People's Republic of Bulgaria

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People's Republic of Bulgaria
Народна република България
1946–1990
Anthem: 
Maritsa Rushes  (1946–1947)
Шуми Марица  (Bulgarian)
Shumi Maritsa  (transliteration)
Vulko Chervenkov
• 1954–1989
Todor Zhivkov
• 1989–1990
Petar Mladenov
• 1990
Aleksandar Lilov
Head of state
 
• 1946–1947 (first)
Vasil Kolarov
• 1990 (last)
Zhelyu Zhelev
Head of government
 
• 1946–1949 (first)
Georgi Dimitrov
• 1990 (last)
Andrey Lukanov
LegislatureNational Assembly
State Council (1971–1990)
Historical eraCold War
15 September 1946
18 May 1971
15 November 1990
12 July 1991
Area
• Total
110,994 km2 (42,855 sq mi)
• Water (%)
0.3
Population
• 1946
7,029,349
• 1989
8,987,000
HDI (1989)0.918[1]
very high
CurrencyBulgarian lev
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+3 (EEST)
Driving sideright
Calling code+359
ISO 3166 codeBG
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Kingdom of Bulgaria
Republic of Bulgaria
Part of a series on the
History of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Main category
flag Bulgaria portal
1961 USSR stamp marking the 15th anniversary of the People's Republic of Bulgaria

The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB;

Axis powers
and led to the People's Republic in 1946.

The BCP modeled its policies after those of the Soviet Union, transforming the country over the course of a decade from an

socialist countries
' administrative policies.

In 1989, after a few years of liberal influence, political reforms were initiated and

Republic of Bulgaria. Geographically, the People's Republic of Bulgaria had the same borders as present-day Bulgaria and it bordered the Black Sea to the east; Romania to the north; Yugoslavia (via SRs Serbia and Macedonia) to the west and Greece and Turkey to the south. The first elected president Zhelyu Zhelev was inaugurated on 1 August 1990 and became the first oppositional president of Bulgaria in the People's Republic. On 15 November 1990 after the elections the Bulgarian People's Republic was officially renamed to the Republic of Bulgaria. On 5 April 1991 with the new Constitution of Bulgaria
all the symbols of the Bulgarian People's Republic were officially dissolved.

History

Main article:
Bulgaria in World War II

On 1 March 1941, the

Socialists, left-wing Agrarians and Zveno
.

The estimate for the number of partisans (armed guerrilla fighters) at any one time in Bulgaria is 18,000.[2]

Communist coup

Main article: 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état

In 1944, with the

Bulgarian monarchy and its administration, after which a new government assumed power led by the Fatherland Front, which itself was led by the Bulgarian Communist Party
.

Early years and Chervenkov era

Georgi Dimitrov, leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1946 to 1949

After taking power, the Fatherland Front formed a coalition led by former Prime Minister

Tsar Simeon II. The Soviet representatives held the real power. A Communist-controlled People's Militia was set up, which harassed and intimidated
non-Communist parties.

On 1 February 1945,

forced labour camps also remain elusive.[6] According to official sources, 2,730 people have been sentenced to death, but unofficial estimates suggested that as many as 20,000 people were reported killed under the regime between 1944 and 1989.[3][7]

These revolutionary attacks strengthened when it became apparent that the

United Kingdom had little interest in Bulgaria. In November 1945, Communist Party leader Georgi Dimitrov returned to Bulgaria after 22 years in exile. He made a truculent speech that rejected cooperation with opposition groups. Elections held a few weeks later
resulted in a large majority for the Fatherland Front.

In September 1946, the monarchy was abolished by

People's Republic. Vasil Kolarov, the number-three man in the party, became president. Over the next year, the Communists consolidated their hold on power. Elections for a constituent assembly in October 1946
gave the Communists a majority. A month later, Dimitrov became prime minister.

The Agrarians refused to co-operate with the authorities, and in June 1947 their leader

1936 Soviet Constitution as a model. By 1948, the remaining opposition parties were either realigned or dissolved; the Social Democrats
merged with the Communists, while the Agrarian Union became a loyal partner of the Communists.

