Bulgarian Communists Challenge Socialists for Historic Heritage

The Union of Communists in Bulgaria tabled a claim for ownership of the historic Buzludzha Monument Thursday, just two weeks after the Bulgarian Socialist Party did the same.

In a letter sent to PM Boyko Borisov and the regional governor of Stara Zagora Yordan Nikolov, the UCB claims that they are the authentic owner of the site and requested to take it over from the state.

"Since 1990, the Bulgarian Socialist Party has abducted the history and the symbols of the leftist forces in Bulgaria, creating the illusion that it has a monopoly of left ideas in the country," reads the letter.

Buzludzha, a peak on the Stara Planina mountain range, is a landmark site for Bulgaria's left-wing because the foundations of the Socialist Movement in Bulgaria were laid there at a meeting of free-thinking intellectuals in 1891.

The famed concrete, UFO-like structure, that resides on top of Mount Buzludzha was unveiled in 1981 on the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian state - and the 90th anniversary of the leftist movement in the country.

Next to the pie-shaped structure stands a 70-meter concrete pillar. On the inside of the monument you can see gilded mosaics depicting Bulgarian and Soviet communist leaders like Dimitar Blagoev, Georgi Dimitrov, Todor Zhivkov, Vladimir Ilich Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Leonid Brezhnev. Buried in the ground beneath the monument is a capsule containing a message for the future.

However, the once awe-inspiring monument has now degenerated into a decrepit building. Graffiti artists have sprayed a giant red-colored "Forget Your Past" moto right above the padlocked entrance.

The site and the building are officially property of the Bulgarian state - and not of the Bulgarian Communist Party which run the regime that built it. Some 2 decades now, the state has done nothing to maintain or develop it, which has resulted in its current condition.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party - currently the main opposition party and the second most popular in the country, after ruling center-right GERB - is the legal heir to the Bulgarian Communist Party, which ruled Bulgaria from 1945 till 1991. It was renamed to "Socialist" in 1990.