Bulgaria As I perceived in 1986

BULGARIA

Smashing Myths

By Camil Parkhe

From the very day the first socialist nation came into being curiosity has been gathered into the minds of the people living in the capitalist or non-socialist countries about the pattern of the socialist system and also about the people purportedly living as per the ideals of Karl Marx. Due to the several novels and books regularly published in the West, the curiosity is now mixed with several notions about the socialist pattern such as the uniformity of life-style, close network of the intelligence people on the style of the KGB, total absence of freedom of expression etc.

These were some of the notions in my mind too when I was selected for the training course in journalism, organized for the members of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists in Sofia, the capital of Socialist peoples’ Republic of Bulgaria. The short visit to Moscow, capital of Russia before the long stay in different parts of Bulgaria, did give me an opportunity to know the socialist society as well as to verify many of the prejudices for and against the socialist pattern.

Sofia, situated near the Vitosha mountain is the beautiful capital of Bulgaria rightly deserving its motto of ‘Ever growing never old’. With its spacious and clean streets, underground passages for crossing the streets and the long pedestrian zones right in the heart of the city it easily wins the heart of any foreigner. Though a small Balken state, Bulgaria has a motley typography and interesting small towns having their own peculiarity which has helped Bulgaria to compete ably in the field of international tourism. It has the scenic range of Balken mountains, the famous valley of Bulgaria roses, and towns like Gabrovo the city of humour with its international House for Humour and Satire. Plovdiv a town has a large portion of its residential houses declared as a national museum Varna and Albena have beautiful beaches.

Though a socialist state, private houses still continue to exist in Bulgaria. Nevertheless, one cannot own many houses with the motive of earning money by letting them. The entire agriculture land and all the industries are owned by the state, leaving no scope for exploitation of labourers or the consumers in any way. Thus, profit not being the sole motive one can buy any commodity in any part of the country with the same price. The state-controlled economy facilities uniform service conditions and wage and welfare facilities to various grades of employees. Since all existing rules are implemented in all units in the country, the trade unions in Bulgaria are left with a rather different role to play.

All shops in Bulgaria, whether selling electronic goods or cold drinks and ice-creams, are owned by the state and yet one is pleasantly surprised to see that the treatment of the customers is the same as one would get at a private shop in a capitalist country! The striking features of the majority of the shops, be they in the city or sub-urban areas is that they do not have either metal shutters or wooden doors but only glasses”. While closing the shops at 7.30 pm. The salesman/saleswoman only locks the glass-door. The outsiders can see all the commodities at the counters illuminated by the bright light kept on in the shop till the next morning. Despite this, there are barely any cases of shops being located in a riot let alone a robbery at a single shop.”

Abetting of violence encouraging groupism of any sort racial or social, is legally banned in Bulgaria. Having almost no reported cases of theft and violence, the Bulgarian newspapers too have quite different features compared to those in other countries. The newspapers there mainly deal with development stories cultural happenings, civic issues (with criticism of the concerned department whenever required!) and international affairs. Contrary to the popular myth, not all publications in this tiny socialist state are mouth pieces of the Communist Party or filled with party propaganda. There are many details and weeklies, competing with each others and published by the different organizations such as the Bulgarian Union of Journalists, and the Tourist Organisation.

In fact, during our long tour of the remote parts of Bulgaria we noticed that care was taken to satisfy the basic needs such as food clothing and shelter of almost every Bulgarian. Since the country is facing an acute problem of under population, there is absolutely no trace of unemployment. All the agricultural works as well as works in various industrial units are being mechanized marvelous to combat the crisis of the shortage of manpower.

True to the Marxian ideal, Bulgarians have successes in minimizing the inequality among men. As a result, we Indian journalists often were at a loss to distinguish between the director / manager of an industrial unit and its door-keeper since both of them wore equality fine clothes. Nor did we notice the existence of the so-called social rank between persons having different jobs. The director and the driver of the firm dined together and even a waitress received the same kind of treatment as any other person of different profession, such as a teacher or an interpreter would receive.

A fat salary to the employee in the technical section could be one of the important factors responsible to reduce the social rank. For example, a driver or a mechanic in Bulgaria can earn a higher salary than the manager. With the facility of over-time. Nevertheless a check is also kept on the accumulation of money by illegal means. If one lives extravagantly, beyond one’s conceivable income, the authorities have their own means to bring the person to book.

Being a member of the Warsaw pact and one of the staunchest ally of the USSR, many developmental projects have been under taken in Bulgaria during the last two scores with the help of the Soviet Russia. And the Bulgarians are not ashamed of the association with the Big Brother since Soviet help has contributed largely to the all-round development of this pre-world war II backward nation. And Bulgaria’s association with Russia dates back even to the Russia Tsar’s period. The country was liberated from the 450 year Turkish yoke by Russia in 1878 !

Usually the socialist countries try to satisfy their needs by arranging the export and import of goods among the socialist nations themselves and giving commercial benefits to the non-socialist nations only when there is no other alternative. No wonder, we 28 journalist were flown from Delhi to Sofia and back by the Russia Aeroflot and Balkan Airlines though we could have utilized the services of Air-India at least to Moscow! Recently the foreign trade and cultural exchange between India and Bulgaria is also on the rise. And Goa too had closer links with Bulgaria when iron ore from the local mining industry was imported by Bulgaria till recently.

Having a history of 1,300 years and being for many centuries under foreign rule, Bulgaria accepted the socialist system immediately after the victory over the fascist regime at the regime at the end of the World War II. A purely agrarian society and one of the most backward nations in eastern Europe, Bulgaria has now catapulted tremendously in various fields with the help of its staunch ally, the Soviet Union.