Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Russian embassy acknowledges contribution of Bulgarian people to the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews

Photo: EPA/BGNES

“We acknowledge the undisputed heroic contribution of the Bulgarian people, including representatives of the intelligentsia and the Orthodox church, in the fight against Nazism, including in the rescue of the Jews living in the country from the death camps,” reads a post on the Facebook profile of the Russian embassy, in response to the protest by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.

The same post expresses "serious concern" over the "incessant acts of vandalism" against the monument to the Soviet army in Sofia.

“Attention is being diverted from the resolution of the problem of the constant desecration of the monument to issues which are exceptionally important, but which are not connected with the issue directly,” the embassy of the Russian Federation says and urges the Bulgarian authorities to “finally” take the necessary steps to find the culprits and bring them to justice. 

A little after posting the acknowledgement of the contribution of the Bulgarian people to the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews during World War 2, the Russian embassy in Bulgaria posted to its profile the opinion of Mihail Myagkov, director of the Russian military historical society, who writes that the foreign ministry in Moscow was “absolutely right” in saying that the Soviet army had averted the deportation of the Jews from Bulgaria.

The deportation was prevented in 1943 thanks to the opposition of citizens and the position taken by the Bulgarian Orthodox church, civic organizations and Tsar Boris himself, Myagkov writes. However, in his opinion the main argument for the line of conduct of the Bulgarian authorities was the altered situation on the front and the victories of the Red Army at Stalingrad and Kursk. After the breakthrough in the war, the Bulgarian authorities were forced to look around for contacts with the Anti-Nazi coalition, and without the Red Army the Nazis would have forced them to take part in the Holocaust on their own territory, the Russian historian claims


Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Rosen Zhelyazkov

Parliament rejects GERB-SDS cabinet proposal

After a heated debate, Parliament rejected the proposed GERB-SDS cabinet with Rosen Zhelyazkov as Prime Minister. It was supported by 98 MPs, with 138 voting against and two abstaining. Zhelyazkov, representing the first political force in Parliament,..

published on 7/3/24 4:42 PM

Poll: 63% of Bulgarians say increasing arms supplies to Ukraine is a 'bad idea'

Ukrainian optimism clashes with European scepticism ahead of the NATO summit, with divisions emerging over defence spending and how the war will end. These are the conclusions of a report based on a new survey by the European Council on Foreign..

published on 7/3/24 3:28 PM

People in northern Greece thank Bulgarian fire-fighters for their help

Under the program of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, 240 firefighters from 4 countries arrived in Greece to help their Greek colleagues, the Bulgarian Fire Protection Directorate has reported. Due to the high temperatures..

published on 7/3/24 11:53 AM