Table 11. Bulgaria, Circulation of Newspapers and Periodicals, Selected Years, 1939-71
1939194819601971Newspapers:Annual circulation*130,297345,905602,813837,494Annual circulation per capita20.748.576.698.1Periodicals:Number393246151963Annual circulation*11,20810,42120,92348,605Average annual issues per capita1.81.52.75.7* In thousands
Periodicals
By 1971 there were 963 periodicals with an annual circulation of 48.6 million, roughly tripling the pre-World War II figures. Periodicals were an extremely popular form of reading material.
Among the leading periodicals of Bulgaria are:Novo Vreme, a monthly journal of the Central Committee;Ikonomicheska Misal, the organ of the Institute of Economics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences;Puls, a publication of the Central Committee of the Komsomol;Slavyani, the monthly journal of the Slav Committee in Bulgaria;Bulgarski Voin, the monthly journal of the chief political department of the Bulgarian People's Army (Bulgarska Narodna Armiya);Resorts, a bimonthly journal printed in Russian, French, English, and German; andLov i Ribolov.
RADIO
In 1939 there were three radio stations and over 60,000 subscribers (see table 12). Approximately one out of every 100 Bulgarian citizens owned a radio set.
Table 12. Bulgaria, Number of Radio Stations and Subscribers, Selected Years, 1939-71
1939194819601971Radio stations:Mediumwaven.a.n.a.512Shortwaven.a.n.a.24Ultra-shortwaven.a.n.a.011Number of radio stations35727Number of relay stationsn.a.411,3471,835Number of radio subscribers62,677210,3661,430,6532,304,567Number of radio receivers62,677201,866868,9501,546,163Subscribers*1030182269n.a.—not available.* Per 1,000 population.
As of March 26, 1948, the state controlled not only the management of radio stations and the content of radio programs but also the manufacture, distribution, and sale of radio equipment. The ownership and operation of radios were subject to the chief directorate of radio information according to the Law on Radio. Article 15 of this law stated that private homes could only receive programs of Bulgarian radio stations. Article 17 of the same law stated that all people wishing to purchase radios had to receive prior authorization and pay a radio tax.
The ideological purposes of radio broadcasts are presented by the government in quasi-cold war terms. One radio commentator, Lyuben Popov, has described the radio as a weapon for waging war on the air. He explained that "the struggle on the air is becoming sharper and sharper and more and more uncompromising.... Our propaganda work is part of the ideological struggle for victory of communist ideas." Radio is perceived as serving two principal ends. On the domestic level it serves to provide information as well as propaganda to the public; on the international level it functions in a purely ideological capacity.
There are twelve mediumwave radio transmitters: two are located in Pleven; two in Kurdzhali; two in Sofia; and one each in Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Varna, Shumen, Stara Zagora, and Stolnik. There are eleven ultra-shortwave stations: three are located in Sofia, two in Botev, two in Slunchev Bryag, two in Kyustendil, one in Snezhinka, and one in Plovdiv. There are four shortwave radio stations in Bulgaria. Of the total number of twenty-seven radio stations in the country, six broadcast in both amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM); twenty broadcast in AM only; and one located at Botev Peak broadcasts only in FM.
Bulgarian radio stations are on the air approximately 500 hours per week. Foreign broadcasts are transmitted approximately twenty-sixhours a day Monday through Saturday and twenty-nine hours on Sunday. These programs are broadcast in Bulgarian, Turkish, Greek, Serbo-Croat, French, Italian, German, English, Spanish, and Arabic and are transmitted to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, and South America. The number of domestic listeners has approximately doubled over the 1960-71 period. In mid-1973 over a quarter of the population owned radio sets.
The leading radio programs are transmitted by Radio Sofia. Radio Plovdiv, Radio Varna, and Radio Stara Zagora also transmit popular programs. Radio Rodina is the main station transmitting to Bulgarians residing abroad. Generally, radio programs consist of news bulletins dealing with both local and international events; programs for rural listeners and industrial workers, which deal with industrial, agricultural, and cultural matters; programs for children, which complement the formal educational curriculum; literary and cultural programs; and scientific programs.
