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| In Bulgaria, deputies want to dismantle the monument to the Soviet soldier 'Alyosha' |
| 2024-01-11 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] In Bulgaria, they are thinking about moving the monument to the Soviet soldier-liberator “Alyosha”. This proposal was submitted to the Plovdiv City Council by deputies of the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria party. This was reported by the press service of the political association. According to the initiative of parliamentarians Vladimir Slavenski and Jono Cepilski, it is proposed to move it to the Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia. At the same time, work on moving the monument must be completed before the end of 2024. As Darik Radio noted, there is no room in the museum for bronze sculptures, much less for such a large-scale monument. The deputies said that moving the monument is a “moral act” that must be carried out in honor of Bulgarian history, national dignity and in memory of the victims of the totalitarian communist regime. City Council members are expected to consider the proposal at their January 17 session. The monument to the Soviet soldier-liberator “Alyosha” was opened on November 5, 1957 on the high Bunardzhik hill in Plovdiv (Bulgaria). The idea of the monument appeared among city residents in 1948. Ten teams took part in the project competition, announced a year later. In 1950, the commission gave victory to the project of sculptors led by Vasil Radoslavov. The height of the sculpture of a Soviet soldier, mounted on a six-meter pedestal, is 11 meters. The warrior holds in his hand a Shpagin submachine gun pointed towards the ground. In the early 90s, the city government decided to demolish the monument, but public opinion saved it. As Regnum reported, on December 12, in Sofia, by order of the Bulgarian authorities, they began dismantling the monument to the Soviet army, erected in 1954 as a sign of gratitude to the Soviet liberating soldiers. The bronze figures standing on the pedestal were cut into pieces weighing no more than four tons each. It is clarified that the governor of the Sofia region, Vyara Todeva, signed a decree on the demolition of the monument based on the latest inspection of its condition, according to which cracks and erosion were allegedly found on the monument, posing a danger to people. According to Todeva, after dismantling the figures will be transferred to the ownership of the state. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, during a briefing pointed out the inexcusable actions of the Bulgarian authorities to dismantle the monument to the Soviet army. Zakharova emphasized that the Bulgarian authorities “without any shyness” ignored Russia’s proposals to hold consultations on the future fate of the monument. The acting director of the Russian Ministry of Defense department for perpetuating the memory of those killed in defense of the Fatherland said on December 5 that over 3,000 monuments to Soviet liberating soldiers have been dismantled in Europe to date. |
| Posted by:badanov |