sorenson bulgaria project

8/14/2019 Sorenson Bulgaria Project

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sorenson-bulgaria-project 1/101

BulgariaBulgaria The Construction of a Nation



Bulgaria: Heart of the BalkanBulgaria: Heart of the Balkan PeninsulaPeninsula



•What is Bulgaria’s northern boundary?•What geographical features CONNECTBulgaria to the larger world?•What geographical features ISOLATE it fromthe ancient world?



In the beginning...In the beginning...• Oldest human remains

in Europe were found inBulgaria’s Kozarnika

Cave--1.2-1.4 MYA(million years ago).

• Europe’s first organizedhuman societies were

in Bulgaria between6000-4000 BCE.

• We know very little

about these societies.



The Cult of Rock and The Cult of Rock and

SunSun• Neolithic people worshiped

the sun, building sun circleslike Stonehenge and “sunwells.”

• They also seem to haveworshiped fire. Rocksanctuaries like Perperikon,shown here, were often builtnear “burning stones”

(brimstone).

• Which may have begun theBulgarian folk tradition of

fire dancing.



The Future in the Fire The Future in the Fire• Priests lit wine they pouredover the round altar. They

decided what was going tohappen based on theshape and size of theflames and smoke. TheRoman writer Suetonius

described it this way:The prophets said to himthat his son was to rule theworld, for as the wine wasspilt onto the altar, thesmoke rose up above thetop of the shrine and evenunto heavens, as had happened when Alexander

the Great himself had sacrificed u on that same

The gold-bearing river of Perpereshka flows beneath themountain of Perperikon.Perperikon’s name is derived from the Greek term for “Over

the fire of sacrifice.”



The Indo-European The Indo-European

MigrationMigration• Beginning in about 2200 BCE, and then againbetween about 1500-1000 BCE, waves of nomadic peoples began to move west and

southeast from the Caucasus (the areabetween the Black and Caspian Seas).

• They were not literate, but they had twounstoppable technologies: horses and metal

weapons.

• Look at the name historians invented todescribe these people. Where do you think

they settled?



L t I



L e ot er In o-e o er n o-Europeans, theEuropeans, the

Thracians 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 NoticedWhat Other People Noticed

About the ThraciansAbout the Thracians• Xenophanes said they hadred hair and blue eyes.

• The Greek historian

Herodotus described theirclothing and weapons:

The Thracians went to the warwearing the skins of foxes upon

their heads, and about theirbodies tunics, over was throwna long cloak of many colors. Their legs and feet were clad inbuskins made from the skins of fawns; and they had for arms

javelins.(Histories, VII).

4th cent. BCE fresco of a Thracianwith his javelin and horse. Can

you see the fox fur cap on theback of his neck?

d l



Herodotus also comments onHerodotus also comments on

Thracian trade, dowries, tattoos, Thracian trade, dowries, tattoos,

and warrior code.and warrior code.“They sell their children totraders.... Brides arepurchased of their parentsfor large sums of money.

Tattooing among them

marks noble birth, and thewant of it low birth. To beidle is accounted the mosthonorable thing, and to bea tiller of the ground themost dishonorable. To liveby war and plunder is of all things the mostglorious.”

Thracian goddess--see the tattoos on he

face?



Graves, Games, andGraves, Games, and

Treasure Treasure“Their wealthy ones are

buried in the followingfashion. The body is laidout for three days; andduring this time they killvictims of all kinds, andfeast upon them, after firstbewailing the departed.

Then they either burn thebody or else bury it in the

ground. Lastly, they raise amound over the grave, andhold games of all sorts,wherein the single combat

is awarded the highest"

Varna Burial--the oldest

man-made gold known



Special occasion armor (forSpecial occasion armor (for

both men and their horses)both men and their horses)

and religious vesselsand religious vessels



Thracian Beliefs Thracian Beliefs

You are an ancient Thracian. What would youwant from your gods and/or goddesses?

• The Mother Goddess Bendis rode a deerthrough 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 haveassociated with a doe? Why did theirgoddess ride one?



