In 1954, Zhivkov began to lead the Bulgarian People's Republic, and Bulgaria underwent three successive reforms, achieving remarkable achievements in economic and social development. But at the same time, Zhivkov's own personality cult intensified, coupled with the drastic changes in Eastern Europe at the end of the 20th century, the whole of Red Bulgaria ushered in a crisis and a turning point, and in this way, today's Republic of Bulgaria was born in a series of political turmoil...
Reforms and achievements in the 80s
From 1978 to 1981, the Bulgarian Communist Party reformed the economic management system and implemented a new economic system, revising and adjusting planned work, economic activities, price regulations, wage systems, financial systems, and educational systems. It was at this time that the contract system began to be implemented in the Bulgarian agricultural sector.
People's Republic of Bulgaria
Bulgarian scholars refer to the measures and regulations of economic restructuring during this period as the "new economic method". Its main principles are as follows: economic organization always practices economic accounting and complete self-financing; Flexibly use economic levers such as prices, profits, credit, taxes, contracts, foreign exchange, etc.; strengthening democratic principles in planning and better combining centralization and democracy; Income is received by individuals according to the quantity and quality of work.
In October 1981, in his speech, the Bulgarian leader once again stressed that state ownership and cooperative ownership were approaching and merging, and proposed that the state is the owner of socialist property, and the production collectives and laborers who use and operate this property in economic organizations are the operators of socialist property.
This theory of the separation of socialist property ownership and management rights indicates that Bulgaria is undergoing a new major reform to develop its economy! And from the mid-80s, Bulgaria gradually changed its view of "developed socialist society" and began to give new interpretations, believing that the construction of "developed socialist society" took longer than originally expected, and began to abandon this reference.
All this shows that the Bulgarian leadership at this time realized the mistakes of the previous "rush" and began to move along the right path. Against this background, Bulgaria's economic development in the 80s of the 20th century was promoted.
From March 31 to April 4, 1981, the 12th Congress of the CPP was held, which discussed and adopted the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1981-1985). The main tasks of the Five-Year Plan are to promote the intensification of the national economy, implement the new economic measures and continue to implement the line of meeting the material, spiritual and social needs of the people.
However, as soon as the Eighth Five-Year Plan was introduced, it encountered major difficulties such as a harsh domestic climate and international energy shortage. In fact, since the second half of the 70s, the prices of raw materials and fuels on the capitalist world market have been constantly rising, and energy is extremely tight. Therefore, Bulgaria in the Eighth Five-Year Plan can only reduce the speed of development and seek progress in stability.
By the mid-80s of the 20th century, Bulgaria was already one of the fastest countries in the world in terms of economic growth, especially industrial growth. And the gap between urban and rural areas in Bulgaria has been further narrowed, and the process of rural urbanization has become more obvious. With the increase of people's income, the improvement of cultural level and the improvement of living conditions, televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, cars and telephones have been popularized in thousands of households.
It can be said that Bulgaria has made remarkable economic achievements, all of which have changed the face of Bulgaria's poverty and backwardness, although there is still a considerable gap between it and the developed capitalist countries or some socialist countries in Eastern Europe, but the development speed of red Bulgaria in the past 40 years is visible to the naked eye.
Bulgarian streets of the last century
In 1986, the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Bulgaria formulated the Ninth Five-Year Plan for 1986-1990 and the Programme for Social, Economic and Cultural Development to 2000. At the Politburo meeting after the conclusion of the 13th National Congress, the CPC made a major adjustment to the economic development targets at the end of the 20th century, raised various indicators, increased the number of units layer by layer, and even put forward the slogan of quadrupling the GDP and social labor productivity.
To this end, a "blind" merger of various sectors has also been carried out within Bulgaria in order to fully align with the new economic development goals. But according to Bulgarian scholars, the potential for Bulgarian economic development in the mid-80s has dried up: all production equipment is outdated, the level of science and technology is decades behind that of the developed capitalist countries, the overall level of economic development and social labor productivity is far from that of Western countries, and Bulgaria's external debt is as high as 9 billion US dollars!
