The year 1981 will be remembered with a lavishly financed high-profile campaign in which Bulgaria aimed to carry out a major PR image presentation worldwide. On the occasion of the 1300 years since the emergence of Bulgaria the government launched a diverse program of celebrations and events at home and abroad. The restoration was completed of the historical Tsarevets stronghold in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, and film director Vulo Radev created the impressive show Sound and Light which is still one of the city’s key tourist attractions.

A few monuments were built as well including the monumental complex The Founders of the Bulgarian State in Shumen and the controversial piece 1300 Years Bulgaria in Sofia. The same year saw the opening of the National Palace of Culture in the capital city, which is still the country’s biggest conference and concert facility.

Emil Alexandrov, Deputy to Ludmila Zhivkova at the Committee of Culture at that time, was one in the circle of experts who developed the concept for the celebrations. In his book Culture and Authoritarian Power he revisits those events: „The main event was held on 20 October 1981 at the National Palace of Culture and while the communist party chief Todor Zhivkov was reading the report, 200 m from the hall in the spirit of tradition hard work was underway: the monument dedicated to the 1300th anniversary was being completed. We had great ambitions. We meant to make sure that every Bulgarian and every institution should provide their inputs into the improvement of their sectors. In this sense the anniversary was not perceived as a singular act of celebration but as a process of several years aimed at bringing positive changes in the economic, cultural, political and social life of the country.”

The BNR Golden Audio Archives keep a recording from the speech made by Todor Zhivkov on 20 October 1981, an expression of his pride in Bulgaria’s long and glorious history:

„Dear comrades, the intransient greatness of our forefathers is in that the Bulgarian state unlike other states at that time on this continent was being created based on ethnicity, as a nation-state of the Bulgarian people. This state emerged based on three ethnic groups: Proto-Bulgarians, Slavs and Thracians who merged into a single nation, the Bulgarian one. This was the first Slavic state that heralded the political and spiritual awakening of the multimillion Slavic world, assisted its accession to civilization and gave it a powerful impetus to lead that civilization. Glory to the great founding fathers who led it for the creation of a centralized state: khans Aszparuch, Krum and Omurtag, Prince Boris I, tsars Simeon, Samuil, Asen and Petar, Kaloyan and Ivan-Asen II. The Bulgarian land has for a long time been the center of great cultures that influenced our culture and that our ancient people creatively intertwined into its own culture. However, there is an event in our past that to a great extent explains our ethnic and national resistance and relentlessness – the work of the brothers of genius Cyril and Methodius, the creators of the Slavonic script, and their disciples.”

A day earlier, on 19 October, was the premiere of the first Bulgarian super production on a Hollywood scale, the picture Khan Aszparuh by film director Ludmil Staikov on screenplay by Vera Mutafcheiva. A debutant actor was cast in the monumental part of Khan Aszparuh, Stoyko Peev. Shooting went on for 11 months with 60,000 extras and with some of the most spectacular horse stunts in the history of the world filmmaking industry. To this day we are not aware of the precise amount of money invested in the most ambitious movie in the 100-year history of Bulgarian cinema. Following its triumph at home, Khan Aszparuh was successful in the United States too. The BNR Golden Audio Archives keep a recording from the movie:

„I, Khan Aszparuh, declare this land a state of Bulgarians. Let those who come after us and bear our name love and protect her… I said!”

In a public perspective, the organization and celebrations of the 1300th anniversary was one of the indisputable achievements of modern Bulgaria. In a personal perspective though, it entailed a few dramatic developments. On 21 July 1981 Ludmila Zhivkova died in so far unclear circumstances that have to this day fed a few rumors and conspiracy theories. In the years that followed her close associates diplomat Zhivko Popov and Emil Alexandrov, key ideologists of the lavish campaign, had to face contrived show trials and were sent to prison. Today, a controversial symbol of the time of celebrations is the 1300 Years Bulgaria monument outside the National Palace of Culture that has been falling apart for quite some time now. In fact, only the skeleton of the robust construction has survived today but the spirit is gone.

English Daniela Konstantinova