• Bendis’ son was a wildchild. His Thracian namewas Zagreus, though theGreeks called himDionysus. He was the

dark god of creation,sensation and passion--what used to be calledwine, women and song

and is now called sex,drugs, and rock and roll.

• This Greek vase showshim with his groupies, theMaenads.

Bendis’ son, DionysusBendis’ son, Dionysus



The Divine Marriage The Divine Marriage• Creation begins by

sacrificing something oldto make room forsomething new. A seedmust split apart before theplant inside can grow.

• Worshipers sacrificedDionysus, usuallyrepresented by a bull, at

an outdoor altar. Theyused rhytoi like this one topour the blood (or wine)on the ground so it couldfertilize Mother Earth andthe cycle could begin



Orpheus and the Birth of Orpheus and the Birth of

MusicMusic• The famous hero and

musician Orpheus alsocame from Thrace.

• Orpheus may have been areal man, a priest of theGreek god Apollo. Apollowas rational and orderly--the opposite of his half-

brother Dionysus.

• Orpheus was eventuallykilled by some Maenads.



Orpheus and the BulgarianOrpheus and the Bulgarian

LandscapeLandscape

•After the death of hiswife, Euridice, Orpheuswent all the way to hellto get her back.

• The Thracians believedthat he went this way,through the deepgorge in the Rhodope

mountains called “TheDevil’s Throat.” Theythrew royal corpsesdown this sacred site.

I O h ’ t b iI O h ’ t b i



Is Orpheus’s tomb inIs Orpheus’s tomb in

the Rhodopethe Rhodope

Mountains?Mountains?• Some archaeologists claim thisis indeed his tomb, but it’shard to know for sure.

• The locals call these whitequartz crystals “Euridice’stears”

• They also believe that this rare

pink flower, which can survivealmost three years withoutwater, sprang from Orpheus’blood when the Maeneds killed

him.



A. Greek Colonization, c. 600A. Greek Colonization, c. 600

BCEBCE• Especially along the

coasts

• Greeks write andthe Thracians don’t,but because theyare fellow Indo-

Europeans, thecultural disruptionis relatively minor



B Th R h dB Th R h d



• Secure roads and citieslike Serdica (later Sofia)and Philippopolis (later

Plovdiv).

• Predictable legal andcommercial systems

• Ports, sewers, etc.

• Public institutions, liketheaters, amphitheaters,

and, eventually, Christianity.

B. The Romans, who doB. The Romans, who do

their great infrastructuretheir great infrastructure

thingthing

The Roman Theater at Plovdiv

B t l b b thB t l b b th



But also absorb theBut also absorb the

Thracian states into their Thracian states into their

empire.empire.• The Romans give their veterans farm landalong 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-speakinghalf of the Roman Empire.

• The barbarians pass through Bulgaria, scaringthe local population into fortified Roman cities

and leaving a lot of farm land empty.



C. Enter the SlavsC. Enter the Slavs

• The Slavs are gentlefarmers from Russia.

• They settle Bulgaria’sempty farm landbetween the fifth andeighth centuries.

• There are a lot of them, but they are notambitious and don’tupset things much.

The fortifications at Odessa, a Greco-Roman city on theBlack Sea



D. The same cannot beD. The same cannot be

said of the Bulgars.said of the Bulgars.• Horsemen from the

Asiatic steppes whowere ALSO Indo-European

• Stirrups and sharpcurved sabres givethem a hugetechnological

advantage.• They start filtering

into Bulgaria via theDanube River in the

sixth century.

Bulgar warrior with captive, 10th century



The Volga River,first stop for the

Bulgars



Bulgarian CultureBulgarian Culture

• The tightly organizedBulgars, led by theirkhan, quickly dominatedthe mostly Slavic

peasantry.• The khan was high

priest of Tangra, the all-powerful sky god.

• Horses were sacred. The Bulgar banner wasa horse tail upon a

spear.

Carved into living rock 75feet above the ground, thehuge Madara Horsemandates from the early 8thcentury. Followed by a dog,

he tramples a lion under hisfeet



New ProblemsNew Problems• The Bulgars were pagan (but tolerant of otherreligions).

