THESE
ARE
MERELY
A FEW
PRELIMINARY
STROKES
for
the
written
portrait
of
Lyudmila Zhivkova,
our
beloved Bulgarian
Comrade.
(Those familiar with Communism enjoy this rhetoric
(but the utopists among you ?))

Her
image
shall
be
recreated
not
in the past perfect,
but in the 'future' tense
- since
it
was
to
the
future
that
she
was
totally
dedicated.
The
spiritual outline
of
her
personality
is



being
revealed
to us
in
its
true dimensions
in
the
same way
as
the mountain
is
revealed
against
the dawn sky.
First of all
we
see
the
summit,
which
appears
to us
almost
as
an
unearthly
pedestal
of
the morning star;
then
the
light
illuminates
the ridge,
the slopes,
the foothills
-
the steep
and terribly
real
road to the top.
One
of
Lyudmila Zhivkova's
greatly
developed
gifts
was
her ability
to
quickly
readjust




from
one area
to another,
transferring
it
from
one
sociopolitical or cultural
problem
to
another.
This
phenomenal capability
enabled
her
not only
to
carry
out
complex, full programmes,
but
above all




to
integrate,
to
multiply
and thus
to
achieve
unexpected,
apparently
inexplicable results.
Ljudmilla
grew
under
the
bright stars
of
the
Rila
and
Rhodope
Mountains.
This
was
an inherited
gift,
or
as the saying goes:


Good people
probably
pitied her
for
her
cruel
lot,
because
the father
was
already
roaming
another
mountain range
-
the
most Bulgarian
of mountains
-
as leader
of
the
Chavdar Partisan Brigade,
consciously
prepared
at any
moment



who
had
the
boldness
of
using
Zhivkovs daughter
Ljudmilla
as
an icon
for
consumerism.



IN AUTUMN OF 1949
Lyudmila Zhivkova
went
to school.
The
new
generation
crossing
the
school doorstep
was
known
as
Dimitrov's syndrom generation.
Entering
the
school
at
the
youngest
all children
became
prolongations
of
Ljudmillas dynamics
and
simple hairdress.



It
set
out
with
the name
of
the
great teacher
to
conquer




Man
is
taught
by
the example
of
others.
First
comes
the example
of
one's parents.
Then
the friend's
example.
Then
the teacher's.
And
at
the
highest
level
-






The
sky
will not
forget
their voices.
Lyudmila
sat
at
the
third
desk
down
the middle row.
Through
the window
she
could
see
a boring
school yard
and
a funny
vegetable
plot,
where
the students
experimented
with
farming.

Lyudmila
had
the
ability
to
remain
unnoticed,
but
nothing
escaped
her eyes.
She
was
never
bored,
mainly
because
she
knew
how to dream.
What
is
more,

	These dreams were not the idle day-dreams with which many dope themselves. These were unusual dreams and plans. She believed in her dreams and maybe that is why she made them come true.

As
Imperialism
would
say
"The shit was hitting the fan"
at
the
historic
April Plenum
of
the CC of the BCP,
which
went
on
for
a whole week,
with
Comrade Zhivkov
insinuating
all kind
of
truths
on
the
stagnated
Communism
based
on
overmature heroism.
He
pregnantly
drew the lessons
in public.
Today
the course
charted
by
the April Plenum
of 1956
has
become
a symbol
of
all-round upsurge,
a symbol
of
the
creativity
of
the
mature
socialist society.
The
spirit
of
April
is
our
Party's
and
national pride.
But
to think
of
it
at
that time...

The
spring
of 1956
was
a time
of
supreme trial,
a time
for
re-thinking values,
a time
for
painful
but
merciless
self-criticism.
International
anti-communism
rubbed
its hands
in
glee
at
the thought
of
a disintegration
of
the socialist system.
But
April
was
not born
to bring
joy
to the enemy.






at
its
historic
April Plenum
of 1956,
the Bulgarian
Communist Party
restored
Leninist norms
and
principles,
boldly
and
steadily
taking up
the course
of
the
accelerated
construction
of
socialism.
This
general policy,
forged out
and
consistently
implemented
under
the leadership
of
Todor Zhivkov,
is
already
a mastered historical era.
It
has
been
evaluated
by time
and
evaluated
by
the people.
It
has
been
called
a new revival
and
a new
golden age
for
Bulgaria.
It
spontaneously
brought forth
new ideas
in
all
spheres
of life,
and
continues
to do
so.

It
offered
scope
for
the
appearance
of
new personalities
which
before
April 1956
had
appeared
fantastic,
if not
unreal
and
impossible.

