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Bulgaria The Wheel of History Rolls Forwards In Bulgaria, which had fought on the side of Germany, the entrance of the Soviet army into the country and the activities of the partisans were declared a Socialist revolution. This brought about a complete separation between the Bulgarian monarchy and the new Bulgarian state. It followed that the alliance with the German Reich was declared a mistake of the government and had nothing to do with the people. Georgi Dimitrov was termed the very first member of the Resistance against National-Socialist Germany and seen as a paragon and leader of Bulgarian anti-Fascism. The basis for this was the Reichstag fire trial of 1933 in Leipzig where he won acquittal against the German Reich. In the understanding of the Communists, Dimitrov's heroic deed opened the way for Bulgaria into the family of anti-Fascist nations. Obviously, Dimitrov's people could not have been Fascists. A peculiarity of Bulgarian history is the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. Due to the intervention of the parliamentarians and the clergy and probably with the approval of the monarch, they were saved from deportation to the extermination camps. This rescue was redefined as an achievement of the anti-Fascist Resistance and the Communist Party. |
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This portrait of Georgi Dimitrov was made in 1950, showing him during his final speech at the trial in Leipzig. The painting is based on a photograph in which Dimitrov is standing in the dock raising a warning finger. It is meant to illustrate the famous quotation from his speech: "The wheel of history rolls forwards. It turns and will turn until the final victory of Communism!" |
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One of the pictures that are regularly reproduced is a shot from a short film by Georgi Parlapanov about the return of the partisans led by Aleksandr Piponkov-Capaj to Belovo. Exhibitions and documentations made this picture so popular that it became the quintessential symbol of the liberation by the partisans. |
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