The mythmaking of children heroes during the communist regime in Bulgaria – the case of “the heroes of Belitsa”

Abstract

The paper presents the constructing of the image of “child heroes” in the memory policies imposed by the communist regime in Bulgaria after 1944. The Bulgarian case of establishing patterns of child heroism during the communist regime followed the Soviet examples of policy on the youngsters. In pursuing its own ideological goals, after 1944 the political regime in Bulgaria imposed new content of child education and turned children into an instrument and object of the propaganda of new heroism. The biographies of the “child heroes” were turned into examples of education and identification for the young generations. Despite the fact that several local cases existed, the cases of Mitko Palauzov, the “six children form Yastrebino” and the “heroes of Belitsa” – Vasil and Sava Kokareshkovi were presented as the national heroic patterns for the youngsters. The specific case of Vasil and Sava Kokareshkovi has been followed in the paper.