During 1948–1949,

Roman Catholic religious organisations were restrained or banned.[8] Both Protestant and Catholic preachers were frequently accused by Communist prosecutors of having ties to Western intelligence agencies, particularly those of the United States and United Kingdom.[9] The Orthodox Church of Bulgaria continued functioning but never regained the influence it held under the monarchy; many high roles within the church were assumed by communist functionaries.[8]

Dimitrov died in 1949 and for a time Bulgaria adopted collective leadership.

Soviet industrialisation led by Stalin
in the 1930s and agriculture was collectivised.

Stalin's death in 1953 had political repercussions in Bulgaria. In 1954, Chervenkov accepted the collective leadership, remained prime minister, but ceded his position as party leader to Todor Zhivkov. The government also released a large number of political prisoners and focused on improving living standards rather than accelerating industrialization. Chervenkov stayed on as Prime Minister until April 1956, when he was finally dismissed and replaced by Anton Yugov. With the official start of de-Stalinization in 1955, censorship was relaxed somewhat and the victims of the Kostovite trials, including Kostov himself, began to be rehabilitated.[10]

Macedonization in Pirin Macedonia

In 1946,

Stalin
sent the following order to the Bulgarian delegation:

Cultural autonomy must be granted to Pirin Macedonia within the framework of Bulgaria. Tito has shown himself more flexible than you – possibly because he lives in a multiethnic state and has had to give equal rights to the various peoples. Autonomy will be the first step towards the unification of Macedonia, but in view of the present situation there should be no hurry on this matter. Otherwise, in the eyes of the Macedonian people the whole mission of achieving Macedonian autonomy will remain with Tito and you will get the criticism. You seem to be afraid of Kimon Georgiev, you have involved yourselves too much with him and do not want to give autonomy to Pirin Macedonia. That a Macedonian consciousness has not yet developed among the population is of no account. No such consciousness existed in Byelorussia either when we proclaimed it a Soviet Republic. However, later it was shown that a Byelorussian people did, in fact, exist.[11]

The government used force, threats and intimidation, branding opponents of the policy as fascists and chauvinists. Some were resettled as far as

SR Macedonia for unsuccessful Macedonization.[citation needed
]

Bulgaria adopted the Communist policy of closer rapprochement with Yugoslavia. Dimitrov then launched the initiative of a Balkan Federation that would range from Pirin to the Šar Mountains and reflect a Macedonian consciousness. For this purpose, he launched a policy of forced Macedonisation of the Bulgarian population in the Pirin region through conscious change of ethnic self-determination, held by means of administrative coercion and intensive propaganda.[citation needed]

In December 1946, he conducted a census in Pirin. State authorities instructed the local population in the Pirin region to mark administrative records such as "Macedonian", including Pomaks, with the exception of those originating within the country. At its meeting on 21 December, the Regional Committee of the Workers' Party in Upper Cuma decided to accept a formula indicating 70% of residents were "Macedonians". As a result, among the 281,015 inhabitants, 169,444 were identified as ethnic Macedonians.[citation needed]

In 1947, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed agreements whereby Pirin Macedonia became part of federal Yugoslavia, which proceeded to unify Pirin Macedonia with Vardar Macedonia and abolished visa regimes and removed customs services.[citation needed]

Shortly thereafter – in 1948, due to the rupture in relations between Tito and Stalin, the contract was dissolved. For a while, BCP and the Bulgarian state held contradictory, policy on the Macedonian issue. In 1963, at the March Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Zhivkov declared that the population in Pirin Macedonia was part of Bulgaria that was forced by the Communist Party.[citation needed]

1971–1989

According to declassified documents, Bulgaria planned on fomenting a crisis between Turkey and Greece in 1971. The operation was codenamed "Cross" and the plan was that Bulgarian secret agents would set fire in the

Turkish-Greek relations and force[d] the United States to choose one side in the ensuing crisis". In addition, the Bulgarians also planned to boost the effect of its operation against Greece and Turkey by conducting "active measures" "for putting the enemy in a position of delusion". The plan was developed by the 7th Department of the First Main Directorate of the DS (intelligence and secret police services of communist Bulgaria), and was affirmed by Deputy Head of the Directorate on 16 November 1970, and approved by its Head. The operation was supposed to be prepared by the middle of 1971 and then executed, but it was abandoned.[12]

In 1971, the new "Zhivkovskata" Constitution added so-called "Article 1", which grants the PA as the sole ruling a "leading force of society and the state". Zhivkov was promoted to Head of State (Chairman of the State Council) and Stanko Todorov became Prime Minister.

