Bulgaria

The Construction of a Nation

Bulgaria: Heart of the Balkan
Peninsula
•What is Bulgaria’s northern boundary?
•What geographical features CONNECT
Bulgaria to the larger world?
•What geographical features ISOLATE it from
the ancient world?
 In the beginning...
• Oldest human remains
in Europe were found in
Bulgaria’s Kozarnika
Cave--1.2-1.4 MYA
(million years ago).

• Europe’s first organized

human societies were
in Bulgaria between
6000-4000 BCE.

• We know very little

about these societies.
 The Cult of Rock and
Sun
• Neolithic people worshiped
the sun, building sun circles
like Stonehenge and “sun
wells.”

• They also seem to have

worshiped fire. Rock
sanctuaries like Perperikon,
shown here, were often built
near “burning stones”
(brimstone).

• Which may have begun the

Bulgarian folk tradition of
fire dancing.
 The Future in
• Priests lit wine they poured
over the round altar. They
the Fire
decided what was going to
happen based on the
shape and size of the
flames and smoke. The
Roman writer Suetonius
described it this way:
The prophets said to him
that his son was to rule the
world, for as the wine was
spilt onto the altar, the
smoke rose up above the The gold-bearing river of
top of the shrine and even Perpereshka flows beneath the
unto heavens, as had mountain of Perperikon.
Perperikon’s name is derived
happened when Alexander from the Greek term for “Over
the Great himself had the fire of sacrifice.”
sacrificed upon that same
 The Indo-European
Migration
• Beginning in about 2200 BCE, and then again
between about 1500-1000 BCE, waves of
nomadic peoples began to move west and
southeast from the Caucasus (the area
between the Black and Caspian Seas).

• They were not literate, but they had two

unstoppable technologies: horses and metal
weapons.

• Look at the name historians invented to

describe these people. Where do you think
they settled?
 I. The
Thracians
c. 2000-300 BCE
•Bulgarian for “Indo-
European.”
•What evidence can
you find from this
pitcher that the
Thracians were Indo-
Europeans?
 Like other Indo-
Europeans, the
Thracians
• did not have a written language of their own
• were great horsemen who were good at
working metal into weapons and armor.

• honored the people who had these things

(metal weapons and horses) more than
farmers, who did not.

• had spoked wheels (which were both lighter

and stronger than solid wheels)

• worshiped several gods with fire and sacrifice

 What Other People Noticed
About the Thracians
• Xenophanes said they had
red hair and blue eyes.

• The Greek historian

Herodotus described their
clothing and weapons:

The Thracians went to the war

wearing the skins of foxes upon
their heads, and about their
bodies tunics, over was thrown
a long cloak of many colors.
Their legs and feet were clad in
buskins made from the skins of 4th cent. BCE fresco of a Thracian
fawns; and they had for arms with his javelin and horse. Can
javelins.(Histories, VII). you see the fox fur cap on the
back of his neck?
 Herodotus also comments on
Thracian trade, dowries, tattoos,
and warrior
“They sell their children to code.
traders.... Brides are
purchased of their parents
for large sums of money.
Tattooing among them
marks noble birth, and the
want of it low birth. To be
idle is accounted the most
honorable thing, and to be
a tiller of the ground the
most dishonorable. To live
by war and plunder is of
all things the most
glorious.” Thracian goddess--see the tattoos on he
face?
 Graves, Games, and
Treasure
“Their wealthy ones are
buried in the following
fashion. The body is laid
out for three days; and
during this time they kill
victims of all kinds, and
feast upon them, after first
bewailing the departed.
Then they either burn the
body or else bury it in the
ground. Lastly, they raise a
mound over the grave, and
hold games of all sorts,
wherein the single combat Varna Burial--the oldest
is awarded the highest man-made gold known
 Thracian
Gold
• Bulgaria had large
deposits of gold and silver

• The Thracians worked it

into ceremonial wreaths,
jewelry, and thin foil
appliques they glued and
sewed onto their clothing
(like the round objects
above that look like
buttons and the bulls to
the right)
Special occasion armor (for
both men and their horses)
and religious vessels
 Thracian Beliefs
You are an ancient Thracian. What would you
want from your gods and/or goddesses?

