Justice Under the Table Rumen LEONIDOV There is hardly a single person in our country who had been sentenced by the communist “people’s government” for political reasons to internment and jail, and was recognized as repressed, but who, in a blatant violation of current legislation is denied the one-time compensation to which he is eligible under the Amendments and Supplements to the Political and Civil Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons Act. However, such a person does exist. His name is Stoyan Gerasimov Vasilev, born on September 10, 1948, in the village of Klyuch, Blagoevgrad Region. Yes sure, you might say, yet another active fighter against socialism. As it goes, they will exceed in number the former active enemies of the royal-fascist government. Mr. Vasilev’s odyssey began in 1965, in his home village at the border. The frontier post commander, major Zlatev, acting upon order by the local authorities and with the assistance of his border guards, killed two youngsters. For what reason? The same “people’s government” that had forced the parents to declare in their passports that they were Macedonians in the past, now wanted their sons to declare themselves Bulgarians. The youngsters wouldn’t have that, though. They refused to change their nationality, sang (forbidden) Macedonian songs, created not only a bad impression but also set a dangerous example for their fellow villagers. The local leaders were enraged. Then, the old Stalinist maxim came to the rescue: “If there is a man, there is a problem; no man, no problem”. A rumor spread that the two young men, convinced in their Macedonian nationality, had illegally crossed the Bulgarian-Greek border. But when residents from the surrounding villages found their buried bodies, they were riddled with bullets from assault rifles. 17-year-old at the time, Stoyan Vasilev, driven by adolescent gusto, righteous anger and offended sense of justice, started writing and disseminating leaflets in the Petrich region. Suspected by the Militia, he was interrogated twice, but wasn’t caught until he became an accomplice in the theft of an OPTIMA typewriter from the medical offices in the village of Skut. He was sentenced to five months in jail at an initial general regime of serving the sentence. At that time, Stoyan was single, a literate worker, without prior convictions. The theft was proposed by Krim Tipov, 50-year-old party member, who was a party secretary in Skut after 1955 and prior to that, an active member of the Young Communist League, the Communist Youth and the Communist Party. Here is an excerpt from sentence ¹/1/25.IÕ.1970 of the Blagoevgrad Court: “In 1965, this man, a former shift manager at the agricultural cooperative, assumed a 1 OBEKTIV
wrongful position on the Macedonian question and during the elections began publicly defaming the economic and state policy of the people’s government. For this behavior, for this defamation of the party policy, for his nationalist activities on the Macedonian question, in 1966, his Party membership was terminated.” Thus, the leader of the group, Timov, was sentenced to one-year imprisonment, the other defendant, Slavcho Nikolov, was sentenced to eight months for his involvement in other petty thefts. Vasilev got away with five months, for his indirect involvement in breaking into the medical offices. Five years later, on January 25, 1975, the same court sentenced Stoyan Gerasimov Vasilev, divorced, with prior convictions, primary education, a professional fitter with no party membership, for his unwarranted absence, together with Iliya Tevilov, from the communities in which they were settled under the proper administrative procedures. They were sentenced to a year and a half in prison and to involuntary resettlement for a period of one year. Tevilov was sent to the village of Y a n k o v o , Shoumen region, while Vasilev, the other fugitive, was resettled in the village of Krastets, Gabrovo region. Despite all the protocols, certificates, files, witness affidavits and other documents submitted by Stoyan Vasilev to different Bulgarian institutions, this story could have been regarded as purely criminal. His story could have been questioned because there are many similar sets of court cases and belated jabber of relatives. I would have questioned it, too, had I not seen a copy of the “Operative plan for conducting surveillance activities under THE NATIONALIST FSC* created for Stoyan Gerasimov Vasilev with regard to “MACEDONIAN NATIONALISM”. Dated 16/10/1976, Ref. ¹ 4963, classified “Top Secret!”, Copy 1, Directorate VI, Department IV, State Security (SS), 13/10/1976, proposed * FSC - Field Surveillance Case