Bulgaria signed the Helsinki Accords in 1975, which guaranteed human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of movement, contacts, information, culture and education, right to work, and the rights to education and medical care. However, subsequent events regarding Bulgarian Turks in the 1980s were a direct violation of these commitments.

In 1978, Bulgaria attracted international attention when dissident writer Georgi Markov was accosted on a London street by a stranger who rammed his leg with the tip of an umbrella. Markov died shortly afterwards of ricin poisoning. He was the victim of the Bulgarian secret service, as confirmed by KGB documents revealing that they had jointly planned the operation with Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian People's Army sided with the Soviet Union and the Afghan communists during the Soviet–Afghan War in Afghanistan fighting the jihadist guerrillas from 1982 until its withdrawal in 1989.[13]

End of the People's Republic

By the 1980s, the conservatives controlled the government. Some social and cultural liberalization and progress was led by Lyudmila Zhivkova, Todor's daughter, who became a source of strong disapproval and annoyance to the Communist Party due to her unorthodox lifestyle that included the practicing of Eastern religions. She died in 1981, approaching her 39th birthday.

A campaign of forced assimilation was waged against the ethnic Turkish minority, who were forbidden to speak the Turkish language

1989 expulsion of Turks from Bulgaria caused a significant drop in agricultural production in the southern regions due to the loss of around 300,000 workers.[15]

Todor Zhivkov

In the late 1980s, the Communists, like their leader, had grown too feeble to resist the demand for change. Liberal outcry at the breakup of an environmental demonstration in Sofia in October 1989 broadened into a general campaign for political reform. More moderate elements in the Communist leadership reacted by deposing Zhivkov and replacing him with foreign minister Petar Mladenov on 10 November 1989.

This move gained a short respite for the Communist Party and prevented revolutionary change. Mladenov promised to open up the regime, stating that he supported multi-party elections. Demonstrations throughout the country led Mladenov to announce that the Communist Party would cede its monopoly over the political system. On 15 January 1990, the National Assembly formally amended the legal code to abolish the Communist Party's "leading role". In June 1990, the first multi-party elections since 1939 were held. Finally on 15 November 1990, the seventh Grand National Assembly voted to change the country's name to the Republic of Bulgaria and removed the Communist state emblem from the national flag.[16]

A 2009 poll conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that only 11% of Bulgarians believe ordinary people benefited from the 1989 transition. Sixteen percent say the state is run for the benefit of all people, down from 55% in 1991.[17] However, a 2019 poll conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that 55 percent of Bulgarians approved of the shift to a market economy and 54 percent approved of the shift to multiparty democracy.[18]

Government and politics

Pre-fabricated apartment blocks in Mladost, Sofia
In the 1970s, the People's Republic of Bulgaria had a Gini coefficient of 18, ranking among the countries with the lowest levels of income inequality in the world.

The constitution was changed two times, with the Zhivkov Constitution lasting the longest. According to article 1, "The People's Republic of Bulgaria is a socialist state, headed by the working people of the village and the city. The leading force in society and politics is the Bulgarian Communist Party." The BCP created an extensive nomenklatura on each organizational level.

The PRB functioned as a one-party people's republic, with People's Committees representing local governance. Their role was to exercise Party decisions in their respective areas and to otherwise defer to popular opinion in decision-making. In the late 1980s, the BCP had an estimated peak membership of 1,000,000 — more than 10% of the population.

Military

Main article: Bulgarian People's Army

In 1946, the military rapidly adopted a Soviet military doctrine and organization. The country received large amounts of Soviet weaponry, and eventually established a domestic military vehicle production capability. By the year 1988, the Bulgarian People's Army (Българска народна армия) numbered 152,000 men,[19] serving in four different branches – Land Forces, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, and Missile Forces.

The BPA operated 3,000

FROG-7 artillery rocket launchers.[20][21][22]

Economy

Percentage of exports of Bulgaria (1945–1948)[23]
1945 1946 1947 1948 (Jan. to May)
Soviet Union 95.2% 66% 51.9% 41.5%
Eastern Europe 2.3% 17% 33.7% 34.2%
Britain – 0.5% 0.1% 0.3%
United States – 5.2% 6.0% 0.2%
Total 12,397,00 14,942,000 24,532,740 12,127,909
Percentage of imports of Bulgaria (1945–1948)[23]
1945 1946 1947 1948 (Jan. to May)
Soviet Union 79.6% 81.9% 60.6% 58.9%
Eastern Europe 6.8% 8.8% 26.9% 26.2%
Britain – – 0.7% 1.0%
United States – 3.5% 1.3% 1.1%
Total 5,820,000 17,514,000 21,415,418 16,968,786

The PRB adopted a

Chervenkov
finally ended all private economic activity.

