BULGARIA

officially Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgarian Republika Bulgaria a Balkan country lying along the Black Sea in southeastern Europe. Bulgaria is separated from Romania by the Danube River along most of its northern border. The Black Sea coastline constitutes its eastern border, Greece and Turkey form the southern boundary, and Yugoslavia and Macedonia form the western boundary. Its capital is Sofia. Area 42,855 square miles (110,994 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 8,473,000. officially Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgarian Republika Bulgariya, country occupying 42,855 square miles (110,994 square kilometres) of the eastern portion of the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is bounded by Romania on the north, most of the border being marked by the lower Danube River. The Black Sea lies to the east, Turkey and Greece to the south, Macedonia to the southwest, and the Yugoslav republic of Serbia to the west. The capital of the country is Sofia, which lies in a mountainous basin in the west, near the geographic centre of the entire Balkan region. Bulgaria is crossed by historically important routes from northern and eastern Europe to the Mediterranean basin and from western and central Europe to the Middle East. The country is remarkable for its variety of scenery, its rugged mountains and modern Black Sea resorts attracting a wide variety of visitors. Although the influence of centuries of Ottoman rule is still visible, Bulgaria's chief historical, cultural, and political ties have been with Russia and the Soviet Union. The fall of socialist governments in eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, culminating in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, has caused Bulgaria to enter a period of transition with regard to both internal reorganization and foreign policy. Additional reading Geography A single-volume general work is Georgi Bokov (compiler and ed.), Modern Bulgaria (1981), an official publication. University Of London School Of Slavonic And East European Studies, Proceedings, 2 vol. (1985), consists of conference papers from the first Anglo-Bulgarian symposium and discusses history, geography, ethnography, literature, and language. Further information may be found in R.J. Crampton (compiler), Bulgaria (1989), an annotated bibliography. Economic and social policies are discussed in Robert J. McIntyre, Bulgaria: Politics, Economics, and Society (1988); Frank W. Carter, Bulgaria: The Context of Planning, in Andrew H. Dawson (ed.), Planning in Eastern Europe (1987), pp. 67101; John R. Lampe, The Bulgarian Economy in the Twentieth Century (1986); George R. Feiwel, Growth and Reforms in Centrally Planned Economies: The Lessons of the Bulgarian Experience (1977); and J.F. Brown, Bulgaria Under Communist Rule (1970). Bulgaria's cultural heritage is surveyed in Machiel Kiel, Art and Society of Bulgaria in the Turkish Period (1985), an extensive survey of Turkish influences on Bulgaria and on Christian art and symbolism, 13601700; Atanas Slavov, The Thaw in Bulgarian Literature (1981); and Stefan Stamov (ed.), The Architectural Heritage of Bulgaria (1972). History Antiquities and archaeological discoveries are the subject of R.F. Hoddinott, Bulgaria in Antiquity: An Archaeological Introduction (1975); and Douglass W. Bailey, Ivan Panayotov, and Stefan Alexandrov (eds.), Prehistoric Bulgaria (1995). General overviews of Bulgarian history are provided by R.J. Crampton, A Short History of Modern Bulgaria (1987); Vassil A. Vassilev (Vasil A. Vasilev), Bulgaria13 Centuries of Existence, trans. from Bulgarian (1979); and Nikolai Todorov, A Short History of Bulgaria, trans. from Bulgarian, 2nd rev. ed. (1977). Coverage of specific periods of history may be found in David Marshall Lang, The Bulgarians: From Pagan Times to the Ottoman Conquest (1976); Robert Browning, Byzantium and Bulgaria: A Comparative Study Across the Early Medieval Frontier (1975); Steven Runciman, A History of the First Bulgarian Empire (1930); Assen Nicoloff, The Bulgarian Resurgence (1987); Nikolai Genchev, The Bulgarian National Revival Period, trans. from Bulgarian (1977); R.T. Shannon, Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation, 1876, 2nd ed. (1975); R.J. Crampton, Bulgaria, 18781918: A History (1983); John D. Bell, Peasants in Power: Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, 18991923 (1977); Stephane Groueff, Crown of Thorns (1987), covering the reign of Boris III (191843); Marshall Lee Miller, Bulgaria During the Second World War (1975); and John D. Bell, The Bulgarian Communist Party from Blagoev to Zhivkov (1986). Francis William Carter John D. Bell Administration and social conditions Government In July 1991 the National Assembly passed a new constitution establishing a parliamentary system of government and guaranteeing direct presidential elections, separation of powers, and freedom of speech, press, conscience, and religion. New laws allowed for the return of some land that had been