9/9/09

My landlord came over yesterday to collect this month's rent. Pretty standard routine, until he wrote down the date on the receipt: 9/9/09. He looked down at the page for a second and started laughing. As I awkwardly stood there, money in hand, trying to figure out what was going on, he attempted to tell me.

September 9th, apparently, was at one point the National Day of the Communist Party. This was a day on which every town in Bulgaria had a big festival celebrating the Party and its accomplishments and contributions to the nation, very much like a makeshift national holiday. The date was significant in that September 9th was the day a group of Communists won (or took control of) the Parliament for the first time, marking the biggest change in the country's history since Bulgaria was released from the Ottoman Empire. The last time this was celebrated was 20 years ago to the day.

My landlord went on to tell me how there was a big parade through Preslav, with a lot of flag waving and music. I expected him to start extolling the virtues of "the communism," something I've grown accustomed to hearing from the older generation here. However, his assessment was a bit different. He continued by saying it was a very impressive event, but also a sort of facade. A happy day only for people who were in the Party. The rest were just sort of obliged to play along. The day was sort of indicative of communism as a whole - some were, of course, more equal than others. Sure everyone got the same paycheck every month, but party members were entitled to a whole range of different benefits: bigger houses, better vacations, access to higher education etc.

He went on to say that, yes, there were a lot of good things back then - a lot of good memories, work for everyone, a stronger sense of national pride - but he doesn't know exactly which is better. He likes the fact that people can say things without fear of being punished for it, but doesn't like the lack of respect for people this brings. Like so many other Bulgarians, he likes that people don't have to be supervised 24/7, but at the same time doesn't like the lack of discipline this has created. He loves the fact we can travel anywhere in the world and the fact that there are international brands and actual diversity in the markets. However, he went on to say that even the people who are better off financially in Bulgaria still don't have much money to spend on luxuries like that. "Ima Criza" (There is a crisis) after all...

He told me a story about how there was no real incentive to work back in the days of the Party. How, since everyone got the same amount of money, people would just show up to their jobs and sit around for a while. The only motivation was basically bribery... The doctor would put a stethoscope to your chest and say "oh you're fine" until you whipped out a bottle of whiskey for the guy, after which he would pull out the required paperwork from a desk, claiming he had previously forgotten about them, and perform the proper check-up. He told me about the vast underground economy that existed, probably as a result.

He told me all this with a wistful smile, almost as if he missed it. After a short pause, he took my money, gave me my rent receipt, and shook my hand. "Those days are over now" he told me, and walked away.

Hail to the Party of Lenin, our (not so) eternal vanguard.

Until next time...