Toads Who Know Their Puddle. Russian Community in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

“I know my puddle. My puddle is my favorite Blagoevgrad,” says Olga Voroshilova, who moved here with her Bulgarian husband in 1996 from Saint Petersburg, Russia. In Blagoevgrad, a city in Bulgaria populated by 70 thousand people, according to the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, Voroshilova works as a graphic designer. “Many Bulgarians do not give a damn about their country. According to the statistics, out of eight million employable people, more than one million moved abroad. Professors have left. Engineers have left,” she says. Proud Voroshilova values sense of belonging more than the higher standard of living. “If I go abroad, what would I do? Clean the houses in England?” she says.

No, thank you. Not only did Voroshilova stay in a small town in the world's fastest-shrinking country in the world, according to the UN, but she also cofounded the Russian Club in Blagoevgrad. First a humble idea of few female Russian migrants, it became a start for what is now known as the Alliance “Union of Compatriots,” an entity officially registered and protected by both Bulgarian and Russian governments.

Bulgaria Influenced by the USSR

Marina Rulko, Russian language teacher originally from Tambov, Russia, moved to Blagoevgrad with her Bulgarian husband and son in 1980. Back then, the Soviet government sponsored the so-called “Clubs of Russian-Bulgarian friendship” in every Bulgarian city. “Everyone who came from the Soviet countries was well-protected,” remembers Rulko. She even got an apartment in Blagoevgrad for free as a member of the Russian Club.

Then in 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed.

Streets of Blagoevgrad in the 1970s. Photo from the personal archive of Jordan Stoyanov.

In the Dark

Doctor Kiril Aleksiev, Deputy Director of the Blagoevgrad Regional Historical Museum, was only 10 years old at the time. He studied Russian since primary school and had warm feelings towards the country. Dr. Aleksiev remembers how Russian propaganda on Bulgarian media was suddenly replaced with an American one. “In that period, we had an expression, ‘Is the movie good or is it Russian?’ ” he laughs. Dr. Aleksiev compares the Iron Curtain of the USSR with the “Velvet Curtain” created a few years later by American media. “We watched ‘Rambo III.’ We all hated the nasty Russian commander,” says Dr. Aleksiev. “American movies created a cliche about the Russians.”

It was a period or rising nationalism and uncertainty for many Russian-speaking migrants in Bulgaria, including Victoriya Bogdanska, who grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and moved to Blagoevgrad in 1989. It took Bogdanska a few years to learn Bulgarian, and until then she felt uncomfortable to speak Russian in public. “I was going to Sofia by bus, and I was talking to another girl in Russian. We were [shamed by other passengers]. Most people were kind, but some [were not],” she says.

Russian Club in Blagoevgrad

In 1995, a common friend of Rulko and Bogdanska introduced the women to each other. They decided to create the Russian Club and were quickly joined by other Russian-speaking migrants in Blagoevgrad and the locals. Rulko explains, “The local community has diverse interests. Someone likes politics, and someone worked in the Soviet Union. Someone has studied Russian, and someone was growing up with the Russian culture. And this giant body of citizens felt the cultural vacuum.”

They were rejected recognition from the Bulgarian government for two years. In 1997, the Russian Club in Blagoevgrad became official.

Since its foundation, the Russian Club in Blagoevgrad successfully fills this vacuum created by the Soviet Union collapse with numerous annual events gathering hundreds of people from around Bulgaria and abroad.

Maslenitsa

Russian Club’s most famous event is Maslenitsa, a traditional Russian holiday celebrating the start of spring with pancakes, symbols of sun. Common holiday activities include burning the straw effigy symbolizing winter, jumping over the fire, singing, dancing, playing competitive games, and, of course, eating pancakes.

Victoriya Bogdanska rewards the Maslenitsa competition winner with a special gift in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Photo from the personal archive of Victoriya Bogdanska.

The holiday became an object of interest for Russian government officials. In 2000, Chairperson of the Russian Club in Blagoevgrad Bogdanska was invited to Sofia, Bulgaria together with other Russian activists in Bulgaria to meet Yury Luzhkov, the major of Moscow at the time. At the meeting, everyone except Bogdanska was asking for money. When her turn came, to the surprise of everyone in the room, Bogdanska said, “We have everything. We do everything by ourselves.”

This immediately caught the attention of already bored Luzhkov. Bogdanska showed him the album of the Russian Club, a bulky book where all the pictures and documents connected with the Club go to. The major got especially excited by the pictures of Maslenitsa celebration in Blagoevgrad.

Coincidence or not, but the very next year Maslenitsa was first held in Moscow.

Ninth of May

An essential annual tradition for the Russian Club is Immortal Regiment, where the local community walks up to the World War II statue with red carnations and portraits of their ancestors in the military.

“It is an opportunity to tell [this story] to our children and grandchildren,” says Voroshilova, holding her tears. Every year, her daughter comes to the event from another Bulgarian city.

From left to right: Marina Rulko and Victoriya Bogdanska lay flowers at the WWII statue in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria during the annual "Immortal Regiment" event. Photo from the personal archive of Victoriya Bogdanska.

While walking to the WWII statue, Rulko makes the crowd cry by telling Russian military poems, and Bogdanska sings with Elena Bardarska, another founding member of the Russian Club.

“Maybe [doing this] only one time a year is really too little, but how we do it is just heartbreaking,” says Voroshilova.

The Immortal Regiment event gathers hundreds of people from Blagoevgrad and other Bulgarian cities. Olga Voroshilova smiles in the military clothes and with a portrait on the left. Victoriya Bogdanska holds the Russian flag in the center. Photo from the personal archive of Victoriya Bogdanska.

Alionushki

The duet Alionushki, consisting of Bogdanska and Bardarska, is invited to sing at numerous events and concerts around the country. Not professional singers, they still move the audience with the songs the Bulgarians know from childhood.

The Russian School

When in 2011 the nationalism in Bulgaria started to fade, the members of the Russian Club in Blagoevgrad decided to open the Russian Saturday school for all the children in the city. There, the kids learnt to draw, sing, and speak Russian.

Unfortunately, because of limited funding, the school had to close in just two years.

West or East?

According to the informational portal KonsulMir , the Alliance “Union of Compatriots” was formed in 2000 to promote Russian culture and protect the Russian citizens abroad. The alliance now consists of 36 Russian Clubs around the country, including its founding member, the Russian Club in Blagoevgrad.

For the Clubs' members, loving the Russian culture does not mean any less love for Bulgaria. “We are united by our love for Bulgaria,” says Voroshilova. “Bulgarians themselves tell me, ‘Olya, you are more Bulgarian than us.’ ”

Bogdanska adds, “And my friends in Russia say I am more Russian than them.”

Dr. Aleksiev explained the paradox with a Bulgarian joke, “[In the world after WWII], there are two types of nations. One hates Germans and loves Russians. Another one hates Russians and loves Germans. But there are two exceptions. Poles hate both.

And Bulgarians love both.”