"Другарският съд" - социална практика за колективно засрамване в периода на комунизма в България
The "Comrades' Court" - a Social Practice of Collective Stigmatizing in the Communist Period in Bulgaria

Summary/Abstract: In the communist Bulgaria "the comrades' courts" had a special ideological task - to reeducate and discipline the population through collective shaming and stigmatizing. The purpose of this research is to follow the practice of "the comrade's courts" as a demonstration of the totalitarian power controlling the public and the personal space of the citizens. I have analyzed the mechanisms and the functions of "the comrade's courts" and discussed the irrationality and malfunction of the communist mentality which created such pseudo-institution. I will throw light on an unanalyzed aspect - "the comrade's court" as a public spice of applying repressive techniques typical for the totalitarian state: wide publicity and demonstrative character; collective shaming and stigmatizing, common slander and the traditional communist self-critique.

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