of communist rule, the ideology of the Bulgarian Communist Party, and the leading role of the USSR. It was dismantled in 1990 on the pretext that it was obstructing the construction of the new metro.
Party Seat and "Triangle of Power"
Knyaz Alexander I Square
The Party Seat is part of the new Stalinist center of the capital, built on the site of the old commercial center damaged by the war. The idea is to concentrate the institutions of communist power there - a symbol of its new face.
The decision was made at the end of 1945, and the project was designed by Bulgarian architects, but at the insistence of the Politburo, its final appearance was imposed by a Soviet architect. Construction took place between 1950 and 1953, at the height of the Stalinization of the Bulgarian state. Repression against dissenters was harsh and indiscriminate, but among various strata of Bulgarian society there was still hope that with the help of Western powers Bulgaria could return to a democratic path of development. The persecution of the "former people" (the urban elites and state officials of interwar Bulgaria), the activists of the VMRO and the violent seizure of land from peasants sparked armed resistance in various regions of Bulgaria, known as the Gorian movement. Its uncoordinated and regional nature doomed it to failure against the well-organized communist militia and internal troops.
The construction of the Party House in the center of Sofia during those years became a symbol of the erased "old," the crushed resistance, and the unshakable power of the BCP. Similarly, the end of one-party communist rule in 1989-1990 was marked by the removal of the huge five-pointed star from the Party House's flagpole. In an attempt to erase the crimes committed by the regime, on August 26, 1990, the Party House was set on fire, burning many documents from the BCP archives. There are suspicions that the fire was organized by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the State Security (DS) in order to quell civil protests and force the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) into political compromises. Today, the building is used by the National Assembly, and fewer and fewer people remember its totalitarian history, while the five-pointed star lies in the courtyard of the Museum of Socialist Art.
Court House
2 Vitosha Blvd., Court House
From December 20, 1944, to February 1, 1945, the building that now houses the Court House was the venue for the sessions of the First Supreme Court of the so-called People's Court. This was an extraordinary court, in violation of the constitution in force at the time, which became an instrument for imposing communist rule through the mass liquidation of its opponents. It remains in our contemporary history as the most widespread manifestation of political violence. Over 28,000 people were arrested, over 9,000 were convicted, 2,730 were executed, and another 1,300 received sentences of imprisonment. More than 28,000 people were arrested, over 9,000 were convicted, 2,730 were executed, and another 1,300 were sentenced to life imprisonment. The consequences extended to their relatives and families for generations to come.
From December 20, 1944, to February 1, 1945, the Second Supreme Court sat in the auditorium of Sofia University. Those sentenced to death by the First and Second Courts were executed a few hours after the verdicts were handed down. The Court of Justice also hosted most of the subsequent major political trials from 1946 to 1948, which destroyed the legal opposition, as well as many of the political trials until 1989.
The murder of Gen. Georgiev
In front of the Church of St. Sedmochislenitsi, between Tsar Ivan Shishman Street and Graf Ignatiev Street Gen.
Konstantin Georgiev, a reserve officer and member of parliament from the Democratic Alliance, was shot on April 14, 1925, on his way home from the Church of St. Sedmochislenitsi to his home on Tsar Shishman Street 39, as a first step toward the assassination in the Church of St. Nedelya. 39 as a first step towards the assassination in the Church of St. Nedelya.
Home of G. M. Dimitrov
31 Graf Ignatiev Street
G. M. Dimitrov was the leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU) "Pladne" - the largest and most influential party in Bulgaria at the time. At the end of January 1945, under pressure, he resigned as secretary-general of the Agrarian Union. He was placed under house arrest but managed to escape and leave the country.
Monument of Georgi Markov
Journalist Square
Georgi Markov left Bulgaria in 1969 after his play I Was Him was banned from the Satirical Theater. His Absent Reports on Bulgaria, broadcast weekly from 1975 to 1978 on Radio Free Europe, were widely listened to in Bulgaria, despite jamming, which made him one of the most dangerous enemies of the Bulgarian communist regime. He was shot with a poisoned pellet by a State Security agent on September 7, 1978, in London and died on September 11.
Dimitar Talev's House
1A Hristo Smirnenski Blvd.
Dimitar Talev lived in this house from 1939 to 1948. On October 18, 1944, he was arrested, investigated as a Greater Bulgarian chauvinist and fascist, and on March 26, 1945, he was sent to a concentration camp. He was released on August 22, 1945. On October 21, 1947, as part of a campaign accompanied by mass arrests of former IMRO activists, he was arrested again and sent to the Pernik labor camp. He was released on January 28, 1948, weighing 46 kilograms and in a state of extreme exhaustion. In August 1948, he was deported with his family to Lukovit.
