REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

Vladimir DONEV: Bulgarian Labour Camp Literature Genre and Memory 45
of people's suffering. The representation of the inhuman suffering in the camps is created
through its literary treatment in the "archive" of inherited discourses. In his memoirs
Bochev uses a language of feuilleton and allegory, a dialogue with the dystopian fiction,
there are some expanded metaphors in the text of the whole book, lyricism and fine
feeling for nature in contrast with the wolf nature of human relations in the camp and the
tyranny of the era. Segmentation of the episodes is not only according to the principle of
single camp scenes, the writer seeks the inner meaning behind the specific case, the
allegory of survival, using attractive tittles, provoking the reader to follow and join
excerpts from autobiographical memory story as memoirs fictional synthesis.
Stefan Bochev was born in 1910. In the autumn of 1929 he arrived in Zurich, where he
studied law and attended the faculties of literature, philosophy and history. At the end of
September 1930 in Geneva, enrolled law and graduated in 1933, specializes in University
of International Studies (1934-1936). In the autumn of 1934 became a correspondent of
the Washington Post for Geneva. By the autumn of 1933 he is the only Bulgarian
journalist accredited to the League of Nations in Geneva. In 1938 he was chief of cabinet
under Georgi Kiosseivanov mandate. In the period 1939-1941 he was a diplomat in
Stockholm and then two years in Switzerland. In the autumn of 1945 came back to
Bulgaria, leaving his wife and child abroad. He acts as the first legation secretary in Sofia
(Oct. 1945 - Dec., 1947). In October 1946 participated in the memorable opposition rally,
organized by Nikola Petkov (leader of the farmers in Bulgaria, who was killed by
communists in 1947), which is stamped after the communist government. He was fired
and thrown into the labour camp on the island of Persin in 1949. The first imprisonment
is 18 months - from May 1949 to November 1950. Briefly he is freed, then he is sent
back to the labour camp until 1953 (after Stalin's death and movement of the political
layers in the Communist dictatorships of the Soviet bloc). In the era of socialism he worked as
a porter, builder, "intellectual potter" - translator in enterprises of the socialist economy.
From the viewpoint of the generation the author belongs to the generation of Bulgarian
diplomats born in the years between 1885-1910, which can be imagined as a collective
civil and cultural type (or mentality) in the Bulgarian public history. These are important
names in Bulgarian "bourgeois" diplomacy as Peter Neykov, Stoicho Moshanov, Stefan
Popov, Evgeni Silyanov, Stefan Gruev, Stefan Gechev and others. All of them, despite
their brilliant diplomatic training and education, democratic beliefs, impressive erudition,
broad knowledge of literature, history and culture, end their career with political
dismissals after 9. IX. 1944. Some of them wrote their memoirs before 10. XI. 1989, but
tailored to varying degrees with the official view at the time of socialism and the
inevitable self-censorship. Those who survived after repression are transformed into inner
emigrants who were hidden from the public eye, and they practiced very unusual
professions in contrast with their vocation and career in the diplomatic area before 9. IX.
1944. This is the case with Stefan Bochev. After 10. XI. 1989, he describes his life before
the establishment of communist dictatorship in his book My Portrait as a Journalist and
Diplomat (2009), and the labour camp experience in the volume Belene. The Story of
Concentration Camp Bulgaria (2003).
Bochev defines the genre of his memoirs as "symphony", "cacophony", "litany for the
destruction of Bulgarian human beings." This is an autobiographical narrative in first person
using the same plot for the intelligent who descend into the depths of people's suffering like
the plot in Dostoevsky’s The House of Dead, but reaching insights and lessons into the
controversy with the mentality of the socialist society, diplomatic, political and sociological
analyzes of the Bulgarian fate. The main purpose of the narrative about the Bulgarian