Therefore, since 1986, the speed of economic development in Bulgaria has been significantly reduced. Science and technology are relatively backward, human and material resources are insufficient, the area of cultivated land is constantly decreasing, bureaucracy and administrative orders, and new cults of personality are gradually becoming more and more prominent...
Zhivkov
And the current state of Bulgaria's political system has clearly constrained further reform of the economic system, and in order to change this situation, Zhivkov, as the leader of Bulgaria, had to put forward a new idea of political reform again...
Zhivkov and the "July Idea"
In the 70s and 80s of the 20th century, the reform of Bulgaria's political system mainly involved the transformation of party-government relations, adjustment and streamlining of institutions, decentralization of power, reform of the electoral system and cadre system, promotion of socialist democracy, and improvement of the legal system. However, these reforms lagged far behind the reform of the economic system, so by the late 80s, the current state of the Bulgarian political system had clearly restricted the reform of the economic system.
Gorbachev
By the mid-80s of the 20th century, after the reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were fully implemented, leaders such as Honecker, Husack, and Zhivkov remained in a "conservative" position. Under pressure at home and abroad, they had to come up with new reform plans.
In May-June 1987, Bulgarian leader Zhivkov visited China and the Federal Republic of Germany, and he was greatly touched by the miracle of economic development in two countries with different social systems and the full spirit of the people. So he decided to put forward his "new theory" of socialism, accelerate the formulation of a reform strategy, and embark on the road of "thorough reform"!
In July 1987, in his opening speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bulgaria, Zhivkov boldly asked the following question: Why do we claim that socialism is a progressive social system, when this system is in fact in the position of a posterity? Why are we failing in terms of technological progress? Why, despite our commitments, have we failed to guarantee a high standard of living for our people? Why haven't we created a new and higher type of democracy? Why is there corruption? Why is there a disconnect between ideal and reality? Why is the cult of personality making a comeback, including for me?
Subsequently, on the basis of Zhivkov's report, the plenary session adopted the "General Principles of the Concept of Further Building Socialism in Bulgaria", referred to as the "July Concept"! The document presents a comprehensive view of the reform of the Bulgarian socialist model and advocates the implementation of a new model of the socialist system.
Zhivkov at his peak
In other words, the "July Concept" was an attempt to find Bulgaria's own socialist model, emphasizing the principle of returning government to the people and "socialist autonomy", and began a more serious reform of the political and economic system. Subsequently, in August 1987, the Bulgarian National Assembly adopted a series of laws that initiated a large-scale restructuring of State institutions and introduced a new regional division to strengthen local self-government.
This kind of political reform ideas and steps exceeded the expectations of the Soviet Union and most Eastern European countries at that time, so Gorbachev and others of the Soviet Union criticized Zhivkov for wanting to become a small Germany or a small Japan in the Balkans and wanted to turn to the West!
Gorbachev
So in October 1987, Zhivkov was called to Moscow, and Gorbachev directly criticized Bulgaria for trying to carry out the "Great Leap Forward" and "democratization." Zhivkov, on the other hand, argued that he wanted to "revive" the party and socialism in order to "change" and "save" them.
In January 1989, the Bulgarian Government published Decree No. 56 on Economic Activity, which allows the establishment of companies on the basis of any ownership (state, cooperative, private, mixed economy, etc.) and the carrying out of activities for the purpose of the private economy!
On the surface, Bulgaria has embarked on drastic reforms in the political sphere, but in fact, the "July Concept" does not touch on fundamental institutional issues, but only changes the "form", without the slightest radical reform of the social system such as ownership, the ruling party and the superstructure!
Group photo of leaders of Warsaw Pact member states, second from left is Zhivkov
Although Zhivkov wanted to promote social autonomy through these changes, in order to increase the economic vitality of the country and improve the efficiency of the political system, avoiding the outbreak of a general crisis. But he could not have imagined that it was these measures that caused the chaos in the management of the country and the economy!
Zhivkov himself pointed out that "not only the Soviet leadership was opposed to the idea of the July plenum, but also the revolt came first and foremost from the bureaucratic stratum of the party, state and social groups." Therefore, the reason for the failure of Zhivkov's reforms in the final analysis is that it came too late and was implemented too incompletely, and the future and implementation were overturned by the new trend of reform...
