Marionette. 1968. A True Story

Author: Vesselin Pramatarov

Illustrator: Vesselin Pramatarov

Year of publication: 2021

Publisher: Kibea

Number of pages: 48

Format: 220 x 280, hardback

ISBN: 978-954-474-916-3

The events and characters in this book are real. It is a story about the face of a social system, as well as about the people involved in it, about human desires and longing for freedom.

A month after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968 to end the Prague Spring and the democratic changes that had begun in society, three Bulgarian students – Eduard Genov, Aleksandar Dimitrov, and Valentin Radev – wrote and circulated appeals against the participation of the Bulgarian army with the text: “Out of Czechoslovakia with the Zhivkov the puppet’s troops!” After an operation by State Security under the code name “The Marionettes,” the three were expelled from university, arrested, and convicted.

This book describes how the civil sense of justice nevertheless survives under the conditions of a totalitarian society.

The book is part of the exhibition Joy, Sadness and Hope. 25 Bulgarian Children’s Book Illustrators

Vesselin Pramatarov

Vesselin Pramatarov lives and works in Sofia. He is an artist and translator, as well as the director of a humanities publishing house. He graduated from the National Academy of Art, Sofia, majoring in graphics. Pramatarov has designed books and the covers of more than 700 books for Bulgarian publishing houses, galleries, and foundations, and has illustrated textbooks in physics and the social and natural sciences for students of all ages. He has illustratedstories, fairy tales and children’s picture books (Charles Perrault, Nikolay Raynov, French women writers of the 18th century). He is also a comic book and graphic novel artist.