Area Handbook For Bulgaria Part 24

One of the most recent innovations in television programming was the transmission of a special program for tourists in 1973. Bulgarian Radio and Television decided to cooperate with the Committee for Tourism to promote a 1--hour program for foreign tourists on the Black Sea coast.

The program, as envisioned in 1973, would consist of local news, presented on three different channels in Russian, English, and German respectively; local events; international news; tourist information; and advertis.e.m.e.nts.

Future plans for Bulgarian television were outlined in the Sixth Five Year Plan (1971-75). Although color television programs in the 1970s were transmitted to Bulgaria from Moscow, Bulgaria's own color television was to be transmitted in late 1973. Along these lines, Bulgaria planned to collaborate with Intervision--the Eastern European television network--in the promotion of color television. In 1972 plans were also being formulated for the construction of between 250 and 300 relay stations and additional television transmitters.

PUBLISHING

In 1939 there were 2,169 books and pamphlets published in 6.5 million copies, and in 1948 there were 2,322 books and pamphlets published in 19.9 million copies. By 1960 the number of book and pamphlet t.i.tles had risen to 3,369 in 30.2 million copies, and by 1971 the number of book and pamphlet t.i.tles reached 4,188 in 46.8 million copies.

More recent studies of book and pamphlet publication conducted in 1969 and 1970 indicated that the overwhelming majority of books and pamphlets were written by Bulgarians. Of the 3,799 books published in 1970, there were 3,368 by Bulgarian authors. The foreign works during this year were predominantly in Russian, 131; French, sixty-five; English, sixty-five; and German, fifty-four. There were few books translated from Spanish and a sprinkling of translations from other lesser known languages. Of the translated works most were literary, followed by works dealing with the social sciences, the applied sciences, the arts, geography and history, the so-called hard sciences, philosophy, philology, and religion.

A 1971 study ill.u.s.trates the fact that--in terms of t.i.tles alone--books are more popular than pamphlets by a ratio of approximately three to one (see table 13). The greatest number of book t.i.tles in 1971 were in the areas of artistic and folkloric literature, technology and industry, and scientific and educational texts. The smallest number of book t.i.tles were in the areas of general handbooks, community affairs, and atheism and religion. The greatest number of pamphlet t.i.tles, on the other hand, were in juvenile literature, communist party literature, and science and education. The fewest pamphlet t.i.tles dealt with atheism and religion, Marxism-Leninism, languages, and labor and trade unions.

Because the Bulgarian publishing industry has emphasized the quant.i.ty of books available in terms of copies rather than variety or number of t.i.tles, there has been some serious criticism of policy, particularly from the newspapers. In fact, among the Balkan countries, Bulgaria ranks below Yugoslavia, Romania, and Turkey in the number of t.i.tles published annually. One newspaper claimed that of the total number of books published in 1972, only approximately one-third were so-called real books, meaning that they were not simply textbooks or brochures. This newspaper claimed that foreign literature was not well known in Bulgaria and pointed out that the literature of Asia, Africa, and South America had increased by only 470 t.i.tles since 1939.

The state not only is in charge of the publishing houses themselves but also supervises the distribution of books throughout the country.

Editorial councils are the final authorities in determining the output of individual publishing houses. The one exception to the general administration of publishing houses is the publication of textbooks. In this case the Committee on Art and Culture is responsible for the printing of textbooks, and the Ministry of National Education is, in turn, responsible for their distribution.

_Table 13. Bulgaria, Book and Pamphlet Publication, 1971_

-------------------------------------+--------------+--------+---------- Total Number Book Pamphlet Subject of Publication of t.i.tles t.i.tles t.i.tles -------------------------------------+--------------+--------+---------- Marxism-Leninism 26 23 3 Communist party 270 158 112 Socialist and communist construction 181 97 84 Foreign policy and economics 94 74 20 Philosophy 70 52 18 History 147 121 26 Economics 29 21 8 Production 90 82 8 Finance 15 11 4 Labor and trade unions 55 39 16 Legal and const.i.tutional system 73 53 20 Military policy 38 28 10 Natural science and mathematics 261 225 36 Technology and industry 490 415 75 Agriculture and cooperatives 284 214 70 Trade and nutrition 51 37 14 Transportation and communications 75 64 11 Community affairs 4 4 ...

Health 215 157 58 Physical education and sports 72 53 19 Scientific and educational texts 397 301 96 Literary criticism 133 55 78 Art 152 118 34 Languages 70 66 4 Artistic and folkloric literature 609 534 75 Juvenile literature 277 146 131 Atheism and religion 8 7 1 General handbooks 2 2 ...

----- ----- ----- TOTAL 4,188 3,157 1,031 -------------------------------------+--------------+--------+--------

The party is the final arbiter regarding the acceptability of work for publication. All party control, however, is theoretically unofficial; censorship exists only in the sense that all power of decision regarding publication is in the hands of party members. The official process for publication is that the writer submits his work to the publishing house.

