September 28 ties together two very different acts of defiance in Bulgaria’s history: one broken by rifle fire outside Sofia in 1918, the other sparked by citizens who refused to keep breathing poisoned air in 1987.
September 28, 1918 — Suppression of the Vladaya Rebellion
Government troops, backed by German divisions still stationed in Sofia, moved against the mutinous soldiers of the Vladaya Rebellion near the village of Vladaya. The clash was short and one-sided.
By the day’s end the uprising had been broken at the cost of hundreds of lives, and order returned to the capital. The political crisis that had fed the mutiny, however, was far from resolved.
September 28, 1987 — Formation of the Ruse Committee
In Sofia, a group of prominent intellectuals and concerned citizens gathered to found the Public Committee for the Environmental Protection of Ruse. Their immediate grievance was the chlorine pollution drifting across the Danube from a Romanian chemical plant.
The committee is now remembered as the first organized dissident movement in communist Bulgaria. What started as a fight over clean air became one of the earliest signs that civil society was stirring.
Follow the series onward to October 1, or jump to June 9. To keep exploring, drift over the country with Bulgaria From Above or dig into our regional Bulgaria travel guides.
