Today, we relaxed at our hotel until noon as we knew we had a long walking tour in the evening. We took a taxi to downtown and first on our agenda was to find a coffee shop; and we did. Caffe Americo is what I usually order in Europe, but it is still very strong. We had a muffin and breakfast sandwich with fresh squeezed orange juice too. Then headed on our mission to find a Bulgarian Rose oil Store. We found 2 stores and bought from a mother - daughter off main street store.
We had several hours to kill so we revisited some streets and found the bagel store we had visited yesterday. Then we walked the main shopping street until 3 p.m. we because we were tired and we stopped for a Gelato.
At 4 p.m. we met our Communist Walking Tour guide. He started by explaining that Bulgaria wasn't initially under Russian Communism, but the Socialist system Carl Marx talked about in the Communist Manifesto in the 19th century. At that time most of the people were farming, but after machinery came on the scene, there wasn't enough work for everyone and they started moving to the city and they were working 7 days a weeks but were still poor. So even though there was enough resources to go around, most of it went to the elite. In the Communist Manifesto, Carl Marx promoted that they start unions, they would become political and gradually they would bring in this system: private property would be abolished, everything would belong to the state, money would disappear and everyone would be happy.
In practice, things turned out different. Communism was first tried on a large scale in Russia in 1917 with the revolution. At that time Russia didn't have a working class to bring about this system and after the revolution the working class was substituted with the communist party. This system was copied in other countries like Bulgaria with a goal of achievement by1980, then 2000 and finally it collapsed or radically reformed.
Communist rejected religion so they tried to destroy it by saying religion is the "opium of the people." But they did it subtly with police around the church during services, writing down names to intimidate them. Many priest would be forced to become part of the secret police. And they also built building around the churches so people didn't see them.
In the early 1900's there was communist party, but it didn't have much traction and always unsuccessful. But WW II changed things. The country didn't want to participate, but in 1944 the Nazi's were going to cross the border and they had to make a choice to either become their friend and join them or their enemy and be occupied. They decided to join them and many people started to oppose that decision. But the communist party that had been so insignificant began to cozy up to the Russians and they sent an army into Bulgaria and they were celebrated as liberators and there was a Koupe and took over the government.
The first agenda was to deal with the opposition. Historians say 10,000-30,000 were killed in the first three months. Then they established the peoples court where the oppositions were given a choice to convert or go to the labor camps. Then they had a "vote" and the communist party was the only legal party.
The communist were really against the capitalist system. The state would collect all the revenue and were supposed to dole it out equally. But without any incentive the workers didn't want to work and they began to loose money. In 1980 the system collapsed.
The communist party enlisted informants to spy on your friends. Some believed in the party but others were forced. For example our guides mother was told she needed to become an informant or she couldn't finish university . Thankfully, her father was an ambassador and she was able to decline. So people were very careful with what they said, even in a joke. Today the files are in the state archives, but many got destroyed.
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