Russian Vandals Paint Soviet-Era Star To Look Like Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants - Polidicks

[QUOTE=RobBrown4PM;51380614]W/E about the star, but no one should be defacing any WW2 memorials. Weather or not you think high or low of the post WW2 Bulgarian Soviet state, just remember [B][U]A LOT[/U][/B] of brave men and women died to liberate Eastern Europe from the Nazi's.[/QUOTE] Normally i would agree with this sentiment but if there is an exception to the rule then Bulgaria would qualify, im not gonna go into too much detail on this becuase i'd be here for ages but the simple fact is, Russia invaded Bulgaria, annexed them and destroyed the place and alot of it's culture all while under the banner of being 'liberators'. Do i agree with it / would i do it myself / condone it? No i would not, but I have had the luxuary of not living in a country that was unwillingly subjected to Soviet/Russian rule that only left in 1990.

[QUOTE=RobBrown4PM;51380614]W/E about the star, but no one should be defacing any WW2 memorials. Weather or not you think high or low of the post WW2 Bulgarian Soviet state, just remember [B][U]A LOT[/U][/B] of brave men and women died to liberate Eastern Europe from the Nazi's.[/QUOTE] If you'd read up on your WW2 history, you'd have known Bulgaria was allied with the Axis. Hitler was at our door trying to get armies through the Balkans to fight in Greece and he posted an ultimatum: You join me or you suffer the same fate as Poland. We declared symbolic war against the UK and the US (which resulted in the bombings of Sofia) and participated minimally in the war. Our tzar saved 50,000 jews living in Bulgaria by sending them to labor camps to appease Hitler, instead of boarding them on trains headed to Poland to be interred in death camps. When the Soviet army entered Bulgaria, they immediately toppled the existing government and put the Bulgarian Communist Party in charge. Every member of the current government they could find, they executed. The soldiers raped and stole as they saw fit, and when the army left, the communists started a hunt for dissenters. Politicians, teachers, doctors, policemen, officers and everyone else who could pose a threat to the regime was chased, imprisoned, executed or otherwise repressed so everyone falls in line with party ideals. This continued for 45 years. I suggest you read up on how these years went for not just Bulgaria, but every other country in the Soviet Union, and their sphere of influence. The monument in question celebrates something that Bulgaria cannot shake off to this day. It created a system of plutocracy and corruption that is so deep that it couldn't be torn out in the last 25 years. A lot of people in Sofia want the monument removed and I can see why. I don't agree, but it's no surprise, considering that it's applauding the soldiers as liberators, and not the invaders they were.

The artists are always the ones to go first in dictatorships. Let's see what happens, yeah?

[QUOTE=Stopper;51381734]If you'd read up on your WW2 history, you'd have known Bulgaria was allied with the Axis. Hitler was at our door trying to get armies through the Balkans to fight in Greece and he posted an ultimatum: You join me or you suffer the same fate as Poland. We declared symbolic war against the UK and the US (which resulted in the bombings of Sofia) and participated minimally in the war. Our tzar saved 50,000 jews living in Bulgaria by sending them to labor camps to appease Hitler, instead of boarding them on trains headed to Poland to be interred in death camps. When the Soviet army entered Bulgaria, they immediately toppled the existing government and put the Bulgarian Communist Party in charge. Every member of the current government they could find, they executed. The soldiers raped and stole as they saw fit, and when the army left, the communists started a hunt for dissenters. Politicians, teachers, doctors, policemen, officers and everyone else who could pose a threat to the regime was chased, imprisoned, executed or otherwise repressed so everyone falls in line with party ideals. This continued for 45 years. I suggest you read up on how these years went for not just Bulgaria, but every other country in the Soviet Union, and their sphere of influence. The monument in question celebrates something that Bulgaria cannot shake off to this day. It created a system of plutocracy and corruption that is so deep that it couldn't be torn out in the last 25 years. A lot of people in Sofia want the monument removed and I can see why. I don't agree, but it's no surprise, considering that it's applauding the soldiers as liberators, and not the invaders they were.[/QUOTE] removing the monument is denying the history of the people that lived it... it might have originally stood for the glory of the soviet union, but now it stands for much more, for the people that died for it against their will... removing or damaging the monument is trying to bleach clean and child proof history.

[QUOTE=Blizzerd;51382224]removing the monument is denying the history of the people that lived it... it might have originally stood for the glory of the soviet union, but now it stands for much more, for the people that died for it against their will... removing or damaging the monument is trying to bleach clean and child proof history.[/QUOTE] I agree in that we should not be hasty in tearing down monuments that embody a history we lived to tell tales of - those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it. The important distinction to be made here however is that history is just an intermingling dance of perspectives. The Soviet Union, and now Russia can erect and parade as many monuments and memorials as it wants, Putin can hold as many speeches as he wants - the people who faced history saw their true faces and knew their true names. And for this alone, Russia is never going to win neither hearts nor minds in Eastern Europe among anyone else than Russians themselves.