And
inspired
by
the
Marxist-Leninist
April course
of
our Party,
these
new heroes
materialized
their
intellectual potential
in
the name
of
man
and
for
the benefit of man.
Such
a personality
-
the
most brilliant
and
beloved
to us
-
was
Lyudmila Zhivkova.

She
was
the truest
and
most worthy
daughter
of
this age.


Today
we
cannot
so much as
imagine
Lyudmila Zhivkova's
personality
and
deeds
without
her
unusual talent
to dream
-
to dream
boldly
and
with
inspiration,
to dream
scientifically,
to dream
in
a communist way.

For
that
reason
in
the years
when
her dreams
were
coming true,
she repeated:
'To be
an artist,
a creator,
a discoverer,
a bold
victor
-
that
is
what
man
is
there for!'

One
of
her mottos
was:



.

	When she first enrolled in the office of the faculty there was a minor incident. The woman in the enrollment office who had the lion-tamer's tact required by her office, exclaimed: 'You're not the daughter of Todor Zhivkov, are you? Well, well, well, what do you know - the daughter of the first secretary getting into university without privileges and coming to enroll herself...' Furious insulted tears welled up in Lyudmila's eyes and of her future fellow-students. She would repeat this incident every now and again, using the smallest excuse. This subject and her prediction of "a war in the south pole within the near future" were her favourite hooks to showing a way for an expanding proud nature, full of heroic empty-bellyness.

Afterwards
during
her
student
years
nothing special
seemed
to
happen.

She
was
just
as
friendly,
disciplined
and
quiet
as ever.

She
didn't
like
the front seats,
but
listened
carefully
and
took
her
notes.


SOFIA UNIVERSITY
is
itself
a part
of
recent
Bulgarian history.

The
shadow
of
the
staircases
and
corridors
and
the
silence
of
the
auditoria
preserve
the
sacred memory
not
just
of
the pleiad
of
Bulgaria's
most outstanding
cultural
figures
and
builders,
but
also
of
some
of
the heroes
of
the
revolutionary struggle
most
revered
by
the nation.

Today
the
auditoria
bear
the
names
of
students,
heroes
who
passed
the
test
of
immortality.
Lyudmila Zhivkova
knew
the
language of heroism

.

Her proverbial modesty and even bashfulness did not make her passive or lethargic. She burnt like a torch when she had to show her altruism and her readiness for self-sacrifice. To avoid internal complications, she did not fear the ridicule when picking up the hair of anyone's mistress.

The
impulse
for
self-sacrifice
is
the
highest
human quality
which
counters
egoism.

We
become
aware
of
it
suddenly
and
usually
post factum,
but
it
is
based
upon
the
entire stand
of
the
personality
in life
and
is
often



In
the
close
family circle
it
was
she
who
decorated
the
New Year's tree.

This
she
did
from
an
early age,
first
of all
for
her
younger
brother,
and
later on
for
her
own
children.
She
did
so
not
for amusement,
but
as
a serious task
-
to
create
something
which
would
provide
her
illigitimate daughter
with
glory
and
beauty .

She
took
care
to keep
the
secrets
of
her
family life
for
herself,
leaving
her
daughter
out of history
just
as
had been done
with
Trotsky
by
the darkrooms of Stalin.

Unfortunately,
unaware
of
what
her
photographic staf
would
do.





She
often
stated
her
belief
that
to interrupt
one's interlocutor
is
not
just
bad manners,
but
is
also
very
harmful.
Her
kindness
and
her
trust
in people
were
proverbial.

She
was
warned,
and
she
herself
saw,
that
certain people
were
using
her boundless sympathy
for
their own
personal
advantage
and
selfish aims.



This
hurt
her
bitterly
but
did
not
make
her
mistrustful,
and
to the end
she
bore
the heavy cross
of kindness
towards
people.

Paradoxical though it might sound, this kindness, simplicity and immediacy in her relations with people, this down-to-earth nature which she had to the very end and in the days of her highest flight, was precisely what made her seem unworldly, unreal and supernatural, as if humaneness is the most unusual thing on earth.

A final confirmation
of
her
right
attitude
came
when
she
visited
the G-Force Studios
in Eindhoven,

with a delegation of creative comrades of Former Yugoslavia, young brave, creative men that had been at the frontier of the volontary delapidation of their petrified and Insomnic Republic. Even a rebellious young man as Vuc@KUD-FP.SL would advice Ljudmilla to interiorate her libido into a cultural expression and to stop making sub-liminal erections with her shoe, when in public (like in the G Force Studios,as you can see above, and at the arrival in Cuba later on in this site).

