Red_Square Sofia - Part 9

posted by Dimiter on 2006/04/16 12:09

[ Red_Square Sofia ]

Kill ‘Stranger’. [Ubijte ‘Skitnik’]. Bulgarian and British State Policy on Georgi Markov’s Case.,
Hristov, Hristo. Sofia 2005

Bulgarian journalists just love to label their shallow and clamorous covers "investigations". So, it has been a long time since I had read so detailed, accurate and at the same time contextually conscious text. It is a gold standard book.
The only reason for my media allusion is that the author Hristo Hristov (look to the bottom of the page) is working for the Dnevnik daily as a journalist. Otherwise I would have not hesitated to profile this book among the not-so-many studious and profound historical examinations of the communist period… Anyway, it is something that I enjoyed reading but I am still fighting the strong impressions left by the narrated facts along the book’s nearly one thousand pages.

The book is dedicated to Georgi Markov, his affair with the communist regime, its culmination during the years of his political exile in UK, ended up by his physical elimination by the Bulgarian secret services [Darjavna sigurnost] and finally all efforts and obstacles that state and various individuals put into the concealment of the truth about that case.

The title of the book comes from Georgi Markov’s pseudonym ‘Stranger’ [Skitnik] used by the State Security Services to file his case. Ironically, on purpose or not, it fitted perfectly the writer’s personal and creative life-story. His restless character and non-conformism tended to confront him with the mediocrity and hypocrisy of the establishment and its human facets everywhere he went. Both communist regime, its breeding stock and later British administrative coldness could not constrain Georgi’s authentic humanistic sensitivity. His autobiographic series called, "In Absentia, Reports about Bulgaria" broadcasted on the Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany will remain the most expressive and honest account about the intellectual and everyday life under Bulgarian communism.

I am kind of very sad now… :-( … the indifference and cold bloodness with which state and establishment can play with the life and the truth of a real human is really unbearable…


Antworten

01 by anonymous at 2006/04/16 12:44 Bitte registrieren und/oder loggen Sie ein, um zu antworten
Kill ‘Stranger’. [Ubijte ‘Skitnik’]. Bulgarian and British State Policy on Georgi Markov’s Case.,
Hristov, Hristo. Sofia 2005

Bulgarian journalists just love to label their shallow and clamorous covers "investigations". So, it has been a long time since I had read so detailed, accurate and at the same time contextually conscious text. It is a gold standard book.


Just for the record.
As you may notice the title of the book in its English translation appears as "Kill the Tramp"... I do not like it, that's why I use my translation. It came to me while reading and before I encountered the mentioned translation, so...

Sofia

Welcome to the [Sofia] weblog, a part of the Kakanien Revisited weblog network. The Team - Dimiter, Assen and Mira - all three PhD students in the Department of History and Theory of Culture at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" will try to create an image - although sometimes a faceted and incoherent one - of the Bulgarian academia, culture, ongoing events, ideas, realities and virtual spaces. All of you - our readers - are warmheartedly invited to join us in this endeavor with your comments and suggestions.
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