Socialist Zoopoliticons: Common Man as a Pig and the Statesman as an Ox. Two Short Stories from 1962 by Vasil Popov and Georgi Markov

This article focuses on two stories by Vasil Popov and Georgi Markov published almost simultaneously in 1962, and their connection with Todor Zhivkov’s speech a few months later. ‘Pig Farm’ by Vasil Popov portrays common man as a pig, while in ‘The Evening Rumination of the Ox’ by Georgi Markov, the statesman is depicted as an ox. Vasil Popov’s story presents the theme of nature as something endangered and industrial civilization as a threat, while in Georgi Markov’s story, conversely, the entire civilization is threatened by primitive behavior, by the animal nature of man.