• Most of the rest of Europe is now Christian, andit turns out that Christians like to go to waragainst pagans.

• “God sees them who seek the truth. God seesthem who lie. The Bulgars did much good tothe [Byzantine] Christians, but the Christiansforgot that. However, God sees!” (inscription of

Khan Presian, 9th century).

• As an added bonus, having everyone belong tothe same religion would make it easier tocontrol the growing Bulgarian state, especially

since so many of the people they have recently



The Solution? Join the The Solution? Join the

ClubClub• Boris-Michael convertshis people to OrthodoxChristianity in 864 CE.

• All the other Christiansworship in Greek,Latin,or Hebrew.

• With the assistance of Ss. Cyril andMethodius, Bulgariacreates a written

language of its own.

St C il’ tSt C il’ t



St. Cyril’s message toSt. Cyril’s message to

the Popethe Pope• “Doesn’t God send rain

equally to all? And dowe not breathe thesame air? And how areyou not ashamed toacknowledge only threelanguages and todecree so and to haveall the rest of thepeoples and tribes

remain blind and deaf?”

• It worked. Bulgarians

worship in Slavo-



Simeon the Great andSimeon the Great and

Bulgaria’s Golden AgeBulgaria’s Golden Age• A written languageof their ownprevented Bulgariafrom being

absorbed by theGermans or theGreeks

• It also gives them

the tools they needto build agovernment andlegal system strong

enough to keep

Tsar Simeon moved the Bulgarian

capital to the new Christian city of Preslav in about 900 CE.



PreslavPreslav• Built in only twelveyears, it was a majorshot in the arm for the

monasteries whoproduced Europe’searliest painted ceramictile.

• In a famous passage, John the Exarchimagines a peasantbeing asked to describehis first glimpse of theglittering colors of thecity’s churches andpalaces. “Just because I

saw it doesn’t mean I

The famous 9th century iconof St. Theodore



Palace envyPalace envy• You are Byzantium--

larger, stronger,richer, and betterorganized than

Bulgaria.

• What’s your reactionto Bulgaria’s

success?• Goodbye, first

Bulgarian kingdom.Hello, Byzantine

occupation.

What’s left of Pliska



Legacy of the FirstLegacy of the First

KingdomKingdom• Creation of a Bulgarianidentity that includedboth Slavs and Bulgars

• Own written language

• New cities

• New arts

• And, in 870, given theright to administertheir own national

church.

Ruins of the Bulgarian Orthodox Cathedral in Nessebar, on the

Black Sea



V. The Byzantine EmpireV. The Byzantine Empire1018-1186

Tsar Samuil’s Fortress at Ohrid



The Catastrophe of The Catastrophe of

KleisthesKleisthesIn 1014, Byzantiumdefeated theBulgarian army in themountain pass of

Kleisthes. Basil II, the“Bulgar-Slayer,”captured 15,000Bulgarians whom they

blinded, leaving oneman in a hundred asingle eye with whichto guide his friendshome.

Tsar Samuil after suffering astroke at the sight of hisblinded troops.

Byzantine Rule andByzantine Rule and



Byzantine Rule andByzantine Rule and

HermitismHermitism• The Byzantines were way

into order and hierarchy(taxis).

• Order requires agovernment and an army,

who must be paid withtaxes.

• Lots and lots of taxes.

• Some Bulgarians didn’twant to be part of a worldthat seemed so unfair.So they became hermits

in out-of-the-way places The Aladja Monastery near Varna



If you were a Bulgarian who wantedIf you were a Bulgarian who wantedto stay far away from the Byzantinesto stay far away from the Byzantines

and their tax collectors, where wouldand their tax collectors, where would

you settle?you settle?

Byzantium

Bulgaria

R a Monastery:a onas ery:



R a Monastery:a onas ery:Refuge in theRefuge in the

MountainsMountains

Rila Monastery

century he became



St. JohnSt. John

of Rilaof Rila

century, he becameBulgaria’s patron saint.

