Bulgaria's Slow 'Pink' Revolution

The controversial Soviet Army monument in Bulgaria's capital Sofia made new headlines in leading international media for being painted this time in honor of the 45th anniversary of the crackdown on Prague's Spring.

Locally, it stirred new rift between those who see it as token of the Red Army liberating Europe from the Nazi and those for whom it is a stark reminder of the start of one of the darkest periods in Bulgarian history – the Communist regime.

"Monuments of national heroes don't get decorated," one of the unnamed street artists told blogger Asen Genov.

They used the color pink to apologize for the Warsaw Pact invasion and in a tribute to Czech artist David Cerny, who in 1991 painted pink a Soviet tank in Prague, mounting an erected middle finger on top.

Cerny was arrested briefly; the tank cleaned, soon painted again by Czech MPs, and after some other twists finally found home in the museum.

In 2013, most Bulgarian politicians remain silent and the prosecution is acting; the monument stands tall in the very heart of Sofia - always painted and cleaned in the dark - symbol of a society still struggling to shake off its past and move forward.

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