site.btaNovember 18, 1989: Informal Movements Hold First Free Rally in Sofia

Thirty-six years ago on Tuesday, on November 18, 1989, the informal movements and organizations in Bulgaria held their first free rally since the fall of the communist regime on November 10 that year.

The 150,000-strong gathering was organized by an initiative committee of the independent clubs and associations championing the ideas of restructuring. The committee comprised representatives of the Club for Support of Glasnost and Perestroika, Committee 273, the Committee for Protection of Religious Rights, Freedom of Conscience and Spiritual Values, Literary Circle 39, the Independent Society for Human Rights, the EcoGlasnost Independent Association, and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.  

The speakers included philosopher Zhelyu Zhelev, zoologist Petar Beron, dissident poet and writer Blaga Dimitrova, popular actor Petar Slabakov, EcoGlasnost founding member Alexander Karakachanov, poet, samizdat magazine publisher and EcoGlasnost activist Edvin Sugarev, political prisoners Lyubomir Sobadzhiev and Petar Gogov, university student Emil Koshlukov, anti-fascist resistance fighter, film director and screenwriter Angel Wagenstein, chemist Rumen Vodenicharov, Academician Kiril Vasilev, Committee for Protection of Religious Rights founder Father Hristofor Sabev, writers Marko Ganchev and Georgi Mishev, Podkrepa Trade Union founder Konstantin Trenchev, satirist writer Radoi Ralin, and journalist Stefan Prodev.

Following is an abridged version of the authentic item in the BTA Home News Desk bulletin of 1989, covering the unprecedented event in central Sofia:

"VINF 202 Rallies in Support of Perestroika

Sofia, November 18, 1989 (BTA) - Several tens of thousands of people gathered today in Alexander Nevsky Square for a rally convened on the initiative of nine independent informal associations and movements. In the course of three hours, the crowd listened to 17 speakers. There were rounds of applause, chants and booing. Numerous slogans were voiced, demanding that those responsible be held to account, calling for elections and a new constitution, for freedom of speech and for pluralism. Yet one slogan best captured the spirit and atmosphere of the rally: 'Change – Now, Democracy – Today, Glasnost – Immediately!'

This slogan was cited in the statement of Angel Wagenstein, who placed the changes under way in this country since the election of Comrade Petar Mladenov as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the context of developments sweeping through the socialist countries [...].

Petko Simeonov raised a demand that those responsible for the country's present situation be held to account, stressing that retribution was unnecessary as it never led to anything good [...].

Almost all speakers expressed support for the policy line adopted by the new party and state leadership. 'A stone has already been cast into the swamp of stagnation, and we are duty-bound to support those who threw it,' said Petar Beron. Radoi Ralin urged support for Comrade Petar Mladenov's efforts to unite all the nation's forces in order to save the fatherland. 'We feel duty-bound to express our solidarity with the changes under way in the party and state leadership. At the same time, we firmly state that such solidarity can be relied upon only if words fully match with deeds, only if Bulgaria becomes a vibrant material and spiritual space for democratic change and for pluralism unrestricted by anything or anyone,' noted Edvin Sugarev [...].

There were also 'unscheduled' speakers: amid applause and shouts, the crowd called Blaga Dimitrova and Petar Slabakov to the microphone [...].

Asked by BTA reporters why she had come to the rally, a young woman replied: 'Because I wanted to see those I've only heard on Radio Free Europe. The very fact that they were given the floor to speak freely at such a mass rally is indicative of the thaw that has begun in our lives. The rest depends on us and on those who take the helm of government.'

'I haven't attended a rally like this since my youth,' an elderly pensioner said. 'But I believe that nothing will change solely through demonstrations, slogans and chanting – we must get down to work.' [...].

The rally adopted a resolution addressed to the Chairman of the National Assembly and to the mass media. The text did not reach BTA, but according to what reporters managed to hear and put down, it raises three groups of demands. The first are social demands: urgent measures to protect the socially disadvantaged members of the community. The second ones concern freedom of speech and the unhindered expression of pluralistic opinion. The third calls for changes in legislation, enabling Bulgaria to advance on the path of democracy and become a state committed to the rule of law. /SN, MV, CI, VK/ZB 19:23:46  18-11-1989"