GHOST BLESS YOU

We replace it, cut it up and smash it. For the first time it fades. Then someone else takes it.

Mitch Brezounek

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

PLEVEN

This was the only monument of the Soviet soldier in Bulgaria, again called Alyosha, which was removed and destroyed. It stood in the central street in the town of Pleven, next to City Hall. The figure featured a Soviet soldier, covered with a cape. His right hand pointed to the sky in a victorious sign and left hand held a gun. The monument was created in 1955 by the sculptors Anastas Dudulov and Boris Kadijski and architect Vasil Tiholov.

In 1993, it was removed and destroyed as an initiative by the then Mayor of Pleven Nayden Zelenogorki, from the Union of the Democratic Forces. Then, in 1999, the new mayor Rumen Petkov from the Bulgarian Socialist Party ordered the erection of a statue on the empty pedestal, dedicated to the Fallen for the Freedom of Pleven. In the place of the pentagram, a new sign was placed, a copy of the Bulgarian Medal for Bravery.

Author of the historical text: Evelina Kelbecheva