REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

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Remembrance in Time
them is about the inclusion in the museum exposition of the concrete pill-box standing in
the yard in which an atmosphere partially resembling the one in the former mausoleum of
the communist leader Georgi Dimitrov to be created. Another one suggests that
monuments from the period from the end of World War II until 10.11.1989 to be
exhibited and preserved in the museum surroundings. It is also said in the communique
that similar museums have been opened in many East European countries and that the
Museum of Communism in Budapest is especially successful one 11 . The first of the
suggestions was not realized probably because it did not correspond to the concept of the
museum which remained unknown to the experts and the public as a whole. In connection
with the establishing of “the new national museum presenting the art and culture of the
Bulgarian society in the socialist epoch” it was demanded by an electronic letter of the
Vice-Minister of culture Todor Chobanov from 17.05.2011 that the national, regional and
municipal museums in the country should send up to 28 th the same month to the Ministry
of culture inventories of the cultural valuables from the epoch of socialism possessed by
them like monuments, sculptures, interior (easel) sculptures, pictures, memorial signs,
etc. A copy of the letter was sent to all mayors of municipalities.
The initial idea of a museum of totalitarian art was transformed in the process of
realization into a museum of socialist art. On 25.08.2011 in the morning show on TV7
Channel the Minister of culture Vezhdi Rashidov, who is a famous Bulgarian sculptor,
announced that the word “totalitarian” would not be included in the name of the
museum 12 . Later for other media he quite unconvincingly tried to explain this unexpected
change stating that the term “totalitarian” refers not only to the socialist period but is
wider and is applicable even today when characterizing particular party leaders, alluding
to the President of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms Party Ahmed Dogan 13 .
According to information in some foreign electronic media the curator of the Museum
Bisera Yosifova grounds the change of the museum’s name by the reluctance to display
“emotional extremism” in the evaluation of the past and notes that valuable art works by
well known artists and sculptors from this epoch are presented in the museum while an
exhibition devoted to totalitarism could possibly be organized in the near future. And one
entirely different explanation is also given: the opponents of the changing of the
museum’s name think that the Bulgarian political elite that comes from the communist
ruling top wants to cover up the mistakes of the past, to make smooth the sharp angles 14 .
Some days before the opening of the museum the director of the National Art Gallery
Svetla Ivanova states before the media that during the preparation period a lot of opinions
about the purpose of the museum and the reason for its starting sprang up. According to
her its purpose is not to ideologize and by no means to politicize but to show Bulgarian
art from the socialist period which is actually absent from the permanent expositions in
most of the galleries and museums in Sofia and in the country 15 . Anyway, the problem of
the establishment of this museum focused the attention and the commentaries of various
political formations.
A day after the official opening of the Museum of Socialist Art, on 20.09.2011, the
Union of the Democratic Forces came out with a declaration on that occasion. It is said in
it: “…we become witnesses to the subsequent attempt at a centralized writing of history.
It is an attempt that goes beyond the rehabilitation of the communist regime to which we
have already got used. This is an attempt of GERB 16 and the government to tell us all
what is socialism, communism and what is art”. After pointing out that “the museum is
not simply a new building whose band the ruling party leaders to cut before the