In January 1971 Radio Sofia took steps to refurbish its old programming. Some critics felt that the old programming was lacking in variety, causing listeners to turn to foreign broadcasts for more enjoyable entertainment. Others within the medium wanted to have more freedom and creativity in programming. As a result, in mid-1973 the three main programs of Radio Sofia had a singular and distinctive character. "Horizont" provided both general information and popular music. "Christo Botev" had a more cultural and propagandistic nature, presenting ideological, literary, and educational programs. "Orfei" was the program for classical music, which was occasionally supplemented by theatrical and literary features. The results of these changes have been mixed. Although some critics felt that the new programs were more lively than their predecessors, others continued to criticize them for a "dearth of original thought, a laconic style, and a pompous tone."
Other recent developments in radio have been the establishment of radio relay ties with nearby countries. These relay ties are expected to increase Bulgaria's communications with the West while providing her new partners with access to the East. In July 1972 the construction of radio lines between Bulgaria and Turkey was completed. In December 1972 plans for a radio relay line between Sofia and Athens were announced; the line was to be completed by 1974. This particular line was expected to provide Greece with access to Eastern Europe and Bulgaria with access to the Middle East and North Africa.
TELEVISION
Television, like radio, became a state monopoly under the control of the Ministry of Culture on March 26, 1948, but the first strictly experimental broadcasts were not undertaken until 1954. It was 1959before the first regular programming—consisting of two programs per week—was being broadcast. By 1962 programs had been increased to only four per week.
The number of television subscribers rose from a mere 2,573 in 1960 to 185,246 in 1965 and to 1.2 million in 1971. These figures meant the number of sets per 1,000 people were; less than one, in 1960; about twenty-three, in 1965; and 138, in 1971. During the same period an increasing number of transmitting stations was making reception possible in nearly all parts of the country. By 1972 there were twenty-seven transmitters; the major ones were located at Sofia, Slunchev Bryag, Botev, Varna, and Kyustendil. In spite of the expansion of the network and the increasing numbers of sets available, in comparison to other European countries there were still relatively few television subscribers per 1,000 of the population.
Three-quarters of the television sets are located in the cities. Although there is only one major television program, Program I, plans are underway for the transmission of a second program, Program II. This, when added to the coverage of Program I, is expected to reach 95 percent of the population by 1975.
Television is transmitted on a daily basis. The weekly programs run between 68 and 72 hours. Television time has been apportioned more or less according to popular taste. Of the total hours, 22 percent of television time was devoted to documentaries, 15 percent to music, 12 percent to news, 11 percent to programs for children, 10 percent to language and literature programs, and 8 percent to sports. There were also special broadcasts to villages and question-and-answer programs in industrial enterprises and cooperative farms. Unlike the rest of Eastern Europe, Bulgaria imported very few television films from the United States.
One of the most recent innovations in television programming was the transmission of a special program for tourists in 1973. Bulgarian Radio and Television decided to cooperate with the Committee for Tourism to promote a 1-½-hour program for foreign tourists on the Black Sea coast. The program, as envisioned in 1973, would consist of local news, presented on three different channels in Russian, English, and German respectively; local events; international news; tourist information; and advertisements.
Future plans for Bulgarian television were outlined in the Sixth Five Year Plan (1971-75). Although color television programs in the 1970s were transmitted to Bulgaria from Moscow, Bulgaria's own color television was to be transmitted in late 1973. Along these lines, Bulgaria planned to collaborate with Intervision—the Eastern European television network—in the promotion of color television. In 1972 plans were also being formulated for the construction of between 250 and 300 relay stations and additional television transmitters.
PUBLISHING
In 1939 there were 2,169 books and pamphlets published in 6.5 million copies, and in 1948 there were 2,322 books and pamphlets published in 19.9 million copies. By 1960 the number of book and pamphlet titles had risen to 3,369 in 30.2 million copies, and by 1971 the number of book and pamphlet titles reached 4,188 in 46.8 million copies.
More recent studies of book and pamphlet publication conducted in 1969 and 1970 indicated that the overwhelming majority of books and pamphlets were written by Bulgarians. Of the 3,799 books published in 1970, there were 3,368 by Bulgarian authors. The foreign works during this year were predominantly in Russian, 131; French, sixty-five; English, sixty-five; and German, fifty-four. There were few books translated from Spanish and a sprinkling of translations from other lesser known languages. Of the translated works most were literary, followed by works dealing with the social sciences, the applied sciences, the arts, geography and history, the so-called hard sciences, philosophy, philology, and religion.
