“Nobody can rehabilitate totalitarianism and no one can any longer hold power in their hands, which prohibits the truth”. This was said yesterday by President Rosen Plevneliev, who opened a multimedia exhibition at the building of the Archives State Agency entitled “Bulgaria 1944-1989, the forbidden truth”. The opening of the exhibition was attended by Petar Stoyanov, President of Bulgaria from 1997 to 2002, and German Ambassador Matthias Höpfner.
President Plevneliev said that the truth about resistance movements against the totalitarian state and its crimes must not be forgotten and must be shown to future generations. The fall of the Berlin Wall is the most prominent symbol of the collapse of communist doctrine, the President said, adding that he would work on Bulgaria soon having a museum to pay tribute to the victims and those oppressed by communist regimes. “The museum must show the facts of a totalitarian state - about its institutions, about State Security and the way in which decisions were taken then,” the President said.
The documentary exhibition features documents, photos and personal recollections of participants and witnesses to events that show little-known and concealed truths about repression, the persecution of free thinkers, limitation and deprivation of citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms, and the privileges of the party nomenclature. The exhibition can be seen in the exhibition hall of the Archives State Agency.