• Based on the following

quotation, which of his ideasmight his followers havevalued?

“As the grace of the HolySpirit has brought us heretogether, we must live inunity and friendship,breathing together and

enjoying together theeternal creation which Godhath made for them thatlove Him. Woe to him that is

alone when he falleth; for he

A ref ge for more thanA refuge for more than



A refuge for more thanA refuge for more than

peoplepeople• The great monastic

libraries kept the Slavo-Bulgarian language alive

• They were also a means

of transmitting Bulgarianculture. For example, St.George is a saint whorides a white horse andslays a dragon with along lance. There is noevidence that he was anactual person. Wheremight the story have

come from?

God bless the Turks and theGod bless the Turks and the



God bless the Turks and theGod bless the Turks and the

Crusaders for picking on theCrusaders for picking on the

Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire• Because they keptthe Byzantines sobusy that Bulgaria

could establish itssecond kingdom.

• Their new capitalwas the fortress of

Veliko Turnovo.

• It would last from1186-1396.



h d l iTh S d B l i



The Second Bulgarian The Second Bulgarian

StateState• was not as powerfulas the first one.

• but it was every bit

as religious

• the miraculousfrescoes of BoyanaChurch, which were

painted in 1259, twohundred yearsBEFORE the ItalianRenaissance

Jesus teaching the elders



Two more. Two more.

Boyana Church madeBoyana Church made



Boyana Church madeBoyana Church made

me cry.me cry.•

Hard.

• For an embarrassinglylong time.

• But inward sensitivity isnot all that helpful whenyou are squeezed bymilitant Serbs in theWest and militantOttomans in the East.

• Goodbye, 2nd BulgarianKingdom. Hello,

Ottoman Yoke.

Mr. Belcho Belev Curator of Boyana Church



The (Muslim) OttomansThe (Muslim) Ottomans



The (Muslim) Ottomans The (Muslim) Ottomanswould not allowwould not allow

Christians to:Christians to:• Ring bells or wear green, a color sacred toMuslims

• Worship in churches taller than a man on

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

• Serve in the army (a traditional path to gloryand wealth); instead they had to pay doubletaxes

• Use their own legal system if a Muslim wasinvolved in the case.

Why the Ottoman years mayWhy the Ottoman years may



Why the Ottoman years mayWhy the Ottoman years may

not have been as awful as thenot have been as awful as the

history books sayhistory books say• As long as they paidtheir taxes anddidn’t make trouble,the Turks pretty

much left non-Muslim communities(called millets)alone.

• The Turks built citiesand encouragedBulgarian crafts likecarpet weaving and

perfume

The Turkish baths in Sofia, which havebeen being restored for a really long time

T e v age oe v age o



T e v age oe v age oArbanassi, a suburb of Arbanassi, a suburb of

Veliko TurnovoVeliko Turnovo

Notice the fortress-like, inward-looking

architecture

And the neighborhood fountain with Islamic

inscriptions



It was true that theirIt was true that theirchurch was small and plainchurch was small and plain

on the outsideon the outside



But not on the insideBut not on the inside

In fact some BulgarianIn fact some Bulgarian



In fact, some BulgarianIn fact, some Bulgarian

Christians, like this textileChristians, like this textile

merchant, got richmerchant, got rich

This is the back of his gated house.The shop is on the left, the barn onthe left, and the living quarters are

upstairs.

You can see the influence of Turkishfurnishings and design, however,

especially on the inside



VIII. The National RevivalVIII. The National Revival1762-1878

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

Museum, Sofia

The Ottomans aren’tThe Ottomans aren’t



The Ottomans aren t The Ottomans aren t

keeping upkeeping up• Europe comes knocking: By the mid 18th

century, Austria, England, and France cantrade along the Danube and Russian ships areallowed in the Black Sea

• Worried, the Ottomans centralize andmodernize their army to stay competitive

• Both of these events improve life for theirBulgarian subjects since armies don’t harass

the locals as badly as nobles do AND becausethey can now make money exporting meatand cotton via Danube ports AND bymanufacturing things the army needs, like

uniforms.

