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December 12, 1990 One of the greatest tragedies in Bulgarian history takes place near Momchilgrad. Ten soldiers die in the icy waters of the Varbitsa River after a three-meter tidal wave swept through the MTLB machine chains like matchboxes. Six of the dead are left without graves. Their bodies were not found. Eleven of the soldiers from the unit’s motorized tank and rifle battalions in Momchilgrad miraculously survived. Many of them do not want and do not speak of the horror they have experienced.
Today, 30 years later, one of the survivors – Zhivko Zhelev from Kazanlak told Dir.bg about the tragedy, which was not discussed then or now.. Only family and friends of those who will never return home remember her.
Zhivko entered the barracks in March 1990. He was first sent to Lom, where he trained as a mechanic-driver, and then was transferred to Unit 36050 in Momchilgrad. He is only 19 years old.
In the winter of 1990, the tank company at the Balabanovo test site, shortly before the tragedy
Photo: Dir.bg file.
“On the day in question, December 12, 1990, in the morning, they announced that there would be a training session at the Balabanovo training ground. The previous two days, however, it was raining heavily. I had to drive the MTLB, but this morning he was driving in the back Dimchev was the commander of our company. We left. There were 6-7 people in the back. All in full combat gear, with coats, because it was winter.
MTLB chain machines have doors at the rear and hatches at the top. As we traveled from the back doors through the rubber seals the water started running. We opened the upper hatches to see what happened. When I climbed to the top of the MTLB, I saw in shock that we were in the middle of a huge water. It is as if we are in the middle of a dam. And the Varbitsa river in the summer had one meter. We had crossed the river many times, but that day was different.
1990 MTLB during training
Photo: Dimitar Hristov / Dir.bg
The tanks were the first to enter the river, and the MTLBs and I were in the back. All the machines were in the water. But we never understood where this water came from. There were many later versions.
Souvenirs from Division 36050: Zhivko Zhelev (bottom left), Ivan Yankov (right of him) and Petko Petkov (right to left). Vankata and Pecata remain forever in Varbitsa’s icy embrace.
Photo: Zhivko Zhelev’s personal archive
Four or five of us on the MTLB got on and the water was rising very fast. When we got out of it, the water had covered it by two-thirds, just seconds later it reached our feet. I watched the water shed the machine chains like matchboxes the tanks are heavier, they just rocked them (The water level of the element is so high that it spun two tanks at 90 degrees, from the course of the river crossing, the cannons point in the direction from which they forced the river, and from them you can see no more than 40 -50 centimeters above the surface. It later became clear that the water level on the Jebel bus stop bridge is 7 meters and the speed at which the water is moving is 1.2 meters per second.).
The icy waters of Varbitsa sweep the heavy chain machines like matches.
Photo: Petar Bakalov / BTA
From the trees along the river, only the peaks could be seen, imagine the water.
AND Jumped into the river. In fact, everyone on the roof of our machine jumped. There were also big logs in the river, I don’t know where he got them from. It was very stormy and even though I could swim, it put me in a whirlpool. I struggled a lot, but obviously God helped me, I managed to get out of it. But the current dragged me down. I was still trying to swim when I suddenly found myself on a sandbar where the water was up to my knees. I managed to get up, the coat was soaked in water and the machine gun was strapped to his back.
But the water began to rise again, to my thighs, to my waist. Then I got naked, threw my coat, bag and machine gun into the water the river took me. I managed to grab onto the branches of a tree that had been brought into the water. My memories are very fragmented because it was scary. I remember there were people from the nearby town. Family – men and women – Muslims. They had come down the river to help. They took me out.
The monument to the dead by the Varbitsa river
Photo: BulFoto
My last memory was that Ivan Yankov of Kran passed me. The water washed him away. With him we were new recruits. First in Lom, where we study to be a mechanic-driver, and then in Momchilgrad. He had to drive, but he was actually driving. He was on my MTLB (Ivan Yankov actually runs the MTLB Zhivko participates in). I never saw him again. He died.
Ten people died in the river: Lieutenant Ilian Popski, Lieutenant Rusin Samuilov, Sergeant Angel Ilkov, Corporal Velin Hadjiev, Corporal Zhelyazko Hristov, Corporal Ivan Yankov, Private Krassimir Kanev, Private Nikolay Sandev, Private Petko Petkov, Private Stefa.
Photo: BulFoto
When they took me out, people gave me a spoonful of burnt butter to drink. So our soldiers took me and sent me back to the unit. They put me in the hospital. Then we realized that 10 of us would not return. And the bodies of six of them were never found. Ivan is one of them.
Times were different then. There was no internet, there was nothing. Our parents must have found out on television what happened. There were hundreds of parents in front of the portal. Mine were there too. They let me out to see myself. But I don’t remember what day it was. Same thing, later … I don’t remember.
Then there was the case. I was a witness twice. My memory is that the guilty commanders did not condemn them much. There were relocations, but in terms of punishment, nothing significant.
It’s hard for me to talk about it. Even today, 30 years later. After what happened, I wasn’t alone for long. It was a huge shock. I never went back there. Intentionally. I don’t want to go back and remember … my dead friends and commanders. It may be wrong, but I can’t. “
“The river here gathers country, duty, guilt and pain. Stop the traveler, bow his head before the eternal sons of a regiment.” This is the message written on the memorial.
Photo: BulFoto
In the new city of Varbitsa died: 7 soldiers, two officers and a sergeant.
The victims are:
Lieutenant Ilian Popski
Lieutenant Rusin Samuilov
Sergeant Angel Ilkov
Cape Velin Hadjiev
Corporal Zhelyazko Hristov
Corporal Ivan Yankov
Private Krassimir Kanev
Private Nikolai Sandev
Private Petko Petkov
Private Stefan Stefanov
They are all between 18 and 26 years old.
According to the investigation, the reasons for the tragedy are the unconstitutional behavior of the commanders, the lack of adequate solutions to the situation. Help is also late. Two helicopters arrive at 12 o’clock, when there are only dead soldiers in the river.
Near the place of death, Major Asen Samuilov made a separate monument to his brother, Lieutenant Rusin Samuilov.
Photo: Petar Bakalov / BTA
The Plovdiv Military Court heard a case against the guilty commanders from May 1991 to January 1992. Four sentences were handed down. The commanders of the Dimchev and Andreev companies, who left for the occupation by bus.Instead of driving their cars, they were each sentenced to a year and a half in prison, and the unit commander, Colonel Kabakchiev, and the battalion commander Lepirev each received one year and nine months of probation each. The military prosecutor did not protest the sentences, and the blackened parents’ letters to President Zhelyu Zhelev to reconsider the sentences went unanswered.
December 12, 2001. Burial in front of the monument to the victims on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the tragedy.
Photo: Petar Bakalov / BTA
It is still unclear where the 3-meter tsunami came from, either from the release of a dam near Zlatograd or from a broken wall of a dam near Madan.
Today, only the two monuments commemorate the tragedy. One is on the banks of the Varbitsa River and the other on the now closed 36050 division in Momchilgrad.
September 2019 There is almost nothing left of the old “black” unit in Momchilgrad. A lone guard protects the ruined buildings from last night’s raids by thieves.
Photo: Ivan Braikov / Dir.bg
Photo: Ivan Braikov / Dir.bg
