Area Handbook For Bulgaria Part 7

Sofia was founded by the Thracians and has had a continuous history of some importance for 2,000 years. No trace of its original founders remains in the city, although it retained its Thracian name, Serdica, while it was a part of the Roman Empire. It is situated in a sheltered basin at the base of the Vitosha range, a location that has been both strategically and esthetically desirable. Long-established communications routes cross at the city. The most traveled and most famous is that from Belgrade to Istanbul. It is Sofia's main street for that portion of its route. At the city it crosses the north-south route from the Aegean Sea to the Danube River that uses the Struma and Iskur river valleys. Some of the other routes that radiate from the city, particularly those to the Black Sea coastal cities, are of more local importance than the international routes. Sofia's pleasant climate, plus its strategic location, made the city a contender in the selection of a capital for Rome in Emperor Constantine's reign. Its hot springs were an added attraction to the Romans, and their baths remain.

Sofia was a thriving city under the Romans. Attila the Hun destroyed it in the fifth century A.D., but it was rebuilt in the sixth and seventh centuries, when its population grew to about 40,000. It declined again under the Ottomans, and in 1878, when it was liberated, it had only some 15,000-20,000 inhabitants. It has grown rapidly since becoming the capital of the modern state.

Sofia is the city's fourth name. Saint Sophia's sixth-century church occupies the highest land in the city and is one of the most famous of its landmarks, although the city was named for her several centuries after the church was built. As the capital, the city has most of the nation's administration and has become the educational and cultural center of the country. It retains much charm and beauty, in spite of its rapid growth. From its hundreds of small parks and thousands of trees, it claims the right to call itself the garden city.

Plovdiv is the second most important city. It is older than Sofia, having been established in the fourth century B.C. by Philip of Macedon; it was first named Philippopolis after him. On the plain and astride the route from Belgrade to Istanbul, it has been exposed to all who have pa.s.sed that way, for good or ill, and this is reflected in its violent history. It has been captured and devastated in turn by Greeks, Romans, Goths, Huns, and Turks. It was also ravished on four different occasions by Christian armies during the Crusades.

Plovdiv has continued to be an important commercial city, having more rail lines radiating from it than Sofia. It also has a university and some of the country's most important museums and art treasures. The old town center is typically Macedonian and, although it was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1928, part of it has been termed a national monument, to be reworked only for its restoration.

Veliko Turnovo, situated astride a mountain stream on the northern slopes of the central Stara Planina, was the fortress capital of the medieval Second Bulgarian Kingdom. It was also the site of the first const.i.tuent a.s.sembly held as the country was liberated from the Turks, and the Turnovo Const.i.tution was adopted there in 1879. It remains an artistic and cultural center, and some of its fine examples of Bulgarian renaissance architecture have survived.

Varna and Burgas are the chief Black Sea ports, and Ruse is the only major Bulgarian port on the Danube River. Burgas is a young city, growing to most of its size in the late 1800s, and it was a more important port than Varna until the 1950s. Varna, however, attracted the naval academy, has become the naval base, and has acquired most of the shipbuilding industry. Ruse has also grown rapidly. In addition to its river trade, the first bridge across the river between Bulgaria and Romania was built just north of the city.

A number of new towns have been built since World War II, in some cases from the ground up. These include some at industrial complexes, others at resorts. Madan is a new mining center in the Rodopi; Dimitrovgrad is a new industrial town on the Maritsa River; and there are several mountain and seaside resort cities. Zlatni Pya.s.sutsi (Golden Sands), opened in 1956, is one of a group of Black Sea resort cities that, upon opening, could accommodate tens of thousands of holiday vacationers.

POPULATION

Structure

In spite of its three most recent wars, comparatively few Bulgarians live outside the country in the areas adjacent to its boundaries.

Bulgarian sources estimate the total number of Bulgarians abroad at approximately 1 million. Many of these are in Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia and are, in fact, Macedonians who may or may not prefer to be called Bulgarians. Other Bulgarians are in Greek Thrace, and a few are in Romanian Dobrudzha and in Soviet Bessarabia. A scattering are settled in other Eastern European countries, Australia, and North and South America. There are only a few in the United States.

When The Macedonians and Gypsies in the country--whom Bulgarian official sources include as fully integrated into the Bulgarian population--are not counted separately, Bulgarians const.i.tute about 91 percent of the population. The approximately 700,000 Turks out-number all other non-Bulgarians in the population by a large margin. Small numbers of Greeks, Romanians, Armenians, and Jews make up a total of only about 1 percent (see ch. 4).

In the absence of official statistics, the number of Macedonians and Gypsies are impossible to estimate accurately. It is probable that there are a few more Gypsies than Macedonians and that they total about 5 percent of the population. Pomaks (Muslim Bulgarians), who tend to live separately, have been persecuted on occasion and have represented a social problem. Some authorities have listed them as a separate ethnic group but, with diminishing emphasis on religion, local authorities attempt to make no distinctions between them and the rest of the population.

