Nikola Mihov

  • Monument to the Soviet Army

    Burgas

  • Monument to the Soviet Army

    Burgas

  • Monument to the Soviet Army

    Sofia

  • Monument to the Soviet Army

    Sofia

  • Monument to the Resistance

    Vidin

  • Monument to the Resistance

    Vidin

  • Knoll of Fraternity Memorial Complex

    Plovdiv

  • Knoll of Fraternity Memorial Complex

    Plovdiv

  • Monument to the Three Generations

    Perushtitsa

  • Monument to the Three Generations

    Perushtitsa

  • Defenders of Stara Zagora Memorial Complex

    Stara Zagora

  • Banner of Peace Monument

    Sofia

  • Monument  to Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship

    Varna

  • Monument to Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship

    Varna

  • Monument to Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship

    Varna

  • Memorial House of the Bulgarian Communist Party

    Buzludja

  • Memorial House of the Bulgarian Communist Party

    Buzludja

  • Memorial House of the Bulgarian Communist Party

    Buzludja

  • Monument to the Founders of the Bulgarian State

    Shumen

  • Monument to the Founders of the Bulgarian State

    Shumen

  • 1300 Years of Bulgaria Monument

    Sofia

  • 1300 Years of Bulgaria Monument

    Sofia

  • Pantheon of the Heroes of the Serbo-Bulgarian War

    Gurgulyat

  • Pantheon of the Heroes of the Serbo-Bulgarian War

    Gurgulyat

Forget Your Past

Forget Your Past, 2008 – 2012

The project Forget Your Past traces the fate of 14 of the most important communist-era monuments in Bulgaria, from their construction to the present day. The title is borrowed from the words Forget Your Past graffitied over the entrance of the Bulgarian Communist Party Memorial at Mount Buzludzha, which poignantly illustrates the monuments’ fate. Constructed at enormous expense, today most of them are abandoned, looted and neglected, sharing a common fate – to be silent symbols of a forgotten past.

Since the political changes, a number of emblematic monuments have been dismantled, but more than a hundred large-scale memorials built between 1944-1989 still remain standing. Nevertheless, most of the relevant archives have been lost or destroyed. Nikola Mihov began his research in 2008, travelling through the country, talking to people, recording stories, interviewing sculptors and architects, digging through archives, and taking photographs.

“Today, more than 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the communist-era monuments still divide Bulgarian society. Many people are in favor of their removal. However, most likely because I came of age after the changes, I don’t identify with this outdated tactic for dealing with the past. For me, the monuments are much like the traces of an extinct dinosaur. They have long ago sung out their ideological song, and should be preserved as a controversial symbol of the regime and the society that created them.“, writes the author in the foreword of the book.