Prominent political analyst and inveterate rock’n’roll rebel Prof. Evgenii Dainov presented his book “The beginning of the transition. Notes on the revolution (1989-1996)” at The Plume literary club at the National Palace of Culture. It is the second volume of a trilogy tracing events from the country’s recent history. A narrative that is, for the professor, in the first person singular.

“I wrote the book from street level, as a participant in the events unfolding in the streets. It is something of an eyewitness account – the things that have happened to me, the things I’ve been a part of – for example when the so-called “party house” was set on fire and other such events. I describe things as I saw them, without formulating any particular conclusions. The conclusions are up to the readers.”

Evgenii Dainov says the book is optimistic. Ultimately things got underway, albeit slowly and hesitantly, what matters is that very often it was fun. “The book is supposed to be fun, it is not supposed to bring to mind dark political thoughts,” he says.

“Revolutions are not what they used to be – we’ll storm the Bastille, we’ll burn it down and then along comes a dictator like Napoleon. Revolutions at the close of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century are peaceful revolutions, they may not always be successful, but in 1989 they set Eastern Europe free. In fact, a number of East European nations did their job with such a revolution in 1989-1990, whereas here in Bulgaria, we are half-hearted and fickle, we are timorous so we have to go through revolutionary episodes over and over again. The last revolutionary episode we had was in 2013 – the protests against the Oresharski cabinet. It is now 2016 and there will be other such episodes, because we have unfinished business, here in Bulgaria.”

Talking about the revolution, Evgenii Dainov says it is not a closed chapter. The revolution will go on, even after we are no longer here. Because the new generation – the generation of the transition – is now coming into its own.

The book has one more message to convey: that the serious things in life don’t necessarily have to be dull or incomprehensible. They can be colourful and fun. Revolutions are a show, an adventure, a moveable feast. Revolutions are such an outburst of freedom and dignity, that if there’s no commotion, if there’s no partying, then something’s seriously wrong, the political analyst says.

“My own perspective is just a speck in the revolution,” says Evgenii Dainov. “It is a story told from the bottom up. At the bottom are the things that are really interesting. Looking up is the blue sky.”

English version: Milena Daynova