• The Mother Goddess Bendis rode a deer

through the mountains by moonlight, a quiver
of arrows slung across her back.
• Why would it matter that she was a mother?
• A huntress?
• A mountain dweller?
• Close to the moon?
• What qualities might the Thracians have
associated with a doe? Why did their
goddess ride one?
 Bendis’ son, Dionysus
• Bendis’ son was a wild
child. His Thracian name
was Zagreus, though the
Greeks called him
Dionysus. He was the
dark god of creation,
sensation and passion--
what used to be called
wine, women and song
and is now called sex,
drugs, and rock and roll.

• This Greek vase shows

him with his groupies, the
Maenads.
 The Divine Marriage
• Creation begins by
sacrificing something old
to make room for
something new. A seed
must split apart before the
plant inside can grow.

• Worshipers sacrificed
Dionysus, usually
represented by a bull, at
an outdoor altar. They
used rhytoi like this one to
pour the blood (or wine)
on the ground so it could
fertilize Mother Earth and
the cycle could begin
 Orpheus and the Birth of
Music
• The famous hero and
musician Orpheus also
came from Thrace.

• Orpheus may have been a

real man, a priest of the
Greek god Apollo. Apollo
was rational and orderly--
the opposite of his half-
brother Dionysus.

• Orpheus was eventually

killed by some Maenads.
 Orpheus and the Bulgarian
Landscape
• After the death of his
wife, Euridice, Orpheus
went all the way to hell
to get her back.

• The Thracians believed

that he went this way,
through the deep
gorge in the Rhodope
mountains called “The
Devil’s Throat.” They
threw royal corpses
down this sacred site.
Is Orpheus’s tomb in
the Rhodope
Mountains?
• Some archaeologists claim this
is indeed his tomb, but it’s
hard to know for sure.

• The locals call these white

quartz crystals “Euridice’s
tears”

• They also believe that this rare

pink flower, which can survive
almost three years without
water, sprang from Orpheus’
blood when the Maeneds killed
him.
 What is the Legacy of the
• A tradition of Thracians?
ornate
and sophisticated metal
work.

• A tradition of public
ceremonial games.

• A tradition of hauntingly
beautiful music.

• A mysterious figure
called the Thracian
Hero, who, cloaked and
booted, rides a horse
towards the tree of life
and hunts boar with his
 III. Dealing with the
Neighbors
OR: Why it was complicated living at the
crossroads during the first millennium BCE

Thracian anchors used in the Black Sea

A. Greek Colonization, c. 600
BCE
• Especially along the
coasts

• Greeks write and

the Thracians don’t,
but because they
are fellow Indo-
Europeans, the
cultural disruption
is relatively minor
But Lots More Cool Stuff to
Trade
Glassware, molds
for mass-produced
terra-cotta
figurines, amphora
for wine and olive
oil, cheap bone and
ceramic knock-
offs of Thracian
wreaths
 Bottom line:
• The Thracians profit
from Greek trade
while staying
reasonably
independent.

• When Philip of
Macedon and his
son Alexander the
Great conquer the
Greeks and head
east, they hire
Philip II presides over the
Thracian warriors to amphitheater in Philippopolis, now
help. Plovdiv
 B. The Romans, who do
their great infrastructure
thing
• Secure roads and cities
like Serdica (later Sofia)
and Philippopolis (later
Plovdiv).

• Predictable legal and

commercial systems

• Ports, sewers, etc.

The Roman Theater at Plovdiv
• Public institutions, like
theaters, amphitheaters,
and, eventually, Christianity.
 But also absorb the
Thracian states into their
empire.
• The Romans give their veterans farm land
along both sides of the Danube River

• By the fourth century, the Thracians are

controlled by Constantinople, Rome’s Greek-
speaking eastern capital

• In the fifth century, a wave of Germanic

barbarians defeat the western, Latin-speaking
half of the Roman Empire.

• The barbarians pass through Bulgaria, scaring

the local population into fortified Roman cities
and leaving a lot of farm land empty.
C. Enter the Slavs
• The Slavs are gentle
farmers from Russia.

• They settle Bulgaria’s

empty farm land
between the fifth and
eighth centuries.

• There are a lot of

The fortifications at
them, but they are not Odessa, a Greco-
ambitious and don’t Roman city on the
upset things much. Black Sea
 D. The same cannot be
•said
Horsemenof from
thetheBulgars.
Asiatic steppes who
were ALSO Indo-
European

• Stirrups and sharp

curved sabres give
them a huge
technological
advantage.