Manufacturing wasManufacturing was



gg

usually driven by usually driven by

water power, aswater power, as

demonstrated by demonstrated by these photos of thethese photos of the

reconstructed villagereconstructed village

of Etura.of Etura.

Increasing prosperityIncreasing prosperity



Increasing prosperityIncreasing prosperitymeans lots of newmeans lots of new

public buildingspublic buildings• Bulgarianbusinessmen oftenorganized themselvesinto cooperative

guilds

• As the guilds gotricher, they oftendecided to spend theirmoney on projectsthat would benefiteveryone, likeschools, museums,and covered markets

Clock-towers,like this one inVarna, were

particularly popular projects. Not only did they encourageworkers to get

to work ontime, but they used Christian, not Muslim, time.



And public prideAnd public pride

Sofia’s covered market, complete with glassand a fountain. Compare this with the shops

you saw a couple of slides ago.



Rila Monastery and theRila Monastery and the



Rila Monastery and they

Flowering of BulgarianFlowering of Bulgarian

NationalismNationalism• Rila Monastery,established byBulgaria’s national

Saint, John of Rila,burned down in 1833

• People from all walksof life throughout the

Bulgarian landscontributed moneyand their services torebuild this symbol of

their national identity.

In an effort to appeal toeveryone, the cathedralincluded ordinary people ascharacters in its paintings. Theartists decorated the church onthe outside as well as the

inside--this panel comes fromthe South porch.

The Ottomans Recognize theThe Ottomans Recognize the



The Ottomans Recognize the The Ottomans Recognize the

Bulgarian Orthodox Church,Bulgarian Orthodox Church,

18701870• This was a big dealsince the Ottomansorganized theirempire by religion.

Jews were ruled bytheir rabbis,Catholics by theirpriests, etc.

• Up until 1870, theBulgarians had beenruled by Greek-speaking patriarchs.

The Bulgarian Synod, headquarters of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Themosaic at the top shows the threebishops who negotiated its founding in1870.

Vasil Levski and theVasil Levski and the



as e s a d eBulgarian RevolutionBulgarian Revolution

Central CommitteeCentral Committee• A principled andcharismatic leader whoinsisted that theBulgarians could not

depend on outsiders toliberate them, but must doso themselves.

• He organized a series of local chapters of the BRCCbetween 1870 and 1872when he was arrested bythe Ottomans; he was

hung the following year.

Th A il Ri i 1876



The April Rising, 1876 The April Rising, 1876

• In 1875, the Ottoman Empire was weakenedby revolutionary uprisings in Serbia andBosnia.

• The BRCC decided to take advantage of the

situation with a coordinated national uprisingof its own

• The Rising was a total disaster, but the

Ottomans’ savage reprisals (which includedlocking entire communities inside churchesand burning them alive) created sympathy forthe revolutionaries both within and withoutBulgaria

i h



Russia to the RescueRussia to the Rescue• Russia wanted to replace

the Ottomans as the mostimportant Great Power inthe Middle East

• Like the Bulgarians, theRussians were both Slavicand Orthodox Christians.Outraged by the reports of

Turkish atrocities againstChristians after the AprilRising, they declared waron the Ottomans in 1877--and won.

A monument to Tsar Alexander II, the tsar who

went to war with theOttomans in 1877.

IX. Liberation andIX. Liberation and



IX. Liberation andIX. Liberation andRevivalRevival

1878-1939

The National Theater, Sofia

The Creation of anThe Creation of an



The Creation of an The Creation of an

Independent BulgariaIndependent Bulgaria

• The Treaty of SanStefano after the Russo-

Turkish War of 1878recognized Bulgaria as a

self-governing state forthe first time in 500years.

• Britain, Germany and

Austria felt it was too good a deal; overRussia’s protests, theyre-drew Bulgaria’sboundaries at the Berlin

The Berlin Treaty shrank Bulgaria to37.5% of its former size and created a new province, Eastern Rumelia.

Bulgaria annexed Rumelia in 1885.

