Third updated and expanded edition
A Guide to Communist Bulgaria meanders through the architectural, artistic and material heritage of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and puts it in context. The book features the must-visit locations and monuments for anyone with an interest in the triumphs and failures of Bulgaria's recent past: from Buzludzha and Dimitrovgrad to Stalinist Sofia, the monuments of Communist guerrilla fighters and Soviet soldiers, the abandoned military barracks and cinema theatres, the failed megaprojects and the nostalgia for the idealised Communist past and its funny street signs.
"Communist ideology permeated the living space. It materialised through it and it turned itself into daily life. This process disciplined the urban environment so that just inhabiting it was supposed to make you a faithful Communist subject."
Georgi Lozanov, philosopher
"A Guide to Communist Bulgaria eveals not only the distant past, it also shows the elegant face of early 20th century Plovdiv, the changes brought by Communism and the times after the regime's collapse. The archive photography of well-known sites and places throw a bridge between past and present."
Mihail Gruev, historian
