Photo by Yana Kuzmanova

Zhelyu Zhelev, president of Bulgaria from 1990 to 1997, visited AUBG to talk about the transition from communism to democracy in the country. The lecture, entitled "20 Years After the Democratic Changes," gathered over 200 people in the NAB Auditorium on April 13.

"The period of transition is a crucial one in the communist history," Zhelev said. During the first part of the event, he elaborated on the fall of the Communist regime and the situation in the country "20 years later." The second part of the event was devoted to questions from the audience.

Zhelev talked about the three stages of Bulgaria's transition from communism to democracy. He described the first and second stage which represent the transition form the destruction of the Communist totalitarian system to the creation of democratic institutions. The longest and toughest third stage, the restructuring of the economy, faced a failure, Zhelev said. He added Western Europe had warned Bulgaria that the transition from communism to democracy had to be very quick. "The icy waters of market economy will kill you if you are not fast enough."

The former president answered a number of questions regarding the transition period. On the matter of Bulgaria's goals after the country has gone through it, he said: "Mafia and organized crime are devouring the country, and we have to fight back." Zhelev said corruption during communism was a fact, but it was more or less controlled and limited. "In democracy it was let loose," he added.

Zhelev is a former dissident who was the first democratically elected president of Bulgaria. He has written a number of books and publications, the most notable one being his controversial book Fashizmat (The Fascism). Three weeks after its publication in 1982, the book was banned since it compared the Communist Party rule with Fascist dictatorship.

"The most interesting part of the event were the questions," sophomore Vasil Voychev said. "It would have been nice, though, if he had talked a little bit more about his experience as a president."

The event was part of the Elena Poptodorova Distinguished Lecture Series. It was organized by junior Marina Ceprazova and sophomores Asen Dimitrov and Yulia Shenderovich. "The series aims at providing a forum for discussion on various cultural and political issues," Shenderovich said. There is a number of lecture series at AUBG, but they mostly present businessmen and rarely bring active and prominent leaders of the region to AUBG, she added.