Description
The book traces the history of communist Bulgaria from 1944 to 1989. A detailed narrative-cum-study of the history of a political system, it provides a chronological overview of the building of the socialist state from the ground up, its entrenchment into the peaceful routine of everyday life, its inner crises, and its gradual decline and self-destruction. The book is the definitive and the most complete guide to Bulgaria under communism and how the communist system operates on a day-to-day level.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Historical background; I: The times of high Stalinism; 1: Bulgaria in the shadow of Stalin; 2: Georgi Dimitrov and “the people’s democracy”; 3: Bulgaria in the years of classical Stalinism; 4: Building the communist economy in Bulgaria; 5: The Bulgarian village under communism; 6: The goryani; 7: The sovietization of Bulgaria; 8: State Security within the structure of the communist state; 9: Education and culture within the system of the communist state; 10: Communist Bulgaria’s foreign policy and the Cold War; Part II: From sheepish de-Stalinization toward the consolidation of the regime and its penetration into everyday life; 11: After Stalin; 12: The course toward accelerated economic development and reform of the economic model; 13: Sovietization in the shadow of Khrushchev and the Brezhnev Doctrine; 14: In search of a communist model of consumer society; 15: Processes within society; 16: The ghosts of national communism and pressure on Muslim communities; 17: The church on the periphery of society; 18: Processes within the culture of “real socialism”; Part III: The collapse and peaceful withdrawal of communism in Bulgaria; 19: The deepening crises and the paralyzation of the regime; 20: The limits of the communist model and an evaluation of the regime’s social policy; 21: Gorbachev’s perestroika and its influence on processes in Bulgaria; 22: The beginning of the Great Transition; Timeline of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria; Leading historical figures from the period
