The Museum of Socialist Art: Bulgaria’s De-facto Museum of Communist History


The museum's location can reveal a great deal about the image it wants to present: prestigious sites such as Fifth Avenue suggest that the collection is highly established. A beautiful location near the trade galleries connects the museum in a youthful, modern way.  

Then there is the Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is built between the DMV's Bulgarian equivalent, communist-era monuments, and a modern office building decorated with name of large pharmacy company.  The location is appropriate-Bulgaria's only museum dedicated to the display of works of socialist realism is literally caught between the communist past and the capitalist situation.  

The Museum of Socialist Art is divided into two parts. The interior  exhibition space features a mix of socialist realist works on canvas, and propaganda from Bulgaria and other communist countries. Outside, a large sculpture park displays Communist-era statues from across the country. During the communist era, these statues were ubiquitous in Bulgarian. Most town and cities, regardless of size, erected monuments to communist figures such us the country's long time dictator, Lenin, and Todor Zyukov. 

Even before it  opened, the museum was embroiled in controversy. When the National Gallery, which runs the museum, first announced the project, it planned to rename it The Museum of Totalitarian Art. After a campaign of pressure from pro- communist politicians, "Totalitarian" was replaced by a more neutral, "Socialist" term. The museum finally opened in 2011, on the anniversary of the 1944 Communist occupation.  

The selected date made it clear that the museum was far from a direct effort. Despite from its original name , The Museum of  Socialist Art will adopt a fairly neutral style of commemorating Bulgarian times under communism. But its existence was linked to memories of the previous government. 

This old memory is rooted in Bulgaria's strong alliance with the Soviet Union, and in the painful process of stopping communism in the country. Bulgaria welcomed the arrival  of  Soviet troops during World War ll and is widely considered the USSR's closest ally in the region. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Bulgaria struggled to reinvent itself. Poverty was local and unemployment was out of control. 

The process of delisting Communist party officials, which was common in other countries in the region, never took place in Bulgaria. It was not until the mid-2000s that Bulgaria made its first meaningful  attempt to break away from its communist past by publicly releasing secret police files.  

Yet, like many place in the former communist word, Bulgaria has to parallel realities. Seeing communism as a movement away from the dark history of the country,  one forcibly separates oneself from communism. The second fact, which usually belongs  on the older generation, sees the decline of the state and privatization as evidence of a widespread decline that began in 1989. When the Museum of Socialist Art opened, it was tasked with bridging the gap-an appeal to both . Who saw communism as a moral decline on Bulgaria's record and for a failed state for older generation


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