Second World War Monument to the Soviet Army, Bulgaria Soviet-era war memorials honoring Red Army soldiers are often vandalized. But this WWII monument in the capital, Sofia, got an especially colorful makeover in June 2011: Fresh paint transformed the soldiers into Superman and other pop-culture figures. Tourists and locals flocked to see the monument, but the Bulgarian Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov was not amused, calling the makeover a “crime.” The soldiers have since been scrubbed to their original state.
Well, that's one way to get the birdcrap off the statues! For two centuries the lovers carved in stone in the town square gazed rapturously and unblinkingly at each other, their outstretched arms inches apart that might as well have been a mile. For two centuries Aphrodite smiled every time she saw the sculpture, until one day she decided to use her godly power for an inspired cause. Touching the two figures with her hands she spoke, "I grant thee two hours of life that thee may spend as thee hath most desired for so long a time!" Shocked, the two suddenly live lovers laughed in delighted anticipation at each other and instantly dove together behind a hedge. Scarcely a minute had passed before the sound of their activity filled the square with the most horrific screeching, not at all a sound Aphrodite, even with her experience, had ever heard or ever expected to hear. Her curiosity aroused, she sneaked a peek behind the hedge. The two lovers were catching the pigeons and crapping on them.
Had it happened here at one of our national sites... I am sure the public would be just as outraged as the folks were there...
Bulgaria was one of the Eastern European countries stuck behind the Iron Curtain under the thumb of the Soviet Union from WWII until the fall of the Soviet Union. They are now part of NATO. I don't expect that too many Bulgarians were outraged at someone having some fun with a stature honoring the Soviet Army.
I don't imagine the children of the children that came from the folks depicted in that monument understand what it really stood for either... nor would they care to honor the folks that monument ultimately represented, you know... their grandparents and all...
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_realism]Socialist realism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] in a free society is open to ridicule - including the word realism. They celebrate the "common man" while portraying 9-foot supermen. An anti-religious state imposes art fantasying it's people worship it with fervor greater than any religion. They repressed it's citizens yet give this over the top picture of utopia. I can understand self-promotion, but socialist realism is nauseating.
Some of those statues looked familiar. The ones on Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. Some of the locals had a saying that "the best view in Warsaw was from the top of the Palace of Culture and Science" The reason was that from the top of the Palace of Culture and Science you couldn't see the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science"]Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]. [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science"][/ame]
