Juliet Saltiel’s youngest granddaughter Monica Saltiel

This is my youngest granddaughter Monica, my younger son Yosif's daughter. The photo was taken in Sofia in 1993.

My son Yosif chose to study electrotechnics. Now Yosif is an automatics engineer and has his own company in Sofia. He married Nina (I don't know what her maiden name was) in 1979. His wife is also an engineer in automatics. Now Nina works with the Defence Ministry, but not as a clerk. As far as I know, she is in charge of the computer network maintenance at the ministry. Yozhi [Yosif] and Nina live in Mladost district [a Sofia's suburb] and have two children; Georgi (1979) and Monica (1987). Georgi is an IT specialist (he completed his university education in this field), while Monica is still a schoolgirl. Now Monica is a student in the tenth grade in the Sofia Natural and Mathematical High School. Before that she studied in the Jewish school on Pirotska Str. near the synagogue in Sofia.

Frankly speaking, I didn't like the changes that took place after 10th November 1989 [After 35 years of rule, Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov was replaced by the hitherto Prime Minister Peter Mladenov who changed the Bulgarian Communist Party's name to Socialist Party. On 17th November 1989 Mladenov became head of state, as successor of Zhivkov. Massive opposition demonstrations in Sofia with hundreds of thousands of participants calling for democratic reforms followed from 18th November to December 1989]. The reason is that the people in Bulgaria got significantly poorer; there is nothing left from the economy and social security of the past, which we remember from the totalitarian period; and that is why people as a whole feel bad. Firstly, because they came suddenly and lasted for too long. Of course, it is wrong to deny everything that is new, but we cannot simply bury all that was created in the totalitarian period in Bulgaria. People, despite their humble income, lived then much more calmly. I know a lot of people of my age who want the socialism back in power. This is a very understandable wish, given the increased level of crime in the country after 1989.

Photos from this interviewee