THAT’S ALL WE NEED

Sun and water

is what we need to grow,

Sun and water

is what we need to survive;

sunshine to illumine our hearts,

and water to wash away our pain.

Finally being able to breathe

the yellow scent of this flower.

Mitch Brezounek

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The monument of the Soviet soldier in Ruse is located in the center of the city. It features a standing Soviet soldier holding a flag posed on the ground in his left hand, and, as usual, a gun in his right hand. Like the other one-figure-monuments around Bulgaria, this one is also called Alyosha.

A team led by Yordan Krachmarov finished the monument in 1947. On the pedestal, there are a pentagram and the inscription: TO THE SOVIET BROTHERS-LIBERATORS ETERNAL GRATITUDE FROM THE WORKING PEOPLE OF RUSE

The famous quote by Georgy Dimitrov, the towering Bulgarian Communist leader is on the back of the monument: “For us, Friendship with the Soviet Union is necessary as much as the sun and the air are necessary for every human being.” On September, 9, 2020, with red paint, the words OCCUPIERS ASSASINS were written on the monument. The city of Ruse suffered 230 “missing” people during the Red Terror immediately after the Soviet occupation in September 1944, and the People’s Tribunal executed further 27 people in 1945. There is no video surveillance around the monument to track down those who did it. The officials from the Park service in the city cleaned up the inscriptions with a specially designed machine for washing out graffiti.

Author of the historical text: Evelina Kelbecheva