Historical Reconciliation Models: Facing the Past in Post-Communist Bulgaria (Research Brief)

In my research, I was interested in how Bulgaria, as a new democracy, absorbs the legacy of its former communist regime. Using Spain as a theoretical model, my aim was to study in greater detail the causal mechanism for how an internal push would lead to historical reconciliation. I also sought to identify which political and social actors have served as partners or veto points in this effort. I interviewed various members of parliament and the political elite. Furthermore, I met with NGOs that deal with democratization, historical memory, and education in order to determine how the communist past was being integrated into public memory.

Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.

Ivo Dimitrov, of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was a 2010-11 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.