A traveling show telling of the horror that was Bulgaria after the July 9, 1923 reactionary coup, observing its fifth anniversary.

‘Five Years of Terror in Bulgaria—An Exhibition’ by G. Raduloff from Labor Defender. Vol. 3 No. 11. November, 1928.

ON the day of the fifth anniversary of the Fascist coup d’Etat in Bulgaria, June 9, 1923-June 9, 1928, in Cologne, Germany there took place the exhibition “Five Years of White Terror in Bulgaria.” It took the form of pictures, photos, clippings from the press of every country in the world, diagrams, statistics, etc., and exhibited the bestialities and atrocities of the White Terror in Bulgaria for the last five years. There was also exhibited the struggle of the Bulgarian masses and of the international proletariat against this regime.

The curious fact of the matter is that in the same German city, there took place an international press exhibition and while every country in the world was represented in this show, there were significantly absent Bulgaria and Italy.

The exhibition “Five Years of White Terror in Bulgaria” was divided in several departments. First, the department of the press: There was exhibited a tableau in black mourning with photographs of the forty-four Bulgarian journalists killed or “disappeared”, victims of the White Terror and the “death list” of the forty-six Bulgarian papers and magazines suppressed by the fascist government.

Second, the department of the “disappeared”: There were exhibited pictures and photos of the many “disappeared” victims of the White Terror but the most striking were clippings of papers with the mourning announcements of the “disappearance” of someone by the parents or relatives of the victim, a powerful popular protest, with which one can cover the walls of many spacious rooms.

Third, the department of entombed alive: There were pictures and photos of many political prisoners still entombed alive in the prisons of Fascist Bulgaria. Pictures also showed the methods of torture to which are subjected the Bulgarian political prisoners. There are still 1,000 prisoners in the prisons of Bulgaria.

Fourth, the department of the executioners: There were the pictures and photos of King Boris, the members of the cabinet and the generals of the cabinet of Tsankoff, Liaptcheff and others. There was a special tableau on which were exhibited facsimiles of the forgeries of Druzhelovsky in connection with the explosion in the Cathedral in Sophia on the 15th of April, 1925. And there was a political cartoon representing Tsankoff walking knee-deep in the blood of the Bulgarian workers and peasants.

Fifth, the department of statistics: Several statistical diagrams showed the growth of the Peasant League in Bulgaria, the growth of the Communist Party and their votes during the years 1921, ’22, ’23 and also the decreasing influence and votes of the bourgeois parties. Thus in 1923 the Peasant League had received 775,115 votes, the Communist Party 220,000 votes, with all the bourgeois parties together having received 235,395 votes.

There were also statistical figures of the victims of the White Terror. The diagram shows that in Bulgaria with a population of five millions there were killed 27,000 persons which is 5.4% for a thousand population, while in China this is 0.33% for the thousand.

There were many other departments. This exhibition is a powerful weapon for agitation against the White Terror. The exhibition is now in Berlin and will be in all the important cities in Germany then it will go in almost every country in the World.

Labor Defender was published monthly from 1926 until 1937 by the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Workers Party of America, and later Communist Party-led, non-partisan defense organization founded by James Cannon and William Haywood while in Moscow, 1925 to support prisoners of the class war, victims of racism and imperialism, and the struggle against fascism. It included, poetry, letters from prisoners, and was heavily illustrated with photos, images, and cartoons. Labor Defender was the central organ of the Scottsboro and Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaigns. Editors included T. J. O’ Flaherty, Max Shactman, Karl Reeve, J. Louis Engdahl, William L. Patterson, Sasha Small, and Sender Garlin.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1928/v03n11-nov-1928-LD-ORIG.pdf