Pro-Communist Rally in Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the Communist Party led the movement toward democratic change. Following the legalization of several other political parties, and the formation of the Union of Democratic Forces, the Bulgarian Communist Party Secretary, Petur Mladenov, announced a further set of reforms. The following is an official report from the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria about Mladenov's rally on 13 December 1989, in which he laid out the pace of political change he envisioned over the course of the next year. Mladenov explicitly referenced this change would follow the Soviet model, in which Mikhail Gorbachev had begun a set of reforms to improve the Soviet economy, but with the firm plan of keeping the Communists in power. As the public support and posters brought to this rally suggest, Mladenov's idea of keeping the Communists in power in a democratic Bulgaria had widespread support.