Area Handbook for Bulgaria

Bulgaria's regular military forces are organized within the Bulgarian People's Army (Bulgarska Narodna Armiya) and are subordinate in the governmental system to the Ministry of...

The history of Bulgaria is marked by four interrelated motifs or themes. The first motif is that of regional rivalry coupled with irredentism. The second is Bulgaria's strategic...

The educational system in Bulgaria, as in the Balkans generally, began to develop in a real sense only in the nineteenth century, principally because Bulgaria had been under Tur...

Bulgaria occupies 42,800 square miles of the Balkan Peninsula, and its 1973 population was estimated at 8.7 million (see fig. 1). It is a member of the Warsaw Treaty Organizatio...

In the spring of 1973 the country's political and governmental leadership expressed serious concern about the uneven growth of agriculture over a period of several years. Althou...

Under comprehensive control of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary), the economy was severely strained in mid-1973 as the result of the dual task imposed upon it by...

In mid-1973 industry continued to expand, though at a significantly lower rate than in the mid-1960s. Industrial expansion was being increasingly restrained by the inadequacy of...

To maintain order and to retain control of the population, party and governmental authorities rely on a number of police and security organizations that are able to exert physic...

Since the Communists took over the government in 1944, the mass communications systems have been perceived as instruments of propaganda and vehicles for party control. Because o...

In mid-1973 political affairs and the administration of the country remained completely in the hands of the ruling circle of the Bulgarian Communist Party (Bulgarska Komunistich...

In 1878 Bulgaria emerged from Turkish rule as a homogeneous, egalitarian peasant society centered in the family and the community. Through the introduction of foreign economic a...

After a period of austerity during which the population's needs were neglected in favor of rapid industrialization, the standard of living of Bulgarians began to improve in the...

The People's Republic of Bulgaria is a socialist state with a form of government not too different from the Soviet model on which it was patterned. Following the classical Marxi...

Bulgaria has a proud cultural heritage that dates to early medieval times. During the Golden Age (A.D. 893-927) of the first and second Bulgarian kingdom, Bulgarian arts and let...

Throughout the communist era in Bulgaria, that is, since World War II, the foreign policy of the country has mirrored that of the Soviet Union. In addition to the close relation...

In mid-1973 Bulgaria was under the complete control of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary) as it had been since the latter days of World War II. As that war came t...