Bulgarian authorities began dismantling the Monument to the Soviet Army in the center of Sofia on Tuesday.
The dismantling of the Soviet monument comes after years of controversy and resistance from a significant part of Bulgarian society.
The formal reason for dismantling the monument is the poor condition of the bronze sculptures that compose it, considered a security risk, although the process accelerated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year and involves a strong symbolism.
“Today officially begins the dismantling of the Soviet Army Monument. All elements of the installation will be stored for further restoration and then transferred to the Museum of Socialist Art,” announced Sofia regional governor Viara Todeva , to journalists at the foot of the installation.
She assured that according to an expert opinion commissioned last week, the “lack of maintenance of the installation over the last 70 years” has led to the “formation of serious corrosion cracks in the bronze sculptures and it “There is a real risk of collapse, which poses a threat to citizens.”
The municipality of Sofia decided to move the sculptures on March 9, after years of attempts hampered by the opposition of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, heir to the Communist Party.
The monument, surrounded by several bronze groups and reliefs, shows a soldier with a rifle hailed as a liberator by a man and a woman with a child in their arms on an enormous pedestal.
It was built in 1954 as a tribute to the USSR, whose troops overthrew a government allied with Nazi Germany in 1944 and installed a communist regime that lasted until 1989.
Initiatives to remove or relocate it gained strength after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but faced resistance from socialist groups and the pro-Russian ultranationalist Vazrazhdane (Renaissance) group, which organized demonstrations, camps and human chains in its defense