But 37 5% is better thanBut 37.5% is better than



But 37.5% is better thanBut 37.5% is better than

none.none.• How do you build a countryfrom scratch?

• The easiest way to unitepeople is to create a

common enemy--like, say,the Ottomans.

• Ivan Yazov’s Under the

Yoke, published in 1893,rehearsed every Turkishmisdeed with relish. It isstill Bulgaria’s mostpopular novel.

Lots of public buildingsLots of public buildings



p gp gto affirm Bulgaria’sto affirm Bulgaria’s

identityidentity• Especially theaters,as both illiteratepeasants andintellectuals can

participate in andenjoy plays.

• The National

Theater in Sofia,pictured here, isnamed after ourfriend Ivan Lavksy,the guy who wroteUnder the Yoke

• There’s a statue of him rightacross the street just in case



across the street, just in caseyou didn’t get the point thefirst time.

• But a common culture canonly get you so far.Remember, more than 90%

of Bulgarians are peasants,most of whom cannot read.And while they were “underthe Ottoman yoke,” Bulgariahad no chance to trainengineers, teachers, soldiers,government officials, orbusinessmen.

• They need help.

Ivan Lavsky, author of Under the Yoke

Once again Russia isOnce again Russia is



Once again, Russia isOnce again, Russia is

happy to give it.happy to give it.• After their army had

won the Russo-Turkishwar for theBulgarians, the

Russians continued tosend money andadvisors to help buildthe new country.

• For example, in 1885every officer in theBulgarian army overthe rank of captainwas Russian.

Russia paid for most of Alexander Nevsky cathedral,Bulgaria’s largest church.



Here you can see the way the monument to TsarAlexander II stands guard over Bulgaria’s

Parliament, which is the white building on theright.

Bulgaria’s relationship withBulgaria’s relationship with



g pg pthe rest of Europe was morethe rest of Europe was more

complicatedcomplicated• Remember that theBritish, Austrians, andGermans had taken away63% of the new country at

the Berlin Conference in1878

• As a result of theIndustrial Revolution andbetter transportationnetworks, European goodswere cheaper and of higher quality than

Bulgaria’s.

A woman using awashing machinefrom c. 1900. It’s

powered by a water

wheel



Growing PainsGrowing Pains

• In 1912 and 1913, the Balkan countries wentto war, first with the Ottomans and then witheach other.

• Bulgaria won the first and lost the second.

• After some hesitation, Bulgaria joined WorldWar I on Germany’s side in 1915 because

Germany offered them a better deal than theAllies did.

• Unfortunately, the Germans lost.

W ld W IIWorld War II



World War IIWorld War II

• King Boris III did not trusteither the Nazis (hethought they wanted toreplace him with one of their own generals) or theCommunists (who believedin the violent overthrow of the privileged classes).

• Bulgaria eventually joinedthe German side, althoughthey would not allow theirtroops to fight outside the

Balkans.

Despite the polite smiles,King Boris III refused toturn Bulgaria’s 50,000

Jews over to Hitler. Borisdied a few days after returning home from hismeeting Hitler--many believe that the Nazis

poisoned him.



The Soviet Occupation The Soviet Occupation• In August, 1944, the Soviet army crossed into

Romania and Bulgaria, where they received awarm welcome.

• Bulgaria declared war on Germany onSeptember 7.

• Until the end of the war eight months later,the Communists worked behind the scenes to

eliminate anyone who might disagree withtheir policies. In January, for example, theyarrested anyone who had been a governmentofficial since 1941. Most were found guilty of

one crime or another--100 were shot.



C i t B l iC i t B l i



Communist BulgariaCommunist Bulgaria• The Communists were

utterly ruthless. If youdisagreed with them,you were dead.

•Fortunately, theyhelped Bulgaria’seconomy andgovernment modernize(in 1944, 80% of Bulgarians couldn’tread).

• But not enough to

compete with the West.

No more water power.

Todor Zhivkov Bulgaria’sTodor Zhivkov Bulgaria’s



Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria s Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria s

Communist leaderCommunist leader• He ruled from 1954 untilthe fall of Communism in

1989.

