Area Handbook For Bulgaria Part 20

Established in 1942, the Fatherland Front operated underground under communist leadership but also included other political parties.

Cooperation among these political parties, however, did not take place without problems, mainly because each one espoused its own particular interests and viewed the BKP with suspicion. Leaders of each party worked as members of the National Committee (later known as the National Council) of the Fatherland Front. It was from within the Fatherland Front movement that the coup d'etat of September 1944 took place, the result of which was a coalition government.

When the Communists took full control of the government and dissolved the coalition, they retained the Fatherland Front as an umbrella organization. The BKP, of course, is the leading force within the front, which also includes the Bulgarian Agrarian Union and several other organizations. In effect the Fatherland Front is an instrument of the party through which most of the country's organized activities are controlled and supervised. Some of the tasks relegated to the front include the nomination and discussion of candidates for election to central and local bodies of state authority; the right to supervise the activities of enterprises, inst.i.tutions, and organizations operating public utilities and services; and the right to supervise activities of workers and professionals to ensure conformance to party line and policy.

In 1973 the Fatherland Front continued to be a large ma.s.s organization working fully for and with the BKP. Available statistics showed a membership of 3.86 million in July 1970, of which 3.1 million were nonparty members. It included both individual members and collective groups--mainly trade unions and youth organizations.

Central Council of Trade Unions

Trade unions are workers' and professionals' organizations--the function, role, and responsibility of which echo the economic directives and decrees of the BKP. With the abolition of capitalist ownership declared by the Fifth Party Congress in December 1948, the structure and activities of trade unions changed to conform to the party's management of the economy as the vanguard of the state in its socialist development. Since then the Bulgarian trade unions have been reliable mainstays and faithful transmission belts of BKP policies among the working ma.s.ses. Thirteen individual trade unions unite to form the Central Council of Trade Unions, which accepts the leading role of the BKP in all Bulgarian affairs. In 1973 total membership in the central council was about 2.6 million.

Following the principle of democratic centralism, all trade union officials are elected from bottom to top but, following the pattern set by the BKP, all candidates for union offices are carefully screened and selected by officials at higher levels. Each trade union local is the basic organization unit at a factory or business enterprise, and there is an ascending hierarchical structure based on territorial organization. At the district level there is a district trade union that reports to the central organization. Theoretically, the trade unions are independent and nonparty, but they are organized hierarchically, and their activities are closely monitored and controlled by the BKP. In effect, the trade unions look after the interests of the state rather than the interests of the workers. To ensure party control there is an interlocking of positions in the highest realms of the unions, the government, and the party. For example, the chairman of the Central Council of Trade Unions in 1973 was also a member of the State Council of the National a.s.sembly as well as being a candidate member of the Politburo. At lower levels many district and local trade union executives are also members of the district and communal people's councils. Under this arrangement the unions take a direct part in the management of state affairs--such as labor and labor legislation, recreational activities, workers' sports, and so forth.

Dimitrov Communist Youth Union

Young prospective members of the BKP come from the Dimitrov Communist Youth Union (Dimitrovski Komunisticheski Mladezhki Suyuz), also referred to as the Komsomol. Established as the youth's counterpart of the BKP, it is organized much as the parent structure, having a secretariat of nine members headed by a first secretary and a bureau of seventeen members and five candidate members that is comparable to the party Politburo. The Komsomol is under the leadership of party committees and is supported by the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Bulgarian Red Cross, and the Civil Defense Staff in interlocking roles of authority and supervision. Founded as a sociopolitical organization to train the youth in the ideological principles and goals of the BKP, the Komsomol also serves as a source of manpower reserve in government and as an instrument for the application of party policies and directives. In the early 1970s membership was about 1 million (see ch. 2; ch. 15).