• They start filtering

into Bulgaria via the
Bulgar warrior with captive, 10th century
Danube River in the
sixth century.
The Volga River,
first stop for the
Bulgars
IV. The First Bulgarian
Kingdom
681-1018 CE

Gates of Pliska
 Bulgarian Culture
• The tightly organized
Bulgars, led by their
khan, quickly dominated
the mostly Slavic
peasantry.

• The khan was high

priest of Tangra, the all-
powerful sky god.

• Horses were sacred. Carved into living rock 75

The Bulgar banner was feet above the ground, the
huge Madara Horseman
a horse tail upon a dates from the early 8th
spear. century. Followed by a dog,
he tramples a lion under his
 Bulgaria’s
• Bulgaria’s neighbor toGrowth Spurt
the south, Byzantium,
is larger, wealthier, and
more technologically
advanced. It controls
the Black Sea.

• But between Islam and

problems at home,
Byzantium has its
hands full

• Bulgarian leaders like

Khan Krum take
advantage of the
situation.
 New
• The Bulgars were Problems
pagan (but tolerant of other
religions).

• Most of the rest of Europe is now Christian, and

it turns out that Christians like to go to war
against pagans.

• “God sees them who seek the truth. God sees

them who lie. The Bulgars did much good to
the [Byzantine] Christians, but the Christians
forgot that. However, God sees!” (inscription of
Khan Presian, 9th century).

• As an added bonus, having everyone belong to

the same religion would make it easier to
control the growing Bulgarian state, especially
since so many of the people they have recently
 The Solution? Join the
Club
• Boris-Michael converts
his people to Orthodox
Christianity in 864 CE.

• All the other Christians

worship in Greek,
Latin,
or Hebrew.

• With the assistance of

Ss. Cyril and
Methodius, Bulgaria
creates a written
language of its own.
 St. Cyril’s message to
• “Doesn’t Godthe Pope
send rain
equally to all? And do
we not breathe the
same air? And how are
you not ashamed to
acknowledge only three
languages and to
decree so and to have
all the rest of the
peoples and tribes
remain blind and deaf?”

• It worked. Bulgarians
worship in Slavo-
 Simeon the Great and
•Bulgaria’s
A written language Golden Age
of their own
prevented Bulgaria
from being
absorbed by the
Germans or the
Greeks

• It also gives them Tsar Simeon moved the Bulgarian

the tools they need capital to the new Christian city of
Preslav in about 900 CE.
to build a
government and
legal system strong
enough to keep
• Built in only twelve
Preslav
years, it was a major
shot in the arm for the
monasteries who
produced Europe’s
earliest painted ceramic
tile.

• In a famous passage,
John the Exarch
imagines a peasant
being asked to describe
his first glimpse of the
glittering colors of the
city’s churches and
The famous 9th century icon
palaces. “Just because I of St. Theodore
saw it doesn’t mean I
 Palace envy
• You are Byzantium--
larger, stronger,
richer, and better
organized than
Bulgaria.

• What’s your reaction

to Bulgaria’s
success? What’s left of Pliska
• Goodbye, first
Bulgarian kingdom.
Hello, Byzantine
occupation.
 Legacy of the First
Kingdom
• Creation of a Bulgarian
identity that included
both Slavs and Bulgars

• Own written language

• New cities
• New arts
• And, in 870, given the Ruins of the Bulgarian Orthodox
right to administer Cathedral in Nessebar, on the
their own national Black Sea
church.
V. The Byzantine Empire
1018-1186

Tsar Samuil’s Fortress at Ohrid

 The Catastrophe of
Kleisthes
In 1014, Byzantium
defeated the
Bulgarian army in the
mountain pass of
Kleisthes. Basil II, the
“Bulgar-Slayer,”
captured 15,000
Bulgarians whom they
blinded, leaving one
man in a hundred a
single eye with which
to guide his friends Tsar Samuil after suffering a
home. stroke at the sight of his
blinded troops.
 Byzantine Rule and
Hermitism
• The Byzantines were way
into order and hierarchy
(taxis).

• Order requires a
government and an army,
who must be paid with
taxes.

• Lots and lots of taxes.