Bulgaria is one of an extremely few countries in the world where the males in the population have outnumbered the females over a considerable portion of its modern history. This has been a phenomenon that could not be adequately explained by events or circ.u.mstances; but of nine censuses taken between 1887 and 1965, only in those taken in 1920 and 1947 did the females const.i.tute a majority. These two years following the great wars were undoubtedly atypical in that, although Bulgaria did not suffer great manpower losses from war casualties, the males were probably more mobile, and many of them may not have returned to the country or, in the immediate aftermath of the wars, may not yet have settled down (see table 1).

_Table 1. Bulgaria, Population by Age and s.e.x, 1973 Estimate_

---------+----------------+----------------+----------------+------------ Number of People Male Female in Age Group Percentage of ---------------- Females per Age Group (in thousands) Total Population (in thousands) 100 Males ---------+----------------+----------------+----------------+------------ Under 5 676 7.8 348 328 94 5-9 609 7.0 313 296 94 10-14 647 7.5 331 316 95 15-19 665 7.7 340 325 96 20-24 703 8.1 357 346 97 25-29 629 7.3 317 312 98 30-34 558 6.4 280 278 99 35-39 616 7.1 310 306 99 40-44 649 7.5 327 322 98 45-49 668 7.7 334 334 100 50-54 467 5.4 231 236 102 55-59 421 4.9 210 211 100 60-64 460 5.3 225 235 104 65-69 372 4.3 178 194 109 70-74 264 3.0 122 142 116 75 year and over 263 3.0 110 153 139 TOTAL. 8,667 100.0 4,333 4,334 100*

---------+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------- * Overall ratio for total population.

Source: Adapted from G.o.dfrey Baldwin, (ed.), _International Population Reports_, (U.S. Department of Commerce, Series P-91, No. 18), Washington, 1969.

The male majority, however, narrowed and has apparently evaporated for the foreseeable future. The reversal reflects a change in life expectancy statistics. Around the turn of the century average life expectancy was forty years, and females are estimated to have outlived males by less than six months. Seventy years later, average life expectancy had increased by twenty-five years, but females were outliving males by an average of about four years. Projected from the 1965 census and from vital statistics information acc.u.mulated since that time, numerical equality between the s.e.xes came about in the late 1960s, and in mid-1973 it was estimated that females outnumbered males by the small majority of 4.334 million to 4.333 million.

Another exceptional feature of the Bulgarian population is the unusual number of very old people. Nearly 1 percent of the population in 1970 was eighty years old or older, and more than 500 people were centenarians. Of these, three-fifths were women.

People in rural areas, after having long outnumbered those in cities and towns, became the minority in 1969. More than four-fifths of the population was rural at the time of independence in 1878, and more than three-quarters was still rural in 1947. The movement to the towns accelerated with the post-World War II industrialization. Towns that attracted industries have grown by factors of five or more since 1920, and by far the most dramatic growth has occurred since 1947.

With 8.7 million people occupying 42,800 square miles in 1972, the average population density for the country was 203 persons per square mile. Regions where the densities were highest include the Sofia Basin and the southwestern portion of the Thracian Plain. The population was more dense than average in the western and central portion of the Danubian plateau, in the lower eastern Rodopi, and in the vicinities of Varna and Burgas on the Black Sea coast. It was least dense in the higher mountains, particularly in the high western Rodopi, the Pirin and the Rila, and along the narrow high ridge of the Stara Planina.

Dynamics

Warfare that was endemic to the Balkan Peninsula throughout much of its early history, exploitation by the Ottomans, and living conditions that contributed to a short life expectancy served to hold down the population of the area before independence. Since 1878, although the country has partic.i.p.ated in four wars and most migratory movements have been at Bulgaria's expense, the population has tripled.

Growth has been comparatively steady during the century of independence.

Its rate has fluctuated but not widely. Until 1910 it was high. It dropped during the 1910-20 decade, which included the Balkan wars and World War I. The period of greatest growth occurred between the great wars, and the three decades since 1941 have been the periods of least growth.

Vital statistics supplied by the Bulgarian government to the United Nations in 1972 indicated an annual growth rate of 0.7 percent. This was based on 16.3 births per each 1,000 of the population, as against 9.1 deaths. Infant mortality, included in the overall death rate, was 27.3 deaths during the first year for each 1,000 live births. In early 1973 the government was alarmed at an apparent change in the statistical trend. Complete information for 1971 showed that, instead of 16.3 births per 1,000, the actual figure was 15.9. Indications were that in 1972 it was dropping to 15.4.

Internal migrations since 1878 have consisted largely of the initial movement of the rural population from the hills to the plains and the later movement of people from the rural areas to the towns. External migrations have been more complex. The earliest occurred in the aftermath of the liberation; later ones have resulted from the animosities and territorial changes a.s.sociated with the various wars in which the country has been involved.

Having occupied the territory, Turks left in wholesale numbers when they lost control of it. More of them departed during the Balkan wars. Large groups emigrated in the 1920s and 1930s, and more were forced to leave after World War II. Estimates as to the numbers involved in each move vary widely; the two largest after 1880 were those in the 1920s and after World War II, and the total in all emigrations of Turks probably equals or exceeds the 700,000 that remain in the country. Natural population increases have been such that, over the long term, the actual number of Turks in the country has changed relatively little.