Lyudmila Zhivkova's
Friday Suyposia Art Salons
were
famous
to
a few.

The
Fridays
would
finish
late.

The
'celebrities'
would
go home,
so
would
the
bold youths,
leaving
the salon
to
the women
left over.




The
large
living room
would
be
still,
unfinished cigarettes
smoking
in
the
ashtrays
and
the
undrunk wine
glimmering
in
the glasses.

This
misleading
glimmer
and
smoke
of
vanity
which
accompanied
art
was
what
Lyudmila Zhivkova
did
not
like.

Therefore
she
would
remain
alone
with
her
thoughts,
although
armed
with
new ideas
from
different
creative
fields of force.

She
would
dream
of
the future
in
her
unique
businesslike
way.

Inspired
by
that
day's
half emptied
wine-glasses,
Bulgarian Wine
would
never
be
meant
to be
left undrunk.

"If you uncork a project
you
must
enjoy it till the last drop"
was
her
apllied
expression
whenever
realisation-prognostics
of
Bulgarian
cultural
programs
would show
stagnation
by
idleness
of
her fellow Comrades.
(chippendales)

.

This
is
what
she saw
in
the Mona Lisa:
Many
of
our mothers
and
wives
mime
the glorious
Gioconda of Da Vinci.

The
deep mystery
and
the
enigma
of
the
Mona Lisa
is
connected
with
the great feminine principle
and
the
creative principle
in
the
universe.

It
is not
mere
physical
female beauty,
but
the
eternal
mother nature
who
is
always
pregnant
and
who
always
bears
the
secret of conception,
of
the rebirth
of
the new.

Her
mental bra
carries
our
nutrition.

Is
it
a coincidence
that
Leonardo
was
a homosexual ?

	It was just then that colleagues informed her that in Sofia, after waiting in the queue of people seeking the revelations of art, a lunatic managed to get through the special guards and attacked the Mona Lisa with a knife. How many people felt the knife of destruction pierce not the picture but their own hearts! How difficult it is to create and how easy to destroy! True, the man with the knife turned out to be a psychopath, and hence not liable for trial. But we also know that Nero was mad, that Hitler was mad. The price for such belated knowledge is high. And which forces use the hand of the lunatic? Conservatism? Spiritual backwardness? Militant ignorance?

Here she is in Cuba
after
the Great Mona Lisa stabbing

Lyudmila Zhivkova
bore
the
bad news
courageously.

This
bitter
period
was
characterised
by
the
account
of
how
she
reacted
on
her
arrival
in
La Habana.

She
reached
for
Comrade Castro's cigar
and
said:
"Comrade,
you are not a peasant,
stop behaving like one.

If you leave sigar-smoking to me,
you will have enough time
to shave your legs."

With
a candid smile
she
warned:


I
would say
that
the
disease
is
inertia,
traditionalism of thought.

If
we
want
to throw
a dam
that
will
stop
this
river of selfhipnose
we
must
make
lunacy
affordable by institutionalisation.'

Without
effort
or
trouble
she
devoted
all
her time
to
mental work,
which
was
an
integral part
of
her
job
as
director of culture.

This
insatiable capacity
for
work
deprived
her
constantly
of
the
hours
she needed
for
sleep.

Of course,
she
did not
recommend
such exhaustion
to
anyone
else,
because
she knew
its
high price.

It
was
part
of
her conscious
self-sacrifice.

Lyudmila Zhivkova
had
won
the duel
with
death
not
for mere physical survival.

On
the
contrary,
she
seemed
to have
renounced
it
and
seemed
to be
living
solely
on
the spiritual level.

It
was
then
that
she
realised
that
the abusive
consumption
of
amphetamines

would
not
help her
in
facilitating
diplomatic cultural duties.

In
revealing
her credo,
Lyudmila Zhlvkova
liked
to repeat
that
the aim
of
life
is
improvement.

She
more
than
anyone else
understood
that
the expansion
of
the consciousness
-
both
private and public
-
is
a delicate
and
difficult process.

(see an attempt by Bolkenstein)

This
inspired
Dusan
to invite
international
cultural commandos
to exchange
manifest
gestures
with
his
fellow people.

These
enlightning exchanges
were
only once
overshadowed:
when
the
I.B.W.
went
to Belgrado
and
shot
their
Brabofax
toilet-paper cannon
from
the
very high
B92
building.

The
first one
to be
desillusioned
was
Ljudmilla.

She
regarded
art
not just
as
a field
for
enjoyment
for
its
own
sake,
but
as
an irreplaceable
factor
in
the
harmonious expansion
of
the
horizons
of
the individual
and
of
society.