Fest10.11: The Imposition of the Regime

In the autumn of 1944, at the end of World War II, a coup d'état established communist totalitarian rule in Bulgaria. Within just a few years the country was transformed — the elite were sentenced to death or sent to camps and political prisons, a one-party state was established, and new repressive and propaganda structures were created, penetrating every layer of society. The most terrifying face of the regime was State Security — formally a secret intelligence service, but in fact the main instrument of political repression. Arbitrary violence and control became a fundamental principle of governance, ruining hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. Today's buildings and familiar urban landmarks tell the story of the mechanisms of fear and subjugation with which the new regime built its totalitarian system.