A 1971 study illustrates the fact that—in terms of titles alone—books are more popular than pamphlets by a ratio of approximately three to one (see table 13). The greatest number of book titles in 1971 were in the areas of artistic and folkloric literature, technology and industry, and scientific and educational texts. The smallest number of book titles were in the areas of general handbooks, community affairs, and atheism and religion. The greatest number of pamphlet titles, on the other hand, were in juvenile literature, communist party literature, and science and education. The fewest pamphlet titles dealt with atheism and religion, Marxism-Leninism, languages, and labor and trade unions.
Because the Bulgarian publishing industry has emphasized the quantity of books available in terms of copies rather than variety or number of titles, there has been some serious criticism of policy, particularly from the newspapers. In fact, among the Balkan countries, Bulgaria ranks below Yugoslavia, Romania, and Turkey in the number of titles published annually. One newspaper claimed that of the total number of books published in 1972, only approximately one-third were so-called real books, meaning that they were not simply textbooks or brochures. This newspaper claimed that foreign literature was not well known in Bulgaria and pointed out that the literature of Asia, Africa, and South America had increased by only 470 titles since 1939.
The state not only is in charge of the publishing houses themselves but also supervises the distribution of books throughout the country. Editorial councils are the final authorities in determining the output of individual publishing houses. The one exception to the general administration of publishing houses is the publication of textbooks.In this case the Committee on Art and Culture is responsible for the printing of textbooks, and the Ministry of National Education is, in turn, responsible for their distribution.
Table 13. Bulgaria, Book and Pamphlet Publication, 1971
Subject of PublicationTotal Number of TitlesBookTitlesPamphlet TitlesMarxism-Leninism26233Communist party270158112Socialist and communist construction1819784Foreign policy and economics947420Philosophy705218History14712126Economics29218Production90828Finance15114Labor and trade unions553916Legal and constitutional system735320Military policy382810Natural science and mathematics26122536Technology and industry49041575Agriculture and cooperatives28421470Trade and nutrition513714Transportation and communications756411Community affairs44...Health21515758Physical education and sports725319Scientific and educational texts39730196Literary criticism1335578Art15211834Languages70664Artistic and folkloric literature60953475Juvenile literature277146131Atheism and religion871General handbooks22...TOTAL4,1883,1571,031
The party is the final arbiter regarding the acceptability of work for publication. All party control, however, is theoretically unofficial; censorship exists only in the sense that all power of decision regarding publication is in the hands of party members. The official process for publication is that the writer submits his work to the publishing house. The publishing house then sends it, with a brief description of its ideological content, to the Committee on Art and Culture. If the book is approved at this stage, it is returned to the publishing house, where it is again checked for its ideological content.
The major criterion for acceptance is the ideological soundness of the work in question. According to a refugee playwright from Bulgaria, "The journalist must praise the party, and government, and criticize the West. The poet, the playwright, the novelist must upholdthe communist ideal." Since the works of leading Communists are almost always accepted for publication, one writer has stated; "In Bulgaria dead communist heroes are the safest bet."
The government is actively engaged in attempting to promote Bulgarian books abroad. In the late 1960s and early 1970s books by native authors—although in relatively small numbers—were published in such diverse countries as Great Britain, Japan, France, Turkey, Italy, Iran, Austria, Argentina, and Finland. According to the latest available source on the promotion of Bulgarian books abroad, plans also have been formulated for the publication of books in the United States, Belgium, Brazil, and Syria.
One of the most serious problems in the publishing industry, other than the broad issue of freedom of expression of the writers, is that of a shortage of textbooks. In 1970 the Committee for State Control discovered that courses in 1,013 subjects at the university level had no textbooks whatsoever. In the University of Sofia alone, where approximately 317 subjects were taught, textbooks existed for only 216 of these subjects; roughly half of the books for the 216 subjects that used textbooks were out of print.
LIBRARIES
When the Communists took power in 1944, they began to allocate relatively large sums of money to develop new libraries in both large cities and small villages. By 1971 the country had over 10,000 libraries, whose collections numbered nearly 50 million volumes (see table 14).
The Committee on Art and Culture maintained a number of libraries, including the country's largest, the Bulgarian National Library. Founded in 1878 in Sofia, it contained 814,000 works in 1971, including about 13,000 old and rare volumes, approximately 17,000 graphic works, and some 20,000 photographs and portraits. The library published both a yearbook and a monthly periodical.
