Sofia - Museum of Socialist Art

Originally to be named the Museum of Totalitarian Art, but concentrated solely on communist works, the collection of the museum is hidden away in a nondescript block in the outer Iztok district of Sofia. It opened in 2011, and consists of paintings, busts and statues from 1944 to 1989, the period of the USSR's control of Bulgaria.

The collection includes a statue of Georgi Dimitrov, first General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party (more snappily Stalin's Puppet), by Lubomir Dalchev (late 1960s, above); and the statue of Lenin, by Lev Kerbel (1971), that used to dominate Nezavisimost (Independence) Square. Pride of place goes to the five-pointed star that topped Party House in the same square from 1954 to 1989.