The triumphant Soviet soldier, an emblematic monument that has stood in the heart of the Bulgarian capital Sofia for 70 years, began to be dismantled on Tuesday after years of controversy between Russophiles and pro-Europeans in this former communist country. The decision, precipitated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was officially justified on security grounds. “An expertise showed that the monument presented a danger for the inhabitants,” declared prefectural official Viara Todeva on site. Experts have reported significant cracks.
In a highly symbolic operation, workers began dismantling the three bronze sculptures hoisted in 1954 on an imposing pedestal using a crane. Starting with the rifle brandished by the soldier, who appears alongside a worker and a mother. These several-ton pieces must be restored before being exhibited at the Museum of Socialist Art, alongside bas-reliefs depicting battle scenes.
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A work of Stalinist socialist realism, the 45-meter monument was built to celebrate the entry of Soviet troops into Sofia in September 1944. Bulgaria, Moscow’s most faithful ally at the time of the communist dictatorship, still has many monuments to the glory of the Red Army. Their fate is regularly mentioned and their destruction demanded by pro-Europeans since the fall of the regime in 1989.
Painted pink, decked out in superhero costumes, painted in the blue and yellow colors of Ukraine: the Sofia monument has been targeted several times by committed and anonymous artists. But the dismantling projects had until now never come to fruition in the face of strong opposition from the Kremlin and Russophiles, who highlight the Red Army’s fight against Nazism.
In Moscow, Russian diplomatic spokesperson Maria Zakharova was outraged by “this new hostile gesture” by Bulgaria, accusing it of having “chosen the wrong side of History”. “This statue bears witness to our history and the art of the time,” regrets Vessela Naïdenova, a 38-year-old researcher who came to demonstrate on the esplanade, to AFP. Others, like student Daniel Roussev, on the contrary welcome “the disappearance of this propaganda tool from a bygone era.”
Despite the country’s accession to NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007, many Bulgarians still often look towards Moscow. According to a poll carried out in October, almost a third of Sofia residents are in favor of maintaining the monument. However, a sign of the evolution of mentalities, the majority was in favor of its transfer to a museum or its outright demolition.