The committee maintained two other libraries. One was the Ivan Vazov State Library, situated in Plovdiv, whose collection included a wide variety of periodicals, old and rare books, and archives. The other library under the committee was the Elin Pelin Bulgarian Bibliographical Institute, which maintained a record of all printed works in the country and published a monthly bulletin listing all of its publications, an annual yearbook, and a monthly list of all articles published in reviews and journals.
In addition there were research-related libraries maintained by the Academy of Sciences; public school libraries; university libraries; libraries organized in state plants, factories, and cooperative farms; regional libraries; and local libraries.
The major regional libraries were located in Burgas, Ruse, Stara Zagora, Shumen, Varna, Velsko, and Turnovo. The best known local library was the City Library of Sofia, which contained about 452,862 volumes.
Table 14. Libraries in Bulgaria, 1971
Kind of LibraryNumberLibrariesBooks*Readers*Books Lent*National181425189Local275,2872594,807Reading rooms4,10820,3871,35920,744Enterprises and government offices2,1106,5325374,984Public schools3,8609,3367726,653Universities232,077841,320Specialized:Science1151,40929507Government3559416282Party and public organizations9380439280Technical21286454398Medical6040536361Theaters (archives)133443634Educational14152857Total specialized6624,6711881,919TOTAL10,79149,1043,22740,616* In thousands.
The so-called public reading room was another form of library. Founded by educated Bulgarians during the Turkish occupation as centers of culture and education, the reading rooms have become quite widespread, particularly in the villages, and supply books to farmworkers and other members of the rural population. In the early 1970s there were 4,108 reading rooms with over 20 million volumes.
FILMS
By 1947, after the new constitution had been enacted, the film industry became a state monopoly. The next year the new Law on Motion Pictures was passed, which essentially expanded on the theme of state control. It officially abolished free enterprise in the film industry and prohibited individual activities in the importation and exportation of films and the private operation of movie theaters. The film industry fell under the official control of the Bulgarian Cinematography Association, which was under the Department of Motion Pictures of the Committee for Science, Art, and Culture. By 1950 the entire film industry was under the complete control of the Council of Ministers. The Department of Motion Pictures became officially attached to the council.
One of the early laws regarding films stated that "the motion picture must become a real fighting assistant of the party and the government and be an ardent agitator and propagator of the government policy." The focus of the industry was to be placed on the building of socialismwhile increasing the country's bonds with the Soviet Union. Early legislation stated that "Soviet films gave immense educational influence and mobilized action and conscious participation in the building of socialism for still greater friendship with the Soviet Union." This emphasis on the relationship with the Soviet Union was not only ideological. Soviet films also represented approximately 87 percent of the films shown in Bulgaria from 1945 to 1956, and the Bulgarian film industry was in large part assisted by its film counterpart in the Soviet Union.
The film industry expanded quickly under the new government. There were 187 films produced in 1960 (see table 15). By 1965 there were approximately 2,000 motion picture houses, roughly 83 percent of which were in the villages.
Table 15. Bulgaria, Films Produced and Translated,Selected Years, 1939-71
1939194819601971Full length3...1118Art(3)...(10)(16)Documentary......(1)(2)Television00019Short and medium length...19110252Documentary...(15)(36)(60)Popular science...(4)(32)(61)Technical education......(16)(21)Animated......(8)(16)Propaganda......(18)(94)Previews...536658TOTAL372187347
In mid-1973 information on the film industry indicated that the production, distribution, importation, exportation, and exhibition of films were still controlled by the Bulgarian Cinematography Association. This agency was subdivided into three sections: the chief studio at the Bulyana film center where feature films and cartoons were produced; a second studio that produced documentary shorts and popular science films for schools; and a third studio that specialized in newsreels.
Relative to other European countries there was little importation or exportation of films. In mid-1973 data suggested that between 100 and 150 feature films were imported per year. These films generally came from the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, although a few were imported from Italy, France, and Great Britain. The first Bulgarian film to be exported wasThe Chain, which was shown in Czechoslovakia in 1964. The same year another Bulgarian film,The Intransigents, was shown in Ireland, and still another,The Peach Thief, was shown in Great Britain. The precise number of Bulgarian films exported was unknown, although one writer claimed that in 1973 Bulgarian films were viewed in about seventy countries.
