Monumental Memorialization of Political Violence in Bulgaria (1944 – 1989): beyond Traumatization, Contestation and Dangerization of Memory
Monumental Memorialization of Political Violence in Bulgaria (1944 – 1989): beyond Traumatization, Contestation and Dangerization of Memory

Summary/Abstract: The article examines monumental memorialization of political violence in the period of communism in Bulgaria. The text reviews contemporary research presenting the topic of transitional justice, formation of victim’s identities and as part of post-communist cultural memory. A research is made of three theoretical approaches to understanding monumental memorialization – through traumatization, contestation or dangerization of memory and the social functions and meanings stemming from them. The analytical part represents a case study from Bulgaria, using ample empirical material – interviews, archive materials and other sources, part of a larger research by the author. Comparative analysis is used for description of national idiosyncrasies which is used as a basis to present their variants, temporal and spatial aspects. Social functions, political uses, interpretations, their use for reconstruction of national past and formation of national identity. A separate part of the text examines the initiators of these memorial signs – social actors, nongovernmental organizations and political parties, on which the degree of institutionalization and politization of this memory depends, as well as their use for far right radicalization. The text tracks the change of memorial landscapes and the major spatial trajectories (logics) of this post-communist topography of terror, as well as the symbolism embodied in it, combining political, traditional and religious meanings.

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