Cristofer Scarboro

A perceived systemic stagnation in the 1970s saw the Bulgarian Communist Party increasingly dissatisfied with the types of subjects that the socialist system was producing. Socialist Humanism was the Party’s answer to these tensions. Four sites of investigation, each linked to projects that sought to instill the values of Socialist Humanism in Bulgarian subjects, frame my work: 1) the sister city program between Haskovo and Tashkent, 2) the brigade movement, 3) school excursions to historical sites, and 4) exhibitions of visual art. A local study, centered in Haskovski okrug, allows for close observation of those subversions involved in any interaction between state and subject and a clearer understanding of how socialist ordered hegemony was calibrated and composed.