New Book Recounts Story of Three Bulgarian Students Who Spoke Out against 1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia

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A book documenting the story of three Bulgarian university students who publicly protested against the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, was presented at the Czech Cultural Centre in Sofia on Wednesday evening.
Titled The Three Against the Crushing of the Prague Spring, the book by Stefan Dechev and Keta Mircheva tells about history students Eduard Genov (1946–2009), Alexandar Dimitrov (born in 1947) and Valentin Radev (1948–1995), who spoke out against the invasion in late summer and autumn 1968 and the suppression of attempts to build what was known as “socialism with a human face”.
The three learned learned about the invasion of Czechoslovakia from foreign radio broadcasts and decided to protest by distributing leaflets in Sofia and Plovdiv. In late summer 1968, they circulated 200 leaflets condemning the presence of Warsaw Pact troops, followed by a second action in October, in solidarity with five Soviet citizens who had been punished for protesting the invasion. Their efforts to recruit fellow students were abandoned, and the second action led to their arrest on October 29, after a childhood friend of Genov reported them to State Security. The three were suspended from university and received prison sentences of varying lengths in a case registered as No. 370/1968.
Philosopher and journalist Dimitar Bochev, who witnessed the events, described the book as much needed from a civic, political and, above all, moral perspective, praising the courage of the three young men in challenging the military power of the Warsaw Pact. Doynov highlighted Dechev’s use of the microhistorical approach, which examines a particular case to shed light on a broader historical period.
Bochev added that, in reading the book, “one cannot help but marvel at the fact that three young men in the prime of their lives, three young daredevils, should take on the most sinister and powerful military force in the world – the Warsaw Pact. It is extraordinary. Their audacity, their sheer recklessness and their quixotic spirit are without parallel in our national history.”
The book also explores the reactions of the three students’ friends, their interrogations by State Security at Sofia Central Prison, and the condemnation and disciplinary proceedings they faced from Communist Party structures, Stefan Dechev said.

New Book Recounts Story of Three Bulgarian Students Who Spoke Out against 1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-11-11 11:04:00

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