"Courage in the countryside!" - I had not come across an advertisement for the program "Furrows" on BNT and this slogan cheered me up - it sounds cheerful, but also slightly ironic. In "Furrows" they present people who, generally speaking, want to fight the challenges of rural life. If we remember what a pogrom the Bulgarian countryside was subjected to, we can also call them thrill seekers.
True, the cruelty with which Bulgarian agriculture was violated is simply incomprehensible, and this dragged the Bulgarian countryside into nothingness. Future generations will have a hard time understanding the reasons for this barbarity. From a country with flourishing agriculture, Bulgaria was turned into a beggar who is unable to feed even its own population - and thus practically lost its food sovereignty.
In those days, it became known that the reserve of basic food for the population would be enough for only 20 days!
However, our rulers do not seem to understand the disaster that has befallen us. They have simply banished from their memory one of the most monstrous catastrophes in the already drama-filled Bulgarian history - the Agricultural Pogrom.
When it comes to this Madness, the name of President Zhelev is always mentioned. In those days, in an interview it was mentioned again that before the agrarian reform in 1991, "the Americans pressured him and he was unable to resist their desire for the land to be restored to its owners within its actual borders" - and this is exactly what sets the drama in motion.
There is other evidence of "pressure" on the Bulgarian president, especially insistent in this regard was Professor Atanas Ganev, who at that time was the chairman of the agrarian commission of the Seventh Great National Assembly. Zhelev himself also mentioned this fact.
Was this pressure the first test of Zhelev's loyalty to the new rulers? Everyone was aware that he was not some academic scribbler, on the contrary - he even allowed himself to "hooliganism" in his scientific research - for example, by checking the validity of some of Lenin's theses.
And yet, how did the Americans "pressure" him? There is no need to guess: this will remain a secret, because it is one of those things that should remain a secret. However, we would be at least wrong if we assume that they probably abused the natural respect that Zhelev felt for them. And the wars in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as the "Arab Spring", which seriously damaged the prestige of the Americans and which, by the way, have their updated versions even today, had not yet taken place.
At that time - specifically in 1990 - the Americans were trying to finally eliminate the other, more evil - in their opinion - empire with which they were competing. And people like Zhelev were certainly delighted by what was happening.
To this euphoria, however, we must add his surprise that they allowed themselves to "press" him - all this would have confused even a far more experienced politician.
In the end, although he was aware of the consequences of his decision, Zhelev gave in to "pressure" - and thus began the crisis of Bulgarian agriculture.
Of course, it is very likely that the "pressure" against Zhelev was also part of a larger Plan, which aimed to assign different roles of importance to the countries of the former
Eastern Bloc - as well as to subject them to different tests of severity.
This Plan seemed to be the harshest towards Bulgaria - because of its boundless loyalty to the Kremlin - and it soon looked like an outsider in the picture of European agriculture.
Zhelev was lucky to be president in clearer times - and not so mean. And yet, he agreed to make a seemingly insignificant concession, which, however, would have fatal consequences.
How he experienced this mistake of his is unknown - Bulgarian History is not interested in the torments of the Sinners, but the People - quite the opposite, he has this talent too.
Over the years, comments about the Pogrom have also appeared from people from Zhelev's entourage - and they always claim that they tried to dissuade him from accepting the Americans' plan, but failed and gave up. They do not seem to have suffered much from this. It is as if it was some insignificant trifle - and not a shock that, among everything else, changed the People themselves. It's as if he replaced it.
In our/Bulgarian world, some initiatives or ideas that would be of utmost importance for our survival seem to be "enchanted" - no matter how you twist them, or how you suck at them, they know theirs, they don't let us in on their secret - and we are left staring at them like fools, all of us - the bigwigs and the common people in one mess.
And the F-16 affair didn't stir up the people, as if we were supposed to be deceived - and it's normal for broken planes to hit us.
By the way, the Americans are not at all embarrassed by their brutal behavior in the F-16 deal. They rehearsed this ridiculous skit, which should pass as a business venture, back in 1991, when they gave Bulgaria a ship with corn - the country was in a serious crisis and this gift was supposed to look like God's mercy. However, the corn turned out to be spoiled. But this did not affect our relations at all - that is, the infatuation with our new Masters...
Finally, a few more words about witchcraft and its Bulgarian victims.
The one who bewitches us and then forgets to un-enchant us is not in the Kremlin.
He is not the one for whom everything is a business, including the pushing of spoiled corn or poorly repaired airplanes.
Let's show some courage and finally believe that we usually bewitch ourselves.
And we doze off sweetly - waiting for someone to tell us the code for our un-enchantment, which we never knew...