Bulgaria Remembers Victims of  Communism

Sofia, February 1 (BTA) - At the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in central Sofia and monuments in other cities across the country, Bulgarian people marked the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communism. The date was picked to commemorate the day in 1945 which saw the most numerous executions of death sentences in Bulgrian history.

The sentences were passed shortly after the communists took power in Bulgaria in 1944 by what was called "People's Court".

The People's Court sentenced to death Bulgaria's three regents (Prince Kiril of Preslav, Prof. Bogdan Filov and Gen. Nikola Mihov), 8 royal advisors, 22 ministers from governments in the 1941-44 period, as well as 67 members of Parliament and 47 generals and other top brass.

The sentences were unappeallable and were put to immediate execution.

The People's Court also sentenced thousands to imprisonment and ordered the defendants' families deported and displaced, and their property confiscated.

The People's Court effectively beheaded the Bulgarian state, political and military elite, writes a story in Pamet [Memory], an on-line archives-based project of journalist Hristo Hristov and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The project aims to preserve the memory of the victims of the totalitarianism in Bulgaria during the 1944-1989 period.

The sentences of the People's Court were named as one of the crimes of the communist regime in a special law adopted by the Bulgarian Parliament in 2000.