Demostrators Block Tribute to Bulgaria's 'Communist Princess'

The sculpture of Lyudmila Zhivkova, often called "Bulgaria's Communist Princess," at the Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia. Photo by Dnevnik

The start of the "scientific conference" dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the birth of Lyudmila Zhivkova, daughter of Communist dictator, Todor Zhivkov, was hurdled Friday by protesting people.

The demonstrators burst into the the Sofia University hall where the conference is going to be held, shouting "Hurray Comrades! Bulgarian Communist Party, Communist Party of the Soviet Union!"

On the backdrop of pictures of Zhivkova, projected on a wide screen, they are preventing by shouts every attempt to start the event, the online news agency Dnevnik reports.

The protesters say this is not a scientific conference, but rehabilitation of the Communist regime. They further wave signs reading "Zhivkova is a Communist, not a national leader." Another sign displays a picture of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, from the time he was Todor Zhivkov's bodyguard, with the following inscription underneath: "The fact that after 20 years we are still talking about him means plenty of things have been done," which is a quotation of Borisov's recent praise for Zhivkov, stirring another outrage in Bulgaria.

One day ago, the right-wing Blue Coalition issued a declaration, which they read in the Parliament, demanding the annulment of the conference and voicing outrage from Sofia University President, Ivan Ilchev's "attempts to use the State school for Communist and Socialist propaganda."

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