Bulgarian agricultural productivity increased rapidly after collectivisation. Large-scale mechanisation resulted in an immense growth in labour productivity.[24] Government subsidies covered the large losses from the artificially low consumer prices.

Chervenkov's

Stalinist policy led to a massive industrialisation and development of the energy sector, which remained one of Bulgaria's most advanced economic sectors. His rule lasted from 1950 to 1955, and saw the construction of dozens of dams and hydroelectric powerplants, chemical works, the Elatsite
gold and copper mine and many others. The war-time coupon system was abolished, and healthcare and education were government provided. All this was achieved with strict government control and organization. Labor came from prisoner brigades and the Bulgarian Brigadier Movement – a youth labor movement where young people worked on construction projects.

Bulgaria was involved in computer construction, which earned it the nickname "Silicon Valley of the Eastern Bloc".

Blue Gene/P
.

In the 1960s, Zhivkov introduced reforms that had a positive effect on the country's economy. He put emphasis on

Information Technology in the 1970s and the 1980s.[28] Surplus agricultural production could be sold freely, prices were lowered even more, and new equipment for light industrial production was imported. Bulgaria became the first Communist country to purchase a license from Coca-Cola in 1965.[29]

Despite relative stability, the economy shared the same drawbacks of other countries from Eastern Europe – it traded almost entirely with the Soviet Union (more than 60%) and planners could not take into account whether there were markets for the goods produced. This resulted in surpluses of certain products, while other commodities were in deficit.

The other main trade partners were

Mongolia and various African countries were also large-scale importers of Bulgarian goods. The country enjoyed good trade relations with various non-Communist countries, most notably West Germany and Italy.[30]
In order to combat the low quality of many goods, a comprehensive State standard system was introduced in 1970, which included strict quality requirements for all sorts of products, machines and buildings.

PRB had an average GDP per capita for an Eastern Bloc country. Average

automobile.[31]

Along the improvements on agriculture and the growth of productivity, the GDP per capita grew from $1.864 to $10.800 in 1989, peaking in 1984, when the GDP per capita was about $11.100.

GDP per capita from 1945 to 1989

From the mid-1950s until the end of the 1970s the growth was constant, until the 1970s energy crisis hit the country. The crisis along with some structural problems, reduced the growth during the 1980s.

Automotive industry

Since 1965, Renault and Fiat chose Bulgaria to site their factories to make automobiles for sale in the Eastern Bloc partnership.

  • Bulgarrenault started in 1966 until 1971 making cars based on Renault 8 and Renault 10. The factories were in Plovdiv. In the end around 6500 cars were produced. The Bulgarian version of Alpine A110 was also made under the marque Bulgaralpine.
  • In 1967, Pirin-Fiat built around 730 cars until 1971 from the models Fiat 850 and Fiat 124.
  • In 1968, a contract was signed between the Bulgarian government and
    Moskvitch 2141
    (from which around 12,000 cars were produced by 1990).

Culture

Culture in PRB was strictly regulated by the government, although there were some periods of liberalization (meaning entrance in Bulgaria of Western literature, music, etc.). The thaw in intellectual life had continued from 1951 until the middle of the decade.[citation needed] Chervenkov's resignation and the literary and cultural flowering in the Soviet Union created expectations that the process would continue, but the Hungarian revolution of fall 1956 ended the experiment.

Chervenkov was appointed minister of education and culture. In 1957 and 1958, he purged the leadership of the Bulgarian Writers' Union and dismissed liberal journalists and editors from their positions. His crackdowns effectively ended the "Bulgarian thaw" of independent writers and artists inspired by Khrushchev's 1956 speech against Stalinism.

