The process of dismantling parts of the Soviet Army Monument in downtown Sofia began on Tuesday. "The tallest figures will be taken down," Sofia Regional Governor Vyara Todeva told journalists. At dusk, several sculptures were already missing from the monument after being cut and craned away.
The determination of the local authorities to act caused an uproar and people and parties traditionally opposed to the plans for removal of the monument rushed to protect it.
Todeva explained in the morning that the figures which were to be removed will be inventoried and transported to a place for safekeeping. This will be followed by the award of a public procurement contract to restore the sculptures. The governor noted that the monument has not been restored for 70 years.
An examination has revealed major cracks on the sculptures turning them into a hazard for passers-by.
After the restoration, the figures will be put on display at the Museum of Socialist Art. Eventually, they may be moved to another site.
Sculptor Marin Markov said some of the cracks are 4-5 cm deep. The metal has been eroded by the moisture which has seeped through the concrete base of the figures over the years, he said.
The Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia is the most impressive of several dozen such structures scattered throughout the country and one of over 4,000 memorials to the USSR's drive against Hitler's Germany in WW II across Europe. For long years, there has been talk of taking it down and moving it out of the city centre but the issue has turned out to be too sensitive for some people and political parties in Bulgaria, and the project too divisive for society.
On Tuesday, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova commented in Parliament: "Every monument is a piece of history, and we erase a piece of history every time we remove a monument."
The BSP chapter in the Sofia borough of Sredets, where the Soviet Army Monument is located, said in a letter to the borough mayor, Traicho Traikov, that the monument is not physically dangerous - the real danger comes from "your attitude to history".
BSP for Bulgaria Deputy Floor Leader Ivan Chenchev said on Nova News TV that the examination of the monument was motivated by political considerations rather than experts' concerns about the structure's safety. "I knew that, all of a sudden, the monument would prove dangerous," Chenchev said. "There are certainly other monuments as old as this one, but they have not been examined for safety." He added that the examination should be challenged in court.
Sofia Municipal Councillor Deyan Nikolov said his Vazrazhdane party has asked the prosecution service to investigate all actions of officials involved in the dismantling of the monument. According to Nikolov, many of the related procedures are covert and even at the edge of the law. To remove the Soviet Army Monument is to restore Nazism in what is effectively a totalitarian society, he argued.
GERB party leader Boyko Borissov commented: "People should be able to see the bad as well as the good." Although he did not say it in so many words, the ex-prime minister is apparently opposed to the removal of the monument.
People rallied "for" and "against" the dismantling of the monument. A group of protestors blocked briefly the Eagles Bridge junctions. There was strong police presence in the area.
“Trampled” freedom of expression and an arm injury
Later on Tuesday the BSP leader Korneliya Ninova complained that a Socialist MP was injured as a staffer of the regional administration pushed him onto the fence built around the monument. Ninova said MP Georgi Svilenski was pushed “deliberately and forcefully”, injured him arm and had to go to hospital to have his injuries attended to.
"Absurd and unacceptable", she commented, adding that "freedom of expression, freedom of protest - everything has been trampled".
With his arm in bandages, MP Svilenski said he was going to meet with Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov to ask him to "stop this outrage in the centre of Sofia". He also claimed that the plan for dismantling parts of the monument has now been changed to "chop up the moment into pieces and remove it by Friday". It was not clear what was the source of this information. A couple of hours later he told the press that the Prime Minister had been unaware of the developments around the monument and took a non-committal stance.
Moscow: ”Barbaric actions”
The beginning of the monument’s dismantling drew ire in Moscow. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing that her country considers “inexcusable the barbaric actions of the Bulgarian authorities”.
"Today the authorities in Sofia have moved to the practical realization of long-held disgraceful plans to dismantle the monument to the Soviet Army. […] With the easy hand of fascist Euro-Atlantists, the monument is being sent literally to the dustbin of history," Zakharova said. - The barbaric actions taken by the Bulgarian side have no justification or forgiveness. They look especially cynical in conditions of galloping growth of neo-Nazi sentiments in Europe itself".
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