Brutal Friendship

These 4 soldiers are part of the Monument of the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship, located on one of the highest points within the city of Varna, Bulgaria, overlooking the Black Sea.

This massive 11,000 ton monument was constructed as a memorial to Russia’s support of Bulgaria during the 1828-29 Russo-Turkish War. During that conflict, the Siege of Varna lasted for two months. After landing on the coast north of the city, Russian forces established their camp on a nearby hill named Turna Tepe, as they battled the Ottoman forces who held the city.
The monument is built on the same spot where the Russian forces had been stationed; and which, after the war ended, became a mass grave for all those who fell in the battle.

The monument fell into disuse after the political changes of 1989. Today, it is heavily vandalised and has been stripped bare, leaving little more than graffitied concrete and rebar.

The interior is deceptively spacious, consisting of numerous passages and chambers which originally served memorial and museum purposes. One room once contained a museum dedicated to the Russo-Turkish War, another a small hall for meetings, and there were even a bookshop and a library. A wide staircase beneath the structure leads down into the hill itself. A large bomb shelter, now abandoned, was constructed inside the base of the hill.

A monumental plaque, positioned above the entry staircase and now decayed almost beyond legibility, featured a quote from Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s first communist leader: “Friendship with the Soviet Union is as essential as is the sun, air and water for the living creature.”

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