confiscated by the previous communist government to its former owners, and other laws were passed regarding competition, foreign investment, and a commercial code. Under the terms of the 1991 constitution, the president, who is elected for a five-year term, is the head of state, whereas the prime minister is the head of the government. The president schedules national referenda and elections for the National Assembly, serves diplomatic and other functions, and may also promulgate laws. According to the constitution, the president consults with the various groups of the National Assembly and then suggests a candidate for prime minister who has been nominated by the largest parliamentary group; that person then forms a cabineti.e., the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers, the governing body of the nation, consists of the prime minister, deputy prime ministers, and ministers. It is charged with guiding, coordinating, and overseeing the implementation of policies on both domestic and foreign issues in accordance with the constitution and laws of Bulgaria. The National Assembly (parliament), a unicameral, representative body composed of 240 members, constitutes the legislative branch of the government. It passes and amends laws, ratifies treaties, levies taxes, and retains the power to pass a motion of no confidence in the Council of Ministers or the prime minister and thereby to compel the resignation of the Council of Ministers. Members of the National Assembly serve four-year terms. Township councils embody state power at the local government level. The members of the township councils are elected by the inhabitants of the township to four-year terms. Executive power at the level of local government lies with the elected mayor of a township. Between the township and state levels of government is the oblast, or province, government. The court system consists of the Supreme Court of Appeals, the Supreme Administrative Court, local courts, courts of appeal, and military courts. The constitution provides that specialized courts may also be established. A prosecutorial structure, headed by a prosecutor general, corresponds to that of the courts. The High Judicial Council, consisting of 25 members, appoints judges, prosecutors, and investigators. The members of this council are appointed by the National Assembly and judicial authorities. The Constitutional Court, composed of 12 justices (who each serve a nine-year term), is charged with interpreting the constitution and ruling on the legality of measures passed by the National Assembly. Political parties Prior to the overthrow of the veteran communist party leader Todor Zhivkov in November 1989, the ruling party had been the Bulgarian Communist Party (Bulgarska Komunisticheska Partiya, or BKP), founded in 1891 as the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. After Zhivkov's fall, the party gave up its guaranteed right to rule, adopted a new manifesto, streamlined its leadership, and changed its name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). Despite these reforms, the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) won leadership of the Bulgarian government by a small margin over the BSP in elections held in October 1991. Dozens of new political parties and organizations were created in the early 1990s, including labour, religious, environmental, ethnic, and other groups. Cultural life Contemporary Bulgarian culture is a lively blend of the millennium-old folk traditions of the region; a more formal culture, which played a vital role in the emergence of national consciousness under Ottoman rule and in the development of a modern state; and, from World War II until the early 1990s, the development of a strong socialist element. Because Bulgaria's population is largely homogeneous, the degree of cultural variation even at the regional level is small. The state encourages cultural development at all levels of society and supports the dissemination of culture, particularly through schools, libraries, museums, publishing and the press, radio, television, and cinema. Daily life From 1946 until 1990, daily life in Bulgaria was outwardly dominated by the socialist political system. The state sought to inculcate a new mode of thinking and manner of action based above all on the need for and benefit of social labour. More inwardly, however, daily life long has been dominated by a much older tradition and cultural legacy. For example, the Bulgarian family kept many of its traditional forms of organization. Many households consist of an extended family comprising parents and one of their married sonsusually the youngestor daughters. Under the socialist government, religious functions were entirely separate from state functions, the postwar constitution prohibiting the use of religion or religious organizations for political purposes. On the other hand, even prior to the democratic reforms of the early 1990s, the government tolerated religion and did not usually attempt to take away the political rights of religious believers.