• This quotation pretty

much sums him up: "Agood journalist is not theone that writes whatpeople say, but the one

that writes what he/she issupposed to write."

• The last of the Brezhnev-era toughies to be in

1 s an 7 s were as an s were a



time of relativetime of relative

prosperityprosperity• Bulgaria became thesupplier of cheaptransportation andcomputer parts forthe Eastern Bloc.

• In return, Russia soldthem cheap oil.

• Zhivkov built lots of new buildings thatcelebrated Bulgarianculture.

The Bulgarian Academy of Artsand Sciences was built during the

1970s. Why do you suppose it looks so Baroque?

The Communists were fond The Communists were fond



of monuments to commonof monuments to common

people.people.

This is a sign for the folk museum they established

at Etara

More socialist realism, this time on topof Party Head-quarters--industry on the

left, agriculture on the right.

But the press wasn’tBut the press wasn’t



But the press wasn tBut the press wasn t

all good...all good...In September 1977, theBulgarian secret policeassassinated GeorgiMarkov (via a poison

pellet shot from anumbrella on London’sWaterloo Bridge) forwriting about the

privileges enjoyed byBulgaria’s communistelite; they tried thesame thing the next

week with someone else

Most Soviet-era architecturewas not well-designed; a

Communist building on theleft does not compare well

with the shopping center that had been built fifty years

earlier on the right.

Socialism on theSocialism on theD i th l 1980 B l i d



DefensiveDefensive• During the early 1980s, Bulgaria was accused

of of trafficking in counterfeit whiskey and

illegal drugs, trying to assassinate Pope JohnPaul II, state-sponsored terrorism againsttheir Turkish minority, and selling foodcontaminated by the Chernobyl nucleardisaster

• Despite many attempts to reform theeconomy, Bulgaria’s technological capacityfell further and further behind the west’s, just

as greater access to western television,music, and media was showing them whatthey were missing.

•By 1989, Bulgaria owed $8 billion in foreign



X. The Transition and theX. The Transition and theEU



EUEU1989-present

““We didn’t understand theWe didn’t understand the



We didn t understand thedifference between freedomdifference between freedom

and anarchy.”and anarchy.”• By December 1990, “the mechanisms of

totalitarianism had been dismantled [but]those of democracy had not yet beenconstructed...because no workable consensuscould be found” (Crampton, 217).

• Not to mention the collapse of the Bulgarianeconomy

• 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 muchwithout the machinery large collectives used

Greater freedom of Greater freedom of



movement meant that thosemovement meant that those

who could leave didwho could leave did• It’s estimated thatBulgaria’s population,which was 9 million in1990, will fall to 5 million

by 2020.

• The loss of the mostproductive portion of the

population was anotherreason for the Bulgaria’sfinancial collapse in1996, when inflation hit

2000%.

Half the members of theNational Academy of Artsand Sciences left Bulgariabetween 1990-2005



The Price of T e Pr ce oI i th CI i th C



• Teachers earn $300/month. When the year’sbudget is done, so is the school year.

• When this teacher’s students did well on thenational test after she worked for monthswithout pay, her school was told their classsize would jump 50%, although its classroomsare already completely full.

• Next year, schools will begin to devote theireighth grade year to English instruction. Theuniversities were told to train 2,000 teachers todo that in a year--teachers who are already

teaching full time.

Inexperience: the CaseInexperience: the Case

of Public Educationof Public Education

Fixing Their Hopes onFixing Their Hopes ond hNATO d th E



NATO and the EuropeanNATO and the European

UnionUnion• Bulgaria joined NATO in 1994 and the EU in January, 2007.

• This has had all kinds of important benefits:

the end of millennia of worries aboutdefending Bulgaria’s borders; financial andtechnical assistance as the countrymodernizes (the EU has already spent billionsupdating 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 theMy money is on theBulgariansBulgarians

Whose astonishingly beautifuland diverse landscape is afitting setting for a people whohave mastered the art of gracious survival May it ever

sorenson bulgaria project

Documents