There have been smaller population exchanges with each of the other neighbors. In the mid-1920s about 250,000 Bulgarians moved from Greek Thrace into Bulgaria, and about 40,000 Greeks left Bulgaria for Greece.

After 1940, when southern Dobrudzha was annexed from Romania, some 110,000 Romanians were exchanged for about 62,000 Bulgarians.

Macedonians, also in considerable numbers, have chosen between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, requiring many of them to move.

The Jewish people, faring much better in Bulgaria during World War II than they did in Adolph Hitler's Germany or in most of the countries overrun by the Germans, have nonetheless emigrated to Israel in large numbers. Before that war there were about 50,000 of them in the country, but 90 percent or more of them emigrated during the early postwar years.

All of the major emigrations were completed before 1960. There appear to be no reasons why others of similar proportions should occur in the foreseeable future.

Working Force

In mid-1972 there were 5.8 million people in the working-age group (fifteen to sixty-four years), although the legal retirement age in most employment situations is sixty or sixty-five for males and five years younger for females. About 4.4 million--just over one-half of the total population and three-quarters of those of working age--const.i.tuted the labor force. Population projections indicate that in the ten-year period after 1972 the working-age group will increase by 0.3 million, but a large percentage of the increase will be in the segment of the group aged fifty to sixty-four.

About 95 percent of the males between twenty-five and sixty-four years of age are economically active. The percentage of economically active females is lower, but they have const.i.tuted over 40 percent of the labor force. About 36.5 percent of the economically active are employed in agricultural fields; of the remaining 63.5 percent, about one-half are employed in industry. The others are in various service, administrative, or other miscellaneous activities.

Because the country was late in emerging from a predominantly agricultural economy, its working force has had little technological experience. Since World War II, however, schools have been increasingly oriented to train young people to become technologically competent, and some success in this direction has been achieved. Whether or not the working force is being used as effectively as is possible under the circ.u.mstances is being debated, but the government finds a decrease in the birthrate and its possible limiting effect on industrial production a cause for considerable concern.

TRANSPORTATION

Railroads

The first railroad built in the country was constructed by the British in 1866 and connected Ruse on the Danube River with Varna on the Black Sea. The famous and romantic Orient Express and the Berlin-to-Baghdad route have used a common line through Bulgaria, entering the country from Belgrade. The route crosses the western mountains at the Dragoman Pa.s.s, continues through Sofia, Plovdiv, and down the Maritsa River valley to Edirne and Istanbul in Turkey.

The rail network consists of about 3,775 miles of track, about 2,620 of which were being operated in 1970. Of the portion in use, about 2,470 miles were standard gauge, and 150 were narrow gauge. Approximately 135 miles were double track, and a little more than 500 had been electrified. Because of the terrain, the system has a large number of bridges and tunnels and has been constructed with tighter curves and steeper gradients than are allowed when terrain features are less extreme. Most of the some 1,600 bridges are short, but at Ruse, where the Danube is crossed, the river is 1- miles wide. Most of the approximately 175 tunnels are also short. One is 3- miles in length, but they total only about thirty miles (see fig. 4).

Route mileage is adequate to meet the requirements of the country. It will probably not be expanded further; shorter spurs become uneconomic and are abandoned as motor transport takes over short-haul traffic.

Programmed modernization includes improving roadbeds, ties, and track to achieve a higher load-bearing capacity. Quant.i.ty installation of continuously welded rail is also underway, and the busiest of the lines are being electrified.

Although the system is adequate, performs its services reasonably well, and continues to be the backbone of domestic transport, it suffers in bare statistical comparisons with the other carriers. Highway transport may carry a cargo to the rail station and get credit for a second shipment when it moves the same goods from the train to its final destination. Trucks also carry local freight more directly and much more simply than railroads for short hauls. Ton mileage statistics of the merchant marine are similarly misleading. Although the railroads remain by far the most important domestic carrier, their share of total cargo carried and their share of ton mileage continues to decrease (see table 2).

The railroads also continue to give way to motor vehicles in numbers of pa.s.sengers carried. Between 1960 and 1970 the situation changed radically; on the earlier date the railroads carried more pa.s.sengers than buses did, but a decade later they carried hardly more than one-third as many. In long-distance pa.s.senger travel, the railroads remained the major carrier by a narrow margin in 1970, although the difference was narrowing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Figure 4. Communications Systems of Bulgaria, 1973_]

_Table 2. Use of Transportation Facilities in Bulgaria, 1960 and 1970_

-------------------+-------------------------+------------------------- Total Freight* Ton Miles**

Cargo Traffic: ------------+------------ ------------+------------ 1960 1970 1960 1970 -------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------ Railroads 38.4 68.2 4,360 8,650 Motor transport 128.3 492.8 1,270 4,940 Seaborne shipping 1.1 14.5 1,530 24,375 Inland waterways 1.6 3.7 384 1,145 Air transport 0.007 0.083 0.2 9 -------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------