My First Elections

This post is part of the series about communist Bulgaria between 1979 and 1989. I already posted about my cat, ice cream, and TV channel switching.

It is the final years of the communism. I’m about 7-8 years old, already 2nd grade in school, around 1987. One weekend, there would be elections. All adults had to go to my school on a Saturday and vote. The political system was such that the country was lead by an unchangeable elderly first man and his buddies. The eletions were for some local authority, like district mayors. The old guy got reelected by an invite-only party, with a 99.9% majority.

So, as a curious kid, I went to vote with my mom. All the options were communist party aging dudes. Someone prepared a poster with their e and Leninist accomplishments. One studied in Moscow, another lead a factory. Mom picked a guy who lead the postal office. We didn’t have a phone line. Applied for one but the waiting time was 10+ years. She hoped that the postal dude will speed things up and we’ll have a phone.

She voted and we went back home. Dad didn’t want to go because it was a waste of time. By noon, someone showed up at the door and rang the bell.

“You’re the last one who didn’t vote, what are you waiting for? We don’t want to report you, we just want to go home. Come or we’ll call the police.”

We never learned who won. The communism fell 3-4 years later. 7 years later we moved to a new place. We never got a landline on that first apartment, the new apartment already had one.

Photo Credit: Petko Yotov, CC BY-SA 3.0. From this view, the neighborhood looks almost unchanged compared to 1986-1989. Won’t be surprised if it’s 20+ years old, especially with the filter.