Клубът за подкрепа на гласността и преустройството в България: опит за осмисляне двадесет години по-късно
The Club in Support of Glasnost and Restructuring (Perestroika) in Bulgaria: A Swing-Wing Phenomenon

Summary/Abstract: Founded on November 3, 1988, the Club in Support of Glasnost and Restructuring in Bulgaria was the largest among the first formations created in Bulgaria in response to and support of the process initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the changing of socialism designated as Perestroika. The role of the Club for the political transformation of Bulgarian society is the object of this article. Through analysis of foundation and activities, and by tracing the biographies of its founders, we will attempt to show the ambiguous agenda of the Club was the only possible form at that time for making a breach in the Party and state structure of social organization. Our hypothesis is that the existence in parallel of an overt public activity (accepted even by the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party) and of a concealed program (bringing down the Communist regime) was a condition of its functioning in the context of the power of the Communist Party-State, but it was equally a trap hindering the achievement of the Club’s goals, both public and concealed. The factors of this ambiguity will be sought in the social political status of the founders, in the mode of functioning of the one-party state power, and in the forms of legitimization of the discourse (public/concealed). The analysis will disclose the effects of this ambiguity on the political processes in Bulgarian society in the following aspects: the presence/absence of dissidents in Bulgaria, the transformation of a civic movement into a political party, political differentiation, etc. The study will be based on an examination of the chronology of events and a present-day analysis of these events, as well as on interviews with the founders and members of the Club.

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