Despite all the attention given to youth affairs, alienation of young people manifests itself in many different ways. There were no tangible signs of protest such as outward demonstrations, ma.s.s rallies, or disruptions during congresses, plenums, annual meetings, or regional conferences to show this alienation. But the negative att.i.tude and sagging interest in political indoctrination and economic activities increasingly worries party leaders. The ideological and political gap between generations prompted the administration to prepare and publish Zhivkov's "Youth Theses" in December 1967. This work is basically an inspirational treatise to counter what Zhivkov averred was national nihilism among the youth, characterized by apathy, absence of discipline, improper family upbringing, misdirected school discipline, and ill-prepared Komsomol programs, among other things. The theses also deplored the "degenerate influences" of capitalist society that were evident in conspicuous material consumption in food and beverages, dress, music and dance, and social mobility brought about by bourgeois affluence.

In an effort to bring the youth back into line, the theses emphasized patriotic political education within a Marxist-Leninist frame of reference, defined the duties and privileges of the young people, and finally directed the reorganization of the Komsomol under closer party supervision. The initial reaction to the theses was one of increasing pa.s.sivity.

In another effort to court the Komsomol-age group, political speeches openly lauding the youth union as the instrument for the realization of the technological and scientific as well as the military technical training of young people and their patriotic education have been resorted to. Further, in extolling the work and importance of the youth union to the all-round development of Bulgarian socialist society, Zhivkov also enjoined the youth to implement the Sixth Five-Year Plan of the BKP.

The organization for Bulgarian children still too young for the Komsomol is the Pioneers, also known as Young Septembrists to commemorate two September events in Bulgarian political history--the abortive communist coup d'etat in 1923 and the successful overthrow of the monarchy in 1944. The Pioneer organization is composed of children of elementary school age. It is structured like the Komsomol and operates as its junior division. A special division within the Komsomol National Central Committee oversees the affairs and work of the Pioneers. Lower committees at the district and munic.i.p.ality levels are directed by the soviets for working with students, which are charged with youth work in their respective territorial jurisdictions. Each district has a Pioneer battalion that is divided into companies corresponding to school cla.s.ses and further subdivided into cla.s.sroom rows, the lowest unit of Pioneer organization. The chain of command flows from the central committee and reaches down to the youngest member of the organization living in the remotest part of the country. The content of academic curriculum and party training is generally in accord with the ability levels of the children.

Committee of Bulgarian Women

There is no ma.s.s organization, as such, for Bulgarian women. The Committee of Bulgarian Women, with a membership of 171 in 1973, is a group dedicated to looking after the affairs of women in the country, whether they be workers or housewives. The Const.i.tution of 1971 guarantees to Bulgarian women the enjoyment of equal rights with men. In the complex structure of the BKP-controlled government, recognition of women as a significant working force in the socialist movement is given great attention. An earlier provision contained in the 1947 Const.i.tution, known as the Dimitrov Const.i.tution, similarly guarantees the "right to work, equal pay for equal work," and the attendant benefits, such as paid leave, social security, retirement pension, and education.

Bulgarian women have become active partic.i.p.ants in the political process under communist rule. As noted earlier, 25.2 percent of BKP members in 1971 were women, and there was one woman in the Politburo. There were 7,000 women members of the BZS and almost half of the Komsomol members were women (500,000); the same is true for the Fatherland Front, and women made up 41.2 percent of the trade unions. In the unions of writers, composers, artists, and actors women are also active. Most teachers are women. They represented 67.7 percent of the Teachers Union.

The women's movement was active on a nationwide scale. On the initiative of the Committee of Bulgarian Women, a plan for the development of science and technical progress including the study of the social role of women was presented to the presidium of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Another suggestion by the same women's group called for the study of conditions defining women's role as "mothers, production workers and public activists."

In the report to the plenary session of the party Central Committee in July 1968, Zhivkov outlined the functions of the Committee of Bulgarian Women. These included the coordination of state and administrative organs in research inst.i.tutes that studied the role of women in society.

Henceforth, according to Zhivkov, the Central Committee of the BKP would receive reports on such research and would be directly concerned with matters concerning Bulgarian women.

Ideological Training

How ma.s.s organizations relate to BKP party directives, orders, and decrees is best ill.u.s.trated in the area of political education and indoctrination. The National Conference on Party Propaganda was held in April 1970 and sponsored by the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the Central Committee and by the district party committees. During the conference one of the district secretaries detailed some aspects of a three-stage system that is being applied.