The opposition took the stage
the 1948 conflict between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia; events in Poland and Hungary in 1956; the entry of the Soviet Union into Czechoslovakia in 1968; In 1980 the Polish Solidarity movement... All this has left extremely serious wounds on the social and political life of the socialist countries of Eastern Europe and has put socialism through tests again and again.
The Soviet Union entered Czechoslovakia
But what really posed a threat to the socialist system in Eastern Europe was the opposition organizations and their activities that emerged in Eastern European countries in the late 80s of the 20th century. Of course, there were no real opposition organizations and dissident movements in Bulgaria, but dissidents within the party.
By the mid-80s of the 20th century, the Turks in Bulgaria were the first to attack: demanding that their Arabic names be restored and allowed to go to Turkey for "sightseeing" and visiting relatives, which caused social unrest in which more than 300,000 people emigrated from the country.
At this time, some large and medium-sized cities in Bulgaria also established "ecological clubs" to oppose the serious pollution of the urban ecological environment by large industrial and mining enterprises. It is because of these people's calls that organizations such as opposing groups, independent unions and "ecological openness" clubs have slowly emerged.
Of all the dissidents, liberalized intellectuals are the most prominent. They can be broadly divided into the following categories:
1. Old party members and cadres of the literary and artistic circles and the press who were dissatisfied with Zhivkov's establishment of personal prestige, such as the famous poet Radovsky, the painter Rusev, the journalist Topancharov, etc.
Selected Poems of Radewski
2. Scholars, professors and journalists who make good-faith criticisms of their work out of concern for the cause of the country and the party, such as economics professor Popov, philosophy professor Vlkanov, journalists Bakish, Tabuev, etc.
3. Some people who advocate "creative freedom" and even demand the "abolition of the party's leadership over literature and art" who are seriously influenced by the bourgeois liberalization trend, such as the poets Dimitrova and Lalin.
4. A very small number of people who openly oppose the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist system.
Influenced by the reforms and openness of the Soviet Union in the mid-80s, and instigated by the Western powers, some of the above-mentioned liberalized intellectuals began to expose social problems and contradictions more boldly, criticize undesirable social phenomena, and expand their influence and propagate their ideas through their own works, domestic and foreign newspapers and news media.
At the beginning of 1988, Bulgaria established its first dissident organization, the "Independent Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Bulgaria". Most of the members of the organization are former political prisoners, trying to use the intervention of Western countries to achieve the purpose of "defending human rights".
This was followed by the "Committee for the Defence of Religious Rights, Freedom of Conscience and Spiritual Wealth" and the "Support" for Independent Trade Unions. In 1988, under the impetus of the Luzhai City Ecological Protection Organization, the first real political opposition organization "Bulgarian Club for Openness and Reform" was born!
The core of the club is a number of professors and staff of Sofia University, which has also become a centre of activity for Bulgarian dissidents. When the club was first founded, it had 81 founders, many of whom were old communists and even some "veteran anti-fascist fighters", including the future Bulgarian President Zeliu Zherev.
The programme of the "Bulgarian Club for Openness and Reform" states: "It will work exclusively on the basis and within the limits of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, comply with the laws in force, fully support the resolutions of the July 1987 plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bulgaria and strive for the realization of the political vision of the July plenum".
So the club was not opposed to the ruling Communist Party and the socialist system at first, but only wanted to revive socialism through reform activities. But its program and activities soon spread to the West, which put the Bulgarian authorities in an extremely awkward position. For this reason, the Politburo and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee held several meetings to discuss and study the activities of the club, but to little effect.
Bulgarian dissidents were thus divided into two categories: non-communists (who opposed the ruling Communist Party and the socialist system, becoming later democrats and anti-communists) and reformist communists (who opposed Zhivkov's personal dictatorship and advocated social democratization).
In this way, under the joint efforts of the opposition inside and outside the party, Bulgaria, which was originally on the socialist road, was instantly pushed to the cusp of social upheaval, and the entire Bulgarian state and society were facing a storm of "changing days"...
So how did Red Bulgaria come to an end in the upheaval in Eastern Europe? And who is at the helm of Bulgaria after Zhivkov? How did Bulgaria establish the capitalist system step by step?
Stay tuned to this series, and stay tuned for the next installment!