Bulgaria Opens "Museum of Socialist Art" as Europe Marks the 20th Anniversary of the Soviet Collapse - ArtNews Magazine

artwork: A communist symbol, a huge ruby-red five pointed star is seen at the entrance of the new Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia. A new art museum opening in Sofia symbolizes Bulgaria's long and painful farewell with its totalitarian past. Hundreds of paintings and statues from the Communist era that had been gathering dust in storage are now being restored for a place in the new museum. - AP Photo/Oleg Popov.

SOFIA, BULGARIA – Giant statues of Soviet dictators Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin. Paintings of enthusiastic socialist laborers. A huge red star that graced Communist Party headquarters. As Europe marks the 20th anniversary of the Soviet collapse, this nation that’s still shaking off its troubled communist legacy is opening a museum dedicated to the totalitarian past. A debate’s raging on whether the museum romanticizes the Soviet era or teaches new generations about its horrors. Other former communist countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary have long had similar museums; the fact it’s taken Bulgaria this long to open one is a sign of its fragile transition to democracy.