The three-stage structure corresponds to the educational level as well as to the political training and age of students. Schools in the higher level of various district party committees and branches of the ma.s.s organizations train administrative personnel, intellectuals, and party activists. Training on this level includes theoretical seminars and study groups. For intermediate personnel, including employees with a secondary education, there are schools and inst.i.tutes giving lectures and talks on Leninism. A more elementary form of ma.s.s propaganda is given to people with less training in theoretical political ideology; people of advanced age fall also into this category. Political education for this group consists of lectures in beginners' schools. Compulsory subjects in primary party organizations are also discussed during education sessions at party meetings. Except for Sofia, which has a high rate of literacy, most districts employ this three-stage system of political education. It is estimated that 60 percent of Communists in Sofia have at least a high school education; many have college degrees in contrast to some outlying districts where a large percentage of the Communists have only an elementary education.

The three-stage system is also used for training newly inducted Communists as well as youth groups. It was reported during the conference that approximately 900 of the best party propagandists have been sent to Komsomol organizations to train youth in the party school system. Within the Komsomol there is evident need for considerable changes in the training of youth in the system of political education, designed to bring the youth closer to the practice of the principles of Marxism-Leninism.

CHAPTER 10

FOREIGN RELATIONS

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 relationship resulting from bilateral agreements between the two countries, Bulgaria was also a charter member of both the Soviet-dominated Council for Mutual Economic a.s.sistance (COMECON--see Glossary) and the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact) military alliance. Bulgaria's loyalty to the Soviet Union throughout the period is always a starting point in political writings on Eastern European affairs.

The successive leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary) have consistently maintained that their country's fortunes would rise with those of the Soviet Union. To the Bulgarian Communists, such loyalty was not only natural from an ideological point of view but was also the pragmatic course, given the factors of world power politics in the postwar era. Todor Zhivkov, the BKP leader since 1954, and still in office in 1973, continued to adhere to a policy of close alignment with the Soviet Union and used the relationship as the foundation of his regime. The nature of the relationship has developed along two parallel lines: the BKP has maintained close ties with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the same time that government-to-government affairs have become increasingly intertwined.

As is true with other countries in which the communist party has become the dominant political force, in Bulgaria the formulation of foreign policy takes place at the highest party level--the Politburo. After the party has announced the basic policy, the administration of foreign affairs is handled by government ministries. The government has repeatedly dedicated itself to the goals of the world communist movement and, particularly, to the goal of solidarity among socialist states, always acknowledging Soviet leadership. In the Sino-Soviet rift that developed during the 1960s, Bulgaria continually expressed its allegiance to Moscow and decried the divisiveness that resulted from polycentric att.i.tudes and actions.

In mid-1973 Bulgaria maintained diplomatic relations with eighty-two governments, thirty-six of which had emba.s.sies in Sofia. The remaining governments carried on diplomatic relations through their representatives in nearby capitals. Bulgaria maintained fifty-four emba.s.sies in foreign countries and, as a member of the United Nations (UN), maintained an amba.s.sador and a staff in New York. Bulgaria also partic.i.p.ated in the activities of many of the UN special agencies.

DETERMINANTS OF FOREIGN POLICY

Historical Factors

Bulgaria emerged from World War II under the control of a coalition government dominated by the BKP, which by 1947 had arrogated unto itself complete power in the country. In the immediate postwar years policy and direction concerning how the BKP should run the country was dictated from Moscow, as was the case throughout most of the countries of Eastern Europe. Between 1944 and 1948 eight countries had been taken over by communist parties and had aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, which exerted varying degrees of influence in the internal and international affairs of all of them. Over the next twenty years Yugoslavia and Albania broke out of the Soviet orbit completely; the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia experienced uprisings or civil disorders--in most cases suppressed by Soviet force--and Romania a.s.serted its right to national self-determination on numerous occasions. Bulgaria alone remained unwavering in its absolute allegiance to the Soviet Union.