• Some Bulgarians didn’t
want to be part of a world
that seemed so unfair.
So they became hermits
The Aladja Monastery near Varna
in out-of-the-way places
 Bulgaria

Byzantium
If you were a Bulgarian who wanted
to stay far away from the Byzantines
and their tax collectors, where would
you settle?
 Rila Monastery:
Refuge in the
Mountains

Rila Monastery
• Born at the end of the 9th
century, he became
Bulgaria’s patron saint.
St. John
• Based on the following
quotation, which of his ideas
might his followers have
of Rila
valued?

“As the grace of the Holy

Spirit has brought us here
together, we must live in
unity and friendship,
breathing together and
enjoying together the
eternal creation which God
hath made for them that
love Him. Woe to him that is
alone when he falleth; for he
 A refuge for more than
people
• The great monastic
libraries kept the Slavo-
Bulgarian language alive

• They were also a means

of transmitting Bulgarian
culture. For example, St.
George is a saint who
rides a white horse and
slays a dragon with a
long lance. There is no
evidence that he was an
actual person. Where
might the story have
come from?
 God bless the Turks and the
Crusaders for picking on the
Byzantine Empire
• Because they kept
the Byzantines so
busy that Bulgaria
could establish its
second kingdom.

• Their new capital

was the fortress of
Veliko Turnovo.

• It would last from

1186-1396.
VI. Second Bulgarian
State
1186-1396

Veliko Turnovo
 The Second Bulgarian
State
• was not as powerful
as the first one.

• but it was every bit

as religious

• the miraculous
frescoes of Boyana
Church, which were
painted in 1259, two
hundred years
BEFORE the Italian
Jesus teaching the elders
Renaissance
Two more.
 Boyana Church made
• Hard. me cry.
• For an embarrassingly
long time.

• But inward sensitivity is

not all that helpful when
you are squeezed by
militant Serbs in the
West and militant
Ottomans in the East. Mr. Belcho Belev
Curator of Boyana Church
• Goodbye, 2nd Bulgarian
Kingdom. Hello,
Ottoman Yoke.
 VII. Under the Ottoman
Yoke
1396-1878

Sveta Petka, Sofia, built by the cabinet-maker’s guild

 Separated by Language and
Religion
• How bitter are the
Bulgarians about the
5oo years they were
controlled by the
Ottoman Turks? So
bitter that their
libraries, museums,
and city streets say
virtually nothing about
the period.

• This is the only

mosque still operating
in Sofia, which once
 The (Muslim) Ottomans
would not allow
• Ring bellsChristians to:
or wear green, a color sacred to
Muslims

• Worship in churches taller than a man on

horseback (which is why Sveta Petka a couple
of slides back was built partially underground).

• Serve in the army (a traditional path to glory

and wealth); instead they had to pay double
taxes

• Use their own legal system if a Muslim was

involved in the case.
 Why the Ottoman years may
not have been as awful as the
• As long as
history
they paidbooks say
their taxes and
didn’t make trouble,
the Turks pretty
much left non-
Muslim communities
(called millets)
alone.

• The Turks built cities

and encouraged
Bulgarian crafts like The Turkish baths in Sofia, which have
carpet weaving and been being restored for a really long time

perfume
 The village of
Arbanassi, a suburb of
Veliko Turnovo

Notice the fortress- And the neighborhood

like, inward-looking fountain with Islamic
architecture inscriptions
 It was true that their
church was small and plain
on the outside
But not on the inside
 In fact, some Bulgarian
Christians, like this textile
merchant, got rich

This is the back of his gated house.

You can see the influence of Turkish
The shop is on the left, the barn on
furnishings and design, however,
the left, and the living quarters are
especially on the inside
upstairs.
 But he was the exception
• Most city-dwelling
merchants were
Greek-speaking Jews,
Armenians, or Turks.

• Since local Christians

tended to live longer
and stay happier if
they were peasants in
out-of-the-way
mountain villages.
A mountain guard from the
entry to Rila Monastery
 By 1700 the Ottoman Empire
was becoming the “sick man
• Trade of
networks Europe”
were
moving from the Middle
East and the Mediterranean
to international trans-
oceanic routes, which put
the Ottomans at a
disadvantage.

• The expansion of European

commerce increased prices
world-wide.
One of the faster, sturdier
• So the Ottomans had to European ships that
eclipsed the Ottomans
raise taxes.
 A lot.
• During the 17th century, the tax burden for a
Bulgarian family rose from about 30% a year
to more than 80%.

• That wasn’t enough to make up for declining

trade, increasing prices, & higher military
costs.