The publishing house then sends it, with a brief description of its ideological content, to the Committee on Art and Culture. If the book is approved at this stage, it is returned to the publishing house, where it is again checked for its ideological content.

The major criterion for acceptance is the ideological soundness of the work in question. According to a refugee playwright from Bulgaria, "The journalist must praise the party, and government, and criticize the West. The poet, the playwright, the novelist must uphold the communist ideal." Since the works of leading Communists are almost always accepted for publication, one writer has stated; "In Bulgaria dead communist heroes are the safest bet."

The government is actively engaged in attempting to promote Bulgarian books abroad. In the late 1960s and early 1970s books by native authors--although in relatively small numbers--were published in such diverse countries as Great Britain, j.a.pan, France, Turkey, Italy, Iran, Austria, Argentina, and Finland. According to the latest available source on the promotion of Bulgarian books abroad, plans also have been formulated for the publication of books in the United States, Belgium, Brazil, and Syria.

One of the most serious problems in the publishing industry, other than the broad issue of freedom of expression of the writers, is that of a shortage of textbooks. In 1970 the Committee for State Control discovered that courses in 1,013 subjects at the university level had no textbooks whatsoever. In the University of Sofia alone, where approximately 317 subjects were taught, textbooks existed for only 216 of these subjects; roughly half of the books for the 216 subjects that used textbooks were out of print.

LIBRARIES

When the Communists took power in 1944, they began to allocate relatively large sums of money to develop new libraries in both large cities and small villages. By 1971 the country had over 10,000 libraries, whose collections numbered nearly 50 million volumes (see table 14).

The Committee on Art and Culture maintained a number of libraries, including the country's largest, the Bulgarian National Library. Founded in 1878 in Sofia, it contained 814,000 works in 1971, including about 13,000 old and rare volumes, approximately 17,000 graphic works, and some 20,000 photographs and portraits. The library published both a yearbook and a monthly periodical.

The committee maintained two other libraries. One was the Ivan Vazov State Library, situated in Plovdiv, whose collection included a wide variety of periodicals, old and rare books, and archives. The other library under the committee was the Elin Pelin Bulgarian Bibliographical Inst.i.tute, which maintained a record of all printed works in the country and published a monthly bulletin listing all of its publications, an annual yearbook, and a monthly list of all articles published in reviews and journals.

In addition there were research-related libraries maintained by the Academy of Sciences; public school libraries; university libraries; libraries organized in state plants, factories, and cooperative farms; regional libraries; and local libraries.

The major regional libraries were located in Burgas, Ruse, Stara Zagora, Shumen, Varna, Velsko, and Turnovo. The best known local library was the City Library of Sofia, which contained about 452,862 volumes.

_Table 14. Libraries in Bulgaria, 1971_

---------------------+--------------------------------------------- Number Kind of Library -----------+--------+----------+------------- Libraries Books* Readers* Books Lent*

---------------------+-----------+--------+----------+------------- National 1 814 25 189 Local 27 5,287 259 4,807 Reading rooms 4,108 20,387 1,359 20,744 Enterprises and government offices 2,110 6,532 537 4,984 Public schools 3,860 9,336 772 6,653 Universities 23 2,077 84 1,320 Specialized: Science 115 1,409 29 507 Government 35 594 16 282 Party and public organizations 93 804 39 280 Technical 212 864 54 398 Medical 60 405 36 361 Theaters (archives) 133 443 6 34 Educational 14 152 8 57 ------ ------ ----- ------ Total specialized 662 4,671 188 1,919 ------ ------ ----- ------ TOTAL 10,791 49,104 3,224 40,616 ---------------------+-----------+--------+----------+------------- * In thousands.

The so-called public reading room was another form of library. Founded by educated Bulgarians during the Turkish occupation as centers of culture and education, the reading rooms have become quite widespread, particularly in the villages, and supply books to farmworkers and other members of the rural population. In the early 1970s there were 4,108 reading rooms with over 20 million volumes.

FILMS

By 1947, after the new const.i.tution had been enacted, the film industry became a state monopoly. The next year the new Law on Motion Pictures was pa.s.sed, which essentially expanded on the theme of state control. It officially abolished free enterprise in the film industry and prohibited individual activities in the importation and exportation of films and the private operation of movie theaters. The film industry fell under the official control of the Bulgarian Cinematography a.s.sociation, which was under the Department of Motion Pictures of the Committee for Science, Art, and Culture. By 1950 the entire film industry was under the complete control of the Council of Ministers. The Department of Motion Pictures became officially attached to the council.

One of the early laws regarding films stated that "the motion picture must become a real fighting a.s.sistant of the party and the government and be an ardent agitator and propagator of the government policy." The focus of the industry was to be placed on the building of socialism while increasing the country's bonds with the Soviet Union. Early legislation stated that "Soviet films gave immense educational influence and mobilized action and conscious partic.i.p.ation in the building of socialism for still greater friendship with the Soviet Union." This emphasis on the relationship with the Soviet Union was not only ideological. Soviet films also represented approximately 87 percent of the films shown in Bulgaria from 1945 to 1956, and the Bulgarian film industry was in large part a.s.sisted by its film counterpart in the Soviet Union.

