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Visualization of Policies of Cultural Memory Construction casts a sad glance towards the sky. At the same time, the imposing character of the memorial, typical of socialist art, aims to create a sense of intransient grandeur and vigour. Until 1989, the newly established memorial park was a scene for several celebrations of anniversaries of the Battle of Kleidion in whose frameworks there were historical re-enactments emphasizing the heroic yet tragic character of the events that had taken place in the locality. Ihus, once again martyrdom meets strength of mind in order to create a sense of national pride. Conclusion This chapter did not present all the works of art and literature related to our topic; this was never our goal. The research was also limited in time, until the end of the 1980s; the emphasis was placed on the socialist period and its similarities and contrasts to the previous period. However, in the future, the study could be extended to cover the post-socialist period. Our main goal was to show how cultural policies regarding the memory of historical events find their expression through various visual media. The approach we have chosen required the consideration of some key works in their specific historical, political, social, and cultural context. This enabled us to examine the artistic views on the past and the interpretations of that past by correlating them to the dynamics of the context. The analysis proved the important role of images which such artistic works create during the course of construction and maintenance of cultural memory for the past on a national and a local level. As the text showed, the state policies for cultural memory construction dealing with the historical events related to King Samuel and the Battle of Kleidion were pursued mainly in two specific contexts: the period of the Balkan Wars and the First World War and the period after the late 1950s. Both periods are related to state policies for national awakening and strong national self-awareness. The first period is the time of intense struggle for national unity while the second one represents the time of emancipation of socialist Bulgaria from the Cominform Bureau’ policy of internationalisation and of the striving for re-Bulgarization of Pirin Macedonia. During these two periods, we find state cultural policies in various artistic expressions and that these expressions serve as an instrument for the dissemination of the policies. The link between, on the one hand, the dynamics of the context and, on the other hand, the interpretation of the past through the construction of a specific cultural memory and the key role of art and the visual images in this process became visible in the period between 1944 and the late 1950s when Bulgaria pursued the policy of “Macedonisation” of the Pirin Macedonia region and thus dropped the strategy of constructing the cultural memory of King Samuel and Battle of Kleidion. This model of interpretation could be applied and verified in studies of other examples from the near or the more distant past, including by comparing cases from different geographical areas. 579