"Sinyoto"
intersection of Dragan Tsankov Blvd. and Evlogi Georgiev St. (near the metro station) (near the metro station)
An outdoor café on the corner of Dragan Tsankov Boulevard and Evlogi Georgiev Street, near the current metro entrance. From the mid- to late 1980s, it was a gathering place for all subcultures - hippies, metalheads, punks, rockers, and skinheads.
Bridge of Friendship
Intersection of Graf Ignatiev Boulevard and Dragan Tsankov Boulevard
In 1953, four sculptural groups were installed, promoting Russian and Soviet assistance to the "little Bulgarian brother": "Militia Man and Soldier," "Soldier and Militia Man," "Soldier and Militia Woman," and "Soldier and Militia Woman." In 1953, four sculptural groups were installed to promote Russian and Soviet aid to the "little Bulgarian brother": "Militia Man and Russian Soldier," "Partisan and Soviet Soldier," "Peasant Woman and Collective Farm Worker," and "Soviet Specialist and Bulgarian Technician."
The Battle of Kiril Drangov
37 Tsar Ivan Shishman Street
In early June 1946, Stalin ordered Georgi Dimitrov to work towards uniting the Macedonian people within Yugoslavia. On June 8, 1946, Kiril Drangov died in a shootout with 14 State Security agents sent to arrest him, killing two of them. On June 10, 1946, the State Security arrested 14 people in connection with the incident.
Patriarch Evtimii Square and John Lennon Wall
Monument to Patriarch Evtimii, V. Levski Boulevard and Graf Ignatiev Street
In the 1970s and 1980s, the place was known simply as Popa – a popular meeting place for young people, where hippies, metalheads, and later punks gathered in search of an alternative to mainstream culture. It remains a landmark in the center of Sofia to this day.
After John Lennon's murder on December 8, 1980, Sofia youth, hippies who usually gathered at Popa, placed flowers, candles, and inscriptions in his memory on the Notary building. The police regularly cleared the wall and made arrests because any spontaneous demonstration that was not approved by the authorities was perceived as a threat to the totalitarian regime. Nevertheless, the date of his murder was commemorated for a whole decade.
Apartment exhibitions
Slavaykov Square
In 1983, artist Krasimir Iliev, now curator at the Sofia City Art Gallery (SCA), held an informal exhibition, unauthorized by the Union of Bulgarian Artists (UBA), in his friend's studio on Slaveykov Square, opposite the City Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the building that now houses the Sofia City Library. The visitors were both friends of the artist and random people from the street.
The works on display are abstract, and the exhibition is probably the first in a series of similar alternative exhibitions in the 1980s. The first exhibition is by Julian Popov, later Minister of Environment and Water, under the artistic pseudonym Suleiman Teklekeli, as a reaction to the ban on the exhibition of works by the Bulgarian National Gallery. The first exhibition was by Solomon Passy, later Minister of Foreign Affairs, under the artistic pseudonym Suleiman Teklekel, as a reaction to the forced change of names of Turks and Muslims in Bulgaria. Ush, Nikolay Panayotov, and others exhibited their works in the gallery.
Union of Bulgarian Journalists
4 Graf Ignatiev Street
The Union of Bulgarian Journalists is a state-run totalitarian organization and one of the main instruments of totalitarian censorship and propaganda. With its privileged status in terms of supplies, the Journalists' Club became a gathering place for the socialist intellectual elite.
St. Nedelya Church
20 St. Nedelya Square
The attack on April 16, 1925, at St. Nedelya Church was organized by the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP) with the aim of killing the entire state leadership and thus provoking a communist revolution in Bulgaria as part of the world proletarian revolution. The attack was carried out by a group of 15 people, most of whom were members of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
House of the Blind
172 Naicho Tsanov Street
After the coup on September 9, 1944, the Home for the Blind was used as a temporary detention center for the trials of the so-called People's Court. Among those detained here were artists Nikola Tanev and Alexander Bojinov. Arrested for his translation of the book Christianity and Communism, the protosyngel of the Sofia Metropolis was brutally tortured here. (FACB). Arrested for his translation of the book Christianity and Communism, Archimandrite Iriney Popkonstantinov, protosyngel of the Sofia Metropolis, was brutally tortured here. Seen for the last time on September 30, 1944, he disappeared without a trace, killed without trial or sentence.