The film industry expanded quickly under the new government. There were 187 films produced in 1960 (see table 15). By 1965 there were approximately 2,000 motion picture houses, roughly 83 percent of which were in the villages.

_Table 15. Bulgaria, Films Produced and Translated, Selected Years, 1939-71_

-------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------- 1939 1948 1960 1971 -------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------- Full length 3 ... 11 18 Art (3) ... (10) (16) Doc.u.mentary ... ... (1) (2) Television 0 0 0 19 Short and medium length ... 19 110 252 Doc.u.mentary ... (15) (36) (60) Popular science ... (4) (32) (61) Technical education ... ... (16) (21) Animated ... ... (8) (16) Propaganda ... ... (18) (94) Previews ... 53 66 58 --- --- --- --- TOTAL 3 72 187 347 -------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------

In mid-1973 information on the film industry indicated that the production, distribution, importation, exportation, and exhibition of films were still controlled by the Bulgarian Cinematography a.s.sociation.

This agency was subdivided into three sections: the chief studio at the Bulyana film center where feature films and cartoons were produced; a second studio that produced doc.u.mentary shorts and popular science films for schools; and a third studio that specialized in newsreels.

Relative to other European countries there was little importation or exportation of films. In mid-1973 data suggested that between 100 and 150 feature films were imported per year. These films generally came from the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, although a few were imported from Italy, France, and Great Britain. The first Bulgarian film to be exported was _The Chain_, which was shown in Czechoslovakia in 1964. The same year another Bulgarian film, _The Intransigents_, was shown in Ireland, and still another, _The Peach Thief_, was shown in Great Britain. The precise number of Bulgarian films exported was unknown, although one writer claimed that in 1973 Bulgarian films were viewed in about seventy countries.

In mid-1973 the subject matter of Bulgarian films was characteristically contemporary, and there was little focus on historical events. Although a few historical films had been produced, they were in the minority. A few films had dealt with the subject of Bulgarian resistance to the n.a.z.is, but they too were relatively scarce. More films were devoted to the so-called people's heroic struggles. Most films in Bulgaria, however, dealt with contemporary life in the country and current events.

The overwhelming majority of these films treated the conflicts and issues of Bulgarian youth.

SECTION III. ECONOMIC

CHAPTER 12

CHARACTER AND STRUCTURE OF THE ECONOMY

Under comprehensive control of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary), the economy was severely strained in mid-1973 as the result of the dual task imposed upon it by the BKP leadership to increase productivity rapidly and substantially and to provide a growing volume of consumer goods and services under a newly announced program for raising the population's low standard of living. A first step in improving the living standard took the form of an upward adjustment in the lowest wage brackets and a broadening of social security provisions.

Further improvements, however, were made conditional upon attainment of the productivity and production goals.

The development of the economy and of the consumer program faced severe limitations because of the inadequacy of domestic resources, including basic raw materials, fuels and power, skilled workers, and trained professional personnel. Economic development was heavily dependent on financial and technical aid from the Soviet Union, and dependence upon that country was to be increased in the 1971-75 period. Efforts to overcome persistent and growth-r.e.t.a.r.ding difficulties in the economy led to frequent organizational and procedural changes in the economic mechanism, the structure of which in mid-1973 was still in flux as a result of decisions taken by the BKP in 1965 and in 1968.

The main trend in reshaping the organization and management of the economy was one of concentration and centralization--a trend that led to the creation of huge trusts in industry and distribution and of vast agroindustrial complexes in agriculture. In the process, divisions and lines of authority were blurred, and violations of government directives were frequent because of their complexity and the constraints they placed on the day-to-day operation of economic enterprises.

In the search for a more efficient organization and management pattern, heavy reliance was placed on the introduction of complex automation into all economic processes with the aid of a nationwide computer network--a system of automation that would extend from the highest levels of national economic planning down to the individual factory shop and cow barn. No ideas have been advanced, however, on how complex automation would solve the basic problem of the economy--the widely acknowledged and pervasive lack of incentives to work. The methods used to grapple with this problem were limited to a tinkering with the wage and bonus system, administrative sanctions, political indoctrination, and exhortations.

ORGANIZATION

State ownership of the means of production predominates in the economy.

Collective ownership has prevailed in agriculture, but it may be gradually eliminated in the course of the agricultural reorganization initiated in 1970 (see ch. 13). Private ownership of productive resources is limited to subsidiary farm or garden enterprises of collective farmers, industrial and state farmworkers, and artisans; a small number of individual farms on marginal lands; and noncollectivized artisan shops. In 1971 private ownership encompa.s.sed about 10 percent of the agricultural land but only 2.5 percent of the fixed a.s.sets used in production. Private ownership of personal property and homes is allowed.