The Iron Fist

During the Soviet era, Bulgaria’’s secret police was a mirror image of the KGB. Family members spied on each other, as did friends; private mail or telephone conversations did not exist. Many notorious “dissidents” were stooges of the secret police. People disappeared from shop queues and church doorsteps or were spirited away in the early hours of the morning from their homes. Some never returned, others returned as shadows of their former selves… broken, brainwashed, crippled.

Through interviews and extant archives, international journalist Alexenia Dimitrova documents a brutal truth that is rapidly being whitewashed over.