Bulgarian City Wants to Donate Lenin Monument

Bulgaria was dotted with Lenin monuments before 1989. Pictured: the Lenin monument in downtown Sofia in 1989. Its place at present is occupied by a statue of St. Sophia. File photo

Bulgaria's Stara Zagora wants to get rid of a monument of Soviet leader Lenin by bestowing it to another Bulgarian town, Dimitrovgrad.

The idea belongs to the Stara Zagora Mayor Svetlin Tanchev, who says the Lenin monument must be donated.

The monument in question used to be located at the entrance of the Ayazmoto Park in Stara Zagora, but was removed in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the communist regime in Bulgaria. Back then the park was named after Vladimir Ilich Lenin.

Tanchev argues that the monument, which is not in use at present, can find its place in Dimitrovgrad, whose town council recently decided to create an "Alley of Monumental Art," displaying sculptures from the communist period (1944-1989).

Stara Zagora's Lenin monument was built in the 1960s by sculptor Mara Georgieva, at the request of the municipal authorities.

The town of Dimitrovgrad itself was literally built in the 1950s by the communist regime, and was named after the Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Dimitrov.

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