• They raised more money by selling church and

gov’t offices, mostly to wealthy Greek-
speaking city types.

• Because they were paid a bribe each time

they re-sold one of these offices, the
Ottomans replaced priests and government
officials often.
 You are a Bulgarian
peasant.
• You get to keep less than 20% of what you
produce.

• You are governed by strangers who don’t

speak your language and don’t know anything
about your community.

• Which doesn’t matter since they’ll be gone in

a few months anyway.

• Who do you trust? What strategies would be

most useful for survival?
VIII. The National Revival
1762-1878

Copies of Father Paissy’s Slavo-Bulgarian History in the National

Museum, Sofia
 The Ottomans aren’t
keeping
• Europe comes up
knocking: By the mid 18th
century, Austria, England, and France can
trade along the Danube and Russian ships are
allowed in the Black Sea

• Worried, the Ottomans centralize and

modernize their army to stay competitive

• Both of these events improve life for their

Bulgarian subjects since armies don’t harass
the locals as badly as nobles do AND because
they can now make money exporting meat
and cotton via Danube ports AND by
manufacturing things the army needs, like
uniforms.
Manufacturing was
usually driven by
water power, as
demonstrated by
these photos of the
reconstructed village
of Etura.
 Increasing prosperity
means lots of new
public
• Bulgarian
businessmen often
buildings
organized themselves Clock-towers,
like this one in
into cooperative Varna, were
guilds particularly
popular
projects. Not
• As the guilds got only did they
richer, they often encourage
workers to get
decided to spend their to work on
money on projects time, but they
used
that would benefit Christian, not
everyone, like Muslim, time.
schools, museums,
and covered markets
 And public pride

Sofia’s covered market, complete with glass

and a fountain. Compare this with the shops
you saw a couple of slides ago.
 “[O]f all the Slav peoples
the most glorious
• In the mid 18th-century,
were the
Father Paissy, Bulgarians”
a monk from
Mt. Athos, traveled
throughout the Balkans to
raise money for his
monastery.

• He was shocked by the

poverty and ignorance of
the ordinary Bulgarians he
met, and wrote A Slavonic-
Bulgarian History of the
Peoples, Tsars, Saints, and
of all their Deeds and of
Orthodox Christians believe that
the Bulgarian Way of Life Mount Athos in Greece is a
to remind them of their particularly holy place
 Rila Monastery and the
Flowering of Bulgarian
Nationalism
• Rila Monastery,
established by
Bulgaria’s national
Saint, John of Rila,
burned down in 1833

• People from all walks

of life throughout the
Bulgarian lands In an effort to appeal to
everyone, the cathedral
contributed money included ordinary people as
and their services to characters in its paintings. The
artists decorated the church on
rebuild this symbol of the outside as well as the
their national identity. inside--this panel comes from
the South porch.
 The Ottomans Recognize the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church,
1870
• This was a big deal
since the Ottomans
organized their
empire by religion.
Jews were ruled by
their rabbis,
Catholics by their
priests, etc.

• Up until 1870, the The Bulgarian Synod, headquarters of

Bulgarians had been the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The
ruled by Greek- mosaic at the top shows the three
bishops who negotiated its founding in
speaking patriarchs. 1870.
 Vasil Levski and the
Bulgarian Revolution
Central
• A principled and Committee
charismatic leader who
insisted that the
Bulgarians could not
depend on outsiders to
liberate them, but must do
so themselves.

• He organized a series of
local chapters of the BRCC
between 1870 and 1872
when he was arrested by
the Ottomans; he was
hung the following year.
 The April Rising, 1876
• In 1875, the Ottoman Empire was weakened
by revolutionary uprisings in Serbia and
Bosnia.

• The BRCC decided to take advantage of the

situation with a coordinated national uprising
of its own

• The Rising was a total disaster, but the

Ottomans’ savage reprisals (which included
locking entire communities inside churches
and burning them alive) created sympathy for
the revolutionaries both within and without
Bulgaria
 Russia to the Rescue
• Russia wanted to replace
the Ottomans as the most
important Great Power in
the Middle East

• Like the Bulgarians, the

Russians were both Slavic
and Orthodox Christians.
Outraged by the reports of
Turkish atrocities against
Christians after the April
Rising, they declared war A monument to Tsar
Alexander II, the tsar who
on the Ottomans in 1877-- went to war with the
and won. Ottomans in 1877.
IX. Liberation and
Revival
1878-1939

The National Theater, Sofia

 The Creation of an
•
Independent
The Treaty of San
Bulgaria
Stefano after the Russo-
Turkish War of 1878
recognized Bulgaria as a
self-governing state for
the first time in 500
years.