Bulgaria chose not to follow the examples of other Eastern European countries in seeking some degree of autonomy during the 1950s and 1960s for many reasons. Not least among these were the historic traditions of friendship between Bulgarians and Russians dating back to the Russo-Turkish war that freed Bulgaria from Turkish rule in 1878.

Bulgarians are also close to the Russians in language, religion, and cultural traditions. Additionally, having a.s.sumed power, the Bulgarian Communists quite naturally looked toward Moscow--then the center of world communism--for guidance and support. Many of the early postwar leaders had spent several years as residents of the Soviet Union, where they had been closely a.s.sociated with the country's party.

Another reason for the close ties to the Soviet Union was pure pragmatism on the part of the Bulgarian communist leaders. They were, in effect, a minority leadership group faced with the task of imposing an alien ideology on a reluctant majority at the same time that they were trying to reorient the country's economy from an agricultural base to an industrial base. The Bulgarian leaders needed the support of the Soviet Union.

Beset by intraparty strife and lack of success in running the country after the death of Georgi Dimitrov--the leading Bulgarian communist hero and strong man of the early postwar years--the party leadership again clung to Soviet support and totalitarian rigidity to perpetuate itself in power. Even after the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the later de-Stalinization program under Nikita Khrushchev, Bulgaria's leaders retained Stalinism as a modus operandi until the early 1960s.

After Zhivkov became first secretary of the party in 1954, there was a long power struggle, for a third time, and it was not until the early 1960s that Zhivkov managed to eliminate his major antagonists from the party hierarchy and stabilize his regime. During all of those years and on through the 1960s and into the 1970s, Zhivkov continued the policy of absolute loyalty to the Soviet Union and to its leadership.

Consequently, Bulgarian foreign policy has been a mirror image of Soviet policy.

Principles of Foreign Policy

Bulgaria's const.i.tution, in describing how the state serves the people in foreign affairs, mentions "developing and cementing friendship, cooperation, and mutual a.s.sistance with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the other socialist countries" and "pursuing a policy of peace and understanding with all countries and peoples." Official spokesmen proclaim that the country's international relations are founded on the necessity for protecting national sovereignty and on the creation of an overall att.i.tude that would further the cause of all nations in their development as modern states.

A quotation from the party program developed for the Tenth Party Congress in 1971 indicates that, as far as Bulgaria's leaders are concerned, the Soviet Union leads and Bulgaria follows. "For the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Bulgarian people, Bulgarian-Soviet friendship is like the sun and the air for every living creature, it is a friendship of centuries and for centuries, one of the main driving forces of our development, a condition and guarantee for the future progress of our socialist fatherland and its tomorrow."

CONDUCT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The Const.i.tution of 1971 a.s.signs the conduct of foreign relations to the National a.s.sembly, the State Council, and the Council of Ministers.

Formulation of foreign policy, however, remains a prerogative of the BKP. The const.i.tution states that the National a.s.sembly implements foreign policy but, because the a.s.sembly meets only three times each year in short sessions, the implementation function is pa.s.sed on to the State Council during the long interim periods between a.s.sembly meetings.

Primary responsibilities of the State Council in foreign affairs (as opposed to those limited to the periods between National a.s.sembly meetings) include representation of the country in its international relations; the appointment, recall, or release from duty of diplomats and consular officials; the ratification or denunciation of international agreements; and the establishment of diplomatic and consular ranks.

Although the ministries of foreign affairs and foreign trade are the governmental operating agencies in the field of international relations, in theory and in fact the State Council is the supervisory body. The State Council exercises control over the activities of the Council of Ministers and the ministries as stipulated in the const.i.tution. In essence, the State Council is the most powerful government organ, not only in foreign affairs but in all governmental activities. The interlocking of positions between the highest levels of the party and the highest levels of the government a.s.sures that the BKP program will be implemented.

According to the const.i.tution, the Council of Ministers "organizes the implementation of the home and foreign policy of the state." The council is also charged with the concluding of international agreements and the approval or denunciation of international agreements that are not subject to ratification. In performing its const.i.tutional duties in foreign affairs, the Council of Ministers acts through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade.