About Bulgaria

Bulgaria is a South-East European country with a territory of 110,910 sq km and a population of 7,537,929. Situated in the Central Balkans, it has never tried to 'escape' from its Balkan geography and identity - an identity that is thought to be historically and culturally negotiated with Europe. Geographically Bulgaria is very diverse. It features valleys and plains open to the Danube in the North and to the Mediterranean in the South. It has clusters of mountains and a coastline of 354 km. The Bulgarian landscape with its lowest and highest points, the Black Sea and the Musala mountain peak (2, 925 m) respectively, presents wonderful tourist opportunities, ranging over winter ski resorts, summer sea vacations based on the country's contemporary infrastructure, and village holidays where one can lead an organic lifestyle. The principal Bulgarian economic activities include agriculture, national cuisine, wood and timber, furniture, textile, leather, chemical and metal industries. Bulgaria boasts many historical monuments, some of them on the UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as its famous yogurt, yellow cheese, wines, Slivovitza (kind of brandy) and organic products of Rodopa Mountain.

Bulgaria's strategic weight is due to its location near the Turkish Straits and its control of key land routes from Europe to the Middle East. According to its demographic profile Bulgaria's population comprises mostly Bulgarians (83.6%) with some minority groups - Turks (9.5%), Romas (4.6%), and Jews, Armenians, Tatars, Circassians (2.3% ). Since 1997 the country has been following the path towards a market economy and playing a leading role in regional economic and infrastructure integration. The structural reforms and privatisation, as well as the rising amounts of foreign investments, have contributed to Bulgarian economic growth since 1999. Nevertheless, dealing with the corruption and unofficial 'grey' market (representing 20% of the official GDP) has become an essential part of the platforms of the political parties in their election campaigns. Since joining NATO in 2004, Bulgaria's foreign policy target is integration into the EU in 2007, whilst its internal policy is to stay on the road to democracy, adopting and adapting to European standards.

Bulgaria emerged as a modern state in 1878. Its modernisation project legitimised the constitutional monarchy with a democratic governmental system, guaranteed a rapidly growing economy, and targeted the socialization of Bulgarians through school, army and government bureaucracy. Bulgarian national statehood embodied a 'dream' of 'national unification within its historically-testified borders' and involved the country in two Balkan wars (1912-1913) and W.W.I. Its war participation brought about nothing but successive military defeats with respective territorial cuts that ended in economical, political and cultural crisis, nevertheless drawing stable borderlines in society. Bulgaria joined the Axis forces in W.W.II., but managed to save its Jews within pre-war state borders. Subsequently, it experienced the era of communism; under the sphere of the Soviet Union's influence it solved the relevant problems of industrialization, education, social welfare and medical prophylactics. The economy was militarised and unilaterally bound to the Soviet market and its raw material supplies; individual enterprise was restrained. This large-scale growth, compared to the country's size, was achieved to the detriment of citizens' rights and freedoms.

The Bulgarian national renaissance and national movement generated the impetus for the emergence of modern high national culture. Herder's ideas, German drama and philosophy, French literary and sophisticated artistic life, Russian painting models and its novelistic and philosophical writings influenced the national cultural endeavour of 18th and 19th-century Bulgaria. Symbolism and Expressionism marked Bulgarian poetry and paintings whose achievements, however, fuelled the neo-romanticism of 30s and the movement of Rodno izkustvo (Native Art). The Bulgarian élite graduated from European universities and sought to bridge gaps between the cultures. Bulgarian opera singers made successful careers on Vienna's stages, actors played roles in Italian movies, Communism brought ideology, censorship and fashioned the socialist world of contemporary culture making more stable borders between West and East. After the fall of communism and to this day the principal intellectual challenge for Bulgarians is to negotiate the Bulgarian with the European identity.

This page last modified Wednesday 5 January 2011.