Nikola Mihov

This book 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.

Originally published in 2012, Forget Your Past was listed among the best photobooks of the year by The British Journal of Photography. This second expanded edition comes with a new design, updated text and a newly added selection of never-before-published photos of the monuments.