First Bulgarian State in 681.[35][36][37] There were 23,000 events[38] connected with the anniversary, including a military parade and the creation of a monument in Shumen.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ Human Development Report 1990, p. 111
  2. ISBN 978-0-253-21359-4
    .
  3. ^ a b Hanna Arendt Centre in Sofia, with Dinyu Sharlanov and Venelin I. Ganev. Crimes Committed by the Communist Regime in Bulgaria. Country report. "Crimes of the Communist Regimes" Conference. 24–26 February 2010, Prague.
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  8. ^ a b "Bulgaria – Table A. Chronology of Important Events". Country-data.com. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  9. doi:10.1080/14682745.2010.504206
    . Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  10. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Bulgaria, the early communist era
  11. ^ Stalin to Bulgarian Delegation (G. Dimitrov, V. Korarov, T. Kostov) on 7 June 1946.
  12. ^ "COMMUNIST BULGARIA'S INTELLIGENCE PLOTTED GREECE – TURKEY CONFLICT BY SETTING ON FIRE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, SECRET FILES REVEAL". Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  13. ^ "TROOPS OF 5 SOVIET ALLIES REPORTED FIGHTING GUERILLAS IN AFGHANISTAN". The New York Times. 20 December 1982. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  14. ^ Crampton, R.J., A Concise History of Bulgaria, 2005, pp.205, Cambridge University Press
  15. ^ "1990 CIA World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 27 April 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
  16. ^ "UK Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate Country Assessment – Bulgaria". United Kingdom Home Office. 1 March 1999. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  17. ^ Brunwasser, Matthew (11 November 2009). "Bulgaria Still Stuck in Trauma of Transition". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2023. Questioned whether free markets made people better off, only 37 percent of Bulgarians agreed. And when asked about the move away from the state-controlled economy, 54 percent of Bulgarians approved, compared with 46 percent of Hungarians. Only 11 percent of Bulgarians agreed that ordinary people had benefited from the changes in 1989. And asked whether the state was run for the benefit of all people, 16 percent of Bulgarians agreed, down from 55 percent in 1991.
  18. ^ Mitchell, Travis (15 October 2019). "European Public Opinion Three Decades After the Fall of Communism". Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  19. ^ "Bulgaria – Military Personnel". Lcweb2.loc.gov. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  20. ^ [1] Archived 13 December 2012 at archive.today
  21. ^ [2] Archived 13 December 2012 at archive.today
  22. ^ [3] Archived 12 December 2012 at archive.today
  23. ^ a b Wolff, Robert Lee (1967). The Balkans in our Time. Cambridge. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 343.
  24. ^ "Agricultural policies in Bulgaria in post Second World War years" (PDF). Mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de. p. 5. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  25. ^ "How communist Bulgaria became a leader in tech and sci-fi – Victor Petrov | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  26. ^ Anonymous (11 April 2018). "Shaping Europe's digital future: Bulgaria as a computing hub building on its strong ICT tradition". Shaping Europe's digital future – European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  27. ^ Fiscutean, Andrada. "How these communist-era Apple II clones helped shape central Europe's IT sector". ZDNet. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  28. ^ "Bulgaria: Soviet Silicon Valley Revived". Novinite.com. Sofia News Agency. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  29. ^ "Coca-Cola България". www.coca-cola.bg.
  30. ^ "Bulgarian Trade with Developed Non-Communist Countries (Archived copy)". Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2009. (Dead Link)
  31. ^ "Living Standards". Lcweb2.loc.gov. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  32. ^ "Intellectual life". Lcweb2.loc.gov.
  33. ^ "わたくし斎藤さんがAGA治療にオススメするプロペシア時々ミノキシジル". www.fmje.org (in Japanese). Retrieved 25 October 2017.[permanent dead link]
  34. ^ building, Visiting address Niels Treschow; Floor, 8th; Phone, room 803 Niels Henrik Abels vei 36 0371 OSLO Norway Mail address P. O. Box 1003 Blindern 0315 OSLO Norway. "9 September, People's Republic of Bulgaria – Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages". www.hf.uio.no. Retrieved 5 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  35. ISBN 9781565181847
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  36. ISBN 9780198205142
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  37. ^ "Summer Expedition to Communist Monuments of Bulgaria, Sofia, Bulgaria 2017/2018". www.academiccourses.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  38. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  39. ^ vilis (7 July 2016). "Communist era monuments of Bulgaria". GlobalGaz. Retrieved 4 October 2017.

Works cited

  • Maddison, Angus (2006). The world economy. OECD Publishing.
    ISBN 92-64-02261-9
    .

External links

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