Enviromentalists and dissidence in Bulgaria
A long historyBulgaria is widely known for its maginificent nature. Since Bulgaria became a democracyvery little has been done to defend these treasures. Unique biotops become concretedjungles of speedbuilt hotels. Sometimes protective legislation lacks. more often, thelegislation is in place, but not enforced. But - with all its shortcomings, democracy hasopened a way for citizens to organize and protest. The coalition called For the nature havearguably done this with more skill, patience and luck than any other group in Bulgariansocial life. I will hereafter refer to environmentalists, in order to avoid any mix up of names,Environmentalists were a part of the organizers behind the protest 14th January. But the14th January is not a magic date for the environmentlaists. It is one demonstration of manyin a history of being a constant corrective to the power since the Bulgarian democracy wasborn.
) Or even before...Everything began in RuseIn Bulgaria, as in Poland, Eastern Germany or Romania, the revolutions 1989 did not startin the capitals. In stead smaller cities like Gdansk, Timisoara, Leipzig and in Bulgaria Rusesaw the invention of a civil society in the former totalitarian statesIn. Ruse is a port with the Romanian city Giorgiu visible on the other side of the Danube.Travellers in Souteastern Romania still watch the weird monuments of Ceacescuism with amixture of awe and disgust. The standard guide to the Balkans - Robert KaplansBalkanGhosts(1994) is actually more shocked than awed. The region was turned form countrysideto an enorumous steel plant. It was here that Ceacescu embarked on on of his most famousfaraonic projects – the Donau-Black Sea channel that would lead freighters through theDanube Delta, famous for its unique wildlifeEconomically these projects were less than profitabale. They relied to a large degree onforced labour and the ecological impact was horrific. In Giorgiu poisounous petrochemicalindustries were located. The polllution from them was visible with the bare eye in February1988. Not only in Romania, but also on the Bulgarian side, in Ruse.
(Dimitar Lydjev,Revolutsijata v Bulgaria 1989-1991 Kniga 1, s. 31, Sofia 2008)
In Ruse the fear grew to anger, and the citizens found themself forwarding demands to thepower holders rather than asking them for favours. The government tried, in a way that hadalways worked before, to shut the voices up with lip service and repressions. But peoplewere actually fearing for their and their childrens' lives, and refused to be shut up. This isthe place to pity the communist government if you want to do that... the task to stop thepollution from Romania seems herculean to me. Just imagine a delegation of Bulgarianstrying to convince Ceacescus clerks to consider Bulgarian citizens health..The case of Ruse, where citizens actually just asked for clean air and were met withrepressions, attracted widespread support around Bulgaria. One thing led to another.Intellectuals dissapointed with preystrojstvo, the Bulgarian blend of Perestrojka, organizedinto a fell blewn dissident movement. But in the beginning there was Ruse. And the fightwas for the nature.Contemporary successRight before 14th of Januart the
zamenki
system was critizised by the enviromentalists.Very shortly, the system meant that private owners could exchange their land for landowned by the state. Private owners in this case means more or less legal operating building
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