MUSEUM OF SOCIALIST ART

A museum packed with Lenins, Stalins, Dimitrovs and... a forgotten five-pointed red star

In contrast to the other countries in the former East bloc Bulgaria has no museum of Communism. However, a permanent exhibition of Socialist-era art was opened in Sofia, in 2011.The Museum of Socialist Art is a branch of the National Art Gallery. On an area of 7,500 square metres it collects monumental and smaller sculptures, paintings and so on, created in the period 1944-1989 and reflecting the flavour of the times.Their authors are among the most famous sculptors and painters of the period.

Portrait of Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov

The openair exhibit of large sculptures presents some of the most memorable artworks, including the granite Lenin by Lev Kerbel, placed in the Largo in Sofia, in 1971 (today the site is occupied by the Statue of Sofia). The man spreading his arms in Day One by Ivan Neshev (1969) is also here. The collection includes the inevitable busts and portraits of Georgi Dimitrov, Dimitar Blagoev, Todor Zhivkov, his wife Mara Maleeva and his daughter Lyudmila Zhivkova.

It even has an image of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the first head of the Soviet secret police. The styles vary from orthodox realism to more innovative creative solutions. The collection also includes artworks dedicated to ordinary Bulgarians, usually images of workers, and symbolically charged sculptures of mothers waiting for their Partizani sons and daughters.

The openair section of the exhibition includes the original five-pointed star, which stood on the Party House in Sofia in 1954-1984, when it was replaced with a newer, bigger star.