• Britain, Germany and

Austria felt it was too
good a deal; over
Russia’s protests, they The Berlin Treaty shrank Bulgaria to
re-drew Bulgaria’s 37.5% of its former size and created
a new province, Eastern Rumelia.
boundaries at the Berlin Bulgaria annexed Rumelia in 1885.
But 37.5% is better than
none.
• How do you build a country
from scratch?

• The easiest way to unite

people is to create a
common enemy--like, say,
the Ottomans.

• Ivan Yazov’s Under the

Yoke, published in 1893,
rehearsed every Turkish
misdeed with relish. It is
still Bulgaria’s most
popular novel.
 Lots of public buildings
to affirm Bulgaria’s
identity
• Especially theaters,
as both illiterate
peasants and
intellectuals can
participate in and
enjoy plays.

• The National
Theater in Sofia,
pictured here, is
named after our
friend Ivan Lavksy,
the guy who wrote
Under the Yoke
• There’s a statue of him right
across the street, just in case
you didn’t get the point the
first time.

• But a common culture can

only get you so far.
Remember, more than 90%
of Bulgarians are peasants,
most of whom cannot read.
And while they were “under
the Ottoman yoke,” Bulgaria
had no chance to train
engineers, teachers, soldiers, Ivan Lavsky, author
of Under the Yoke
government officials, or
businessmen.

• They need help.

 Once again, Russia is
happy to give it.
• After their army had
won the Russo-Turkish
war for the
Bulgarians, the
Russians continued to
send money and
advisors to help build
the new country.

• For example, in 1885

every officer in the Russia paid for most of
Alexander Nevsky cathedral,
Bulgarian army over Bulgaria’s largest church.
the rank of captain
was Russian.
Here you can see the way the monument to Tsar
Alexander II stands guard over Bulgaria’s
Parliament, which is the white building on the
right.
 Bulgaria’s relationship with
the rest of Europe was more
• Remember complicated
that the
British, Austrians, and
Germans had taken away
63% of the new country at
the Berlin Conference in
1878

• As a result of the
Industrial Revolution and
better transportation
networks, European goods A woman using a
washing machine
were cheaper and of from c. 1900. It’s
higher quality than powered by a water
wheel
Bulgaria’s.
 Growing Pains
• In 1912 and 1913, the Balkan countries went
to war, first with the Ottomans and then with
each other.

• Bulgaria won the first and lost the second.

• After some hesitation, Bulgaria joined World
War I on Germany’s side in 1915 because
Germany offered them a better deal than the
Allies did.

• Unfortunately, the Germans lost.

 World War II
• King Boris III did not trust
either the Nazis (he
thought they wanted to
replace him with one of
their own generals) or the
Communists (who believed
in the violent overthrow of
the privileged classes).
Despite the polite smiles,
• Bulgaria eventually joined King Boris III refused to
turn Bulgaria’s 50,000
the German side, although Jews over to Hitler. Boris
died a few days after
they would not allow their returning home from his
troops to fight outside the meeting Hitler--many
believe that the Nazis
Balkans. poisoned him.
The Soviet Occupation
• In August, 1944, the Soviet army crossed into
Romania and Bulgaria, where they received a
warm welcome.

• Bulgaria declared war on Germany on

September 7.

• Until the end of the war eight months later,

the Communists worked behind the scenes to
eliminate anyone who might disagree with
their policies. In January, for example, they
arrested anyone who had been a government
official since 1941. Most were found guilty of
one crime or another--100 were shot.
 IX.
Socialist
Bulgaria
1946-1989
 Communist Bulgaria
• The Communists were
utterly ruthless. If you
disagreed with them,
you were dead.

• Fortunately, they
helped Bulgaria’s
economy and
government modernize
(in 1944, 80% of
No more water power.
Bulgarians couldn’t
read).

• But not enough to

compete with the West.
 Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria’s
Communist
• He ruled from 1954 until leader
the fall of Communism in
1989.

• This quotation pretty

much sums him up: "A
good journalist is not the
one that writes what
people say, but the one
that writes what he/she is
supposed to write."

