East German Postcard: Bulgarian Communist Young Pioneers (1960?)


Figure 1.-- Here we see thecback of a postcard about a Bulgarian Communist Young Pioneer choir group visiting Berlin. They are singing a Begrüßungslied (song of welcome). It may have been about 1960 before the construction of the Berlin Wall. It was sent to someone in France. We wonder if she really believed what she wrote or just wanted to burnish up her KGB file.

Here we see a Communist Young Pioneer choir group visiting Berlin. It is captioned, "Bulgarische Pioniere singen ein Begrüssungslied bei ihrer Ankunft in Berlin." That translates as, "Bulgarian Pioneers sing a welcome song on their arrival in Berlin." It may have been sent about 1960 before the construction of the Berlin Wall. This is not a snap shot, but a commercial post card. It was made in Erfurt (Thuringer Germany communist) It was sent to some one in France. A French Communist chose this as a card to send home. She wrote on the back." Bientôt je serai de retour à Paris et j'aurai l'occasion de vous dire de vive voix ce que 'ai vu par mes propres yeux. Les ignobles mensonges que déversent les fauteurs de guerre. C'est un peuple pacifique qui a défilé pendant 8 heures. Je ne croirai pas à leurs mensonges. Je vous embrasse." Signed Claire. (A female name.) That translates as, "Soon I'll be back in Paris and I will have the opportinity to verbally tell you all what I have seen with my own eyes. The vile lies throw by the warmongers. It is a peaceful people who marched for 8 hours. I will not believe at their lies. I kiss you." We are not sure what the marching was all about, perhaps a peave march in East Berlin. What we are not sure aboujt is if this was before or after the Berlin Wall was built. And we are not sure who Claire was. Perhaps she was a true believer, a naive young French teenager who fell for Communist propaganda. Perhaps because either her boy friend was into it or some of her girl friends. But to be talking this way by 1960 she would have to be particularly clueless. Through World War II, the Soviets were amazingly adept at preventing information about NKVD terror and the Gulag from leaking out. But by 1960, much more was wudely known. And Soviet ctions blockading Berlin (1948), supressing East Berlin workers (1953), supressing the Hungarian Revolution (1956) and buolding the Berlin Wall (1961) had made the nature of Soviet Communism very clear. We wonder if Claire sent the postcard was sent to burnish her KGB file, knowing that the KGB would see it. Unfortunately there is is no real way of knowing which of all these possibilities was true. A French reader writes, "I think you believe that people did not talk tht way, but in the 1960s there were still many true belivers in the Frech Communist Party and they did talk that way. Claire is a name popular in the the 1920/1930s. so the person who wrote the postcard could have been in her 30s or 40s.. They were the most hysterical, many were convinced that the Soviet Union was indeed a workers' paradice. In the 1960s I could absolutly not suffer the communists! So it is quitepossible that what you read here really reflected her thinking."







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Created: 11:11 PM 10/20/2012
Last updated: 8:18 AM 10/21/2012