A great thing about the programme “Europeans for peace” is that we, the young, get to know a lot about historical events from people who have witnessed them. They tell us extremely interesting stories about what happened in the past.
We had such a meeting today with our PE teacher.
Mr. Tsvetan Tsvetkov was in the Bulgarian national volleyball team in the 1960s and 1970s and travelled many times not only in countries from the as called Eastern bloc, but also in countries on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Today we heard his interesting stories – the stories of his journeys. Before going abroad, the sportsmen had a special meeting with members of the Committee for State Security, where they were prepared for their collision with the culture of the Western world. They also were warned that they might meet people hostile to them, who distrust everyone. That’s why the sportsmen were more than surprised when they found out that their hosts actually were nice and kind. The hosts, however, were baffled by the fact that Bulgarians could go abroad with no more than 10 dollars. Mr. Tsvetkov told us how he faced the Western culture. He also told us about its advantages, compared to the Bulgarian reality back then. He also told us how he bought currency illegally, in order to have more money for his stay in foreign countries.
He also told us about the members of the Committee for State Security, who accompanied every group of travellers and eavesdropped all their conversations, aiming to tell them to their bosses.
His story about the Moscow 1980 summer Olympics and its sports leaders was intriguing as well. One of the travellers expressed his negative opinion about the bad building quality of the Olympic stadium in Moscow and he was immediately sent back to Bulgaria.
Meeting Mr. Tsvetkov was amazing. He promised us one more meeting.
Tanja Dimitrova, 11b, Dobrich, Bulgaria