• The last of the Brezhnev-

era toughies to be in
 1960s and 70s were a
time of relative
prosperity
• Bulgaria became the
supplier of cheap
transportation and
computer parts for
the Eastern Bloc.

• In return, Russia sold

them cheap oil.

• Zhivkov built lots of The Bulgarian Academy of Arts

and Sciences was built during the
new buildings that 1970s. Why do you suppose it
celebrated Bulgarian looks so Baroque?
culture.
The Communists were fond
of monuments to common
people.

This is a sign for the folk More socialist realism, this time on top
museum they established of Party Head-quarters--industry on the
at Etara left, agriculture on the right.
 But the press wasn’t
all good...
In September 1977, the
Bulgarian secret police
assassinated Georgi
Markov (via a poison
pellet shot from an
umbrella on London’s
Waterloo Bridge) for
writing about the
privileges enjoyed by
Most Soviet-era architecture
Bulgaria’s communist was not well-designed; a
elite; they tried the Communist building on the
left does not compare well
same thing the next with the shopping center that
week with someone else had been built fifty years
earlier on the right.
 Socialism on the
• During the early 1980s, Bulgaria was accused
Defensive
of of trafficking in counterfeit whiskey and
illegal drugs, trying to assassinate Pope John
Paul II, state-sponsored terrorism against
their Turkish minority, and selling food
contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear
disaster

• Despite many attempts to reform the

economy, Bulgaria’s technological capacity
fell further and further behind the west’s, just
as greater access to western television,
music, and media was showing them what
they were missing.

• By 1989, Bulgaria owed $8 billion in foreign

 November 9, 1989
• The Berlin Wall
falls, ending
Communism in East
Germany

• Zhivkov resigns the

next day

• Theoretically, that’s
the end of
Communism in
Bulgaria
X. The Transition and the
EU
1989-present
 “We didn’t understand the
difference between freedom
• By December 1990, “the mechanisms of
and
totalitarianism hadanarchy.”
been dismantled [but]
those of democracy had not yet been
constructed...because no workable consensus
could be found” (Crampton, 217).

• Not to mention the collapse of the Bulgarian

economy
• Had depended mostly on Russia, which was
no longer buying
• Civil war in Yugoslavia hurt all the Balkan
economies
• Even farmers were not producing as much
without the machinery large collectives used
 Greater freedom of
movement meant that those
who could
• It’s estimated that leave did
Bulgaria’s population,
which was 9 million in
1990, will fall to 5 million
by 2020.

• The loss of the most

productive portion of the
population was another
reason for the Bulgaria’s
financial collapse in
1996, when inflation hit
Half the members of the
National Academy of Arts
and Sciences left Bulgaria
between 1990-2005

2000%.
 Has democracy helped
• It tookor
untilhurt Bulgaria?
2007 for Bulgaria’s GDP (the sum of
the goods and services produced for its domestic
economy) to get back to where it was in 1989.

• The percentage of those employed between the

ages 15-59 was 70% in 1991, a significant
decrease from Communist times. Today it is only
49% (partly because people are staying in school
longer)

• Real wages are just over 60% of where they

were in 1989, although this does not include the
“Black Market,” which may be as much as 20% of
the economy, or the $1 billion sent home each
year by Bulgarian emigrants
 The Price of
Inexperience: the Case
of
• Teachers Public
earn Education
$300/month. When the
budget is done, so is the school year.
year’s

• When this teacher’s students did well on the

national test after she worked for months
without pay, her school was told their class
size would jump 50%, although its classrooms
are already completely full.

• Next year, schools will begin to devote their

eighth grade year to English instruction. The
universities were told to train 2,000 teachers to
do that in a year--teachers who are already
teaching full time.
 Fixing Their Hopes on
NATO and the European
January, 2007.
Union
• Bulgaria joined NATO in 1994 and the EU in

• This has had all kinds of important benefits:

the end of millennia of worries about
defending Bulgaria’s borders; financial and
technical assistance as the country
modernizes (the EU has already spent billions
updating highways, communication networks,
and so on).

• But it has come at a considerable cost,

particularly given that, as of this writing,
Bulgaria is the EU’s poorest member state.
 My money is on the
Bulgarians
Whose astonishingly beautiful
and diverse landscape is a
fitting setting for a people who
have mastered the art of
gracious survival. May it ever
be so.