Endreva, Maria2024-07-012024-07-0120243033-0599https://doi.uni-plovdiv.bg/handle/store/194Based on the concept of loyalty by A. Hirschman, the text tries to define and schematically to analyze the various narratives about emigration from Bulgaria after 1944. The thesis is that socialism fails to build loyal citizens, which leads to a mass migration from the country after 1989. In the period up to 1989, the official strategy of power to demonize the West and those who fled to it and the heroization of the defenders of socialism, as well as the subversive narrative of free and wealthy society, which becomes a object of desires, are examined. After the Cold war, the narrative of the idealization of the West manifested two aspects: cultural and economic, and motivated millions of people to leave the country. A relatively underdeveloped discourse on the silence of negative experiences abroad is also examined.otherexitexileeconomic migrationsocialism in Bulgariapolitical change after 1989pop cultureArticle