In mid-1973 the subject matter of Bulgarian films was characteristically contemporary, and there was little focus on historical events. Although a few historical films had been produced, they were in the minority. A few films had dealt with the subject of Bulgarian resistance to the Nazis, but they too were relatively scarce. More films were devoted to the so-called people's heroic struggles. Most films in Bulgaria, however, dealt with contemporary life in the country and current events. The overwhelming majority of these films treated the conflicts and issues of Bulgarian youth.
Under comprehensive control of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP—see Glossary), the economy was severely strained in mid-1973 as the result of the dual task imposed upon it by the BKP leadership to increase productivity rapidly and substantially and to provide a growing volume of consumer goods and services under a newly announced program for raising the population's low standard of living. A first step in improving the living standard took the form of an upward adjustment in the lowest wage brackets and a broadening of social security provisions. Further improvements, however, were made conditional upon attainment of the productivity and production goals.
The development of the economy and of the consumer program faced severe limitations because of the inadequacy of domestic resources, including basic raw materials, fuels and power, skilled workers, and trained professional personnel. Economic development was heavily dependent on financial and technical aid from the Soviet Union, and dependence upon that country was to be increased in the 1971-75 period. Efforts to overcome persistent and growth-retarding difficulties in the economy led to frequent organizational and procedural changes in the economic mechanism, the structure of which in mid-1973 was still in flux as a result of decisions taken by the BKP in 1965 and in 1968.
The main trend in reshaping the organization and management of the economy was one of concentration and centralization—a trend that led to the creation of huge trusts in industry and distribution and of vast agroindustrial complexes in agriculture. In the process, divisions and lines of authority were blurred, and violations of government directives were frequent because of their complexity and the constraints they placed on the day-to-day operation of economic enterprises.
In the search for a more efficient organization and management pattern, heavy reliance was placed on the introduction of complex automation into all economic processes with the aid of a nationwide computer network—a system of automation that would extend from the highest levels of national economic planning down to the individualfactory shop and cow barn. No ideas have been advanced, however, on how complex automation would solve the basic problem of the economy—the widely acknowledged and pervasive lack of incentives to work. The methods used to grapple with this problem were limited to a tinkering with the wage and bonus system, administrative sanctions, political indoctrination, and exhortations.
ORGANIZATION
State ownership of the means of production predominates in the economy. Collective ownership has prevailed in agriculture, but it may be gradually eliminated in the course of the agricultural reorganization initiated in 1970 (see ch. 13). Private ownership of productive resources is limited to subsidiary farm or garden enterprises of collective farmers, industrial and state farmworkers, and artisans; a small number of individual farms on marginal lands; and noncollectivized artisan shops. In 1971 private ownership encompassed about 10 percent of the agricultural land but only 2.5 percent of the fixed assets used in production. Private ownership of personal property and homes is allowed.
The proportions of national income (net material product) generated in each of the ownership sectors in 1971 were: state, 70 percent; collective, 21 percent; and private, 9 percent. The importance of private enterprise in the production of food, however, is much greater than its contribution to the national income may suggest. The private sector has provided more than one-fifth of the crop output and one-third of the livestock production (see ch. 13).
Whereas the leadership has promoted livestock production on private farm plots, since 1968 it has placed increasingly severe restrictions on the activities of private artisans, who had originally been encouraged to expand their operations through liberal regulations issued in 1965. Aside from providing essential services, private artisans played an important role in supplying a variety of consumer goods for the population. The restrictions on artisans' activities have been based on the BKP tenet that private ownership of means of production and the use of personal property to acquire unearned income are incompatible with the socialist order and the country's new constitution.
Economic activities are centrally planned and directed along lines prescribed by the BKP. The functions of planning and control are exercised by the Council of Ministers with the aid of specialized economic ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Chemical Industry and Power Generation, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and of various governmental committees and commissions (see ch. 8). The state banking system and, more particularly, bank credit have also served as tools for the control of enterprises and trusts.
The economic management structure has been subject to frequent changes. In the spring of 1972 there were fourteen economic ministries, including five ministries exclusively concerned with branches of industry and construction. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Food Industry, as its name implies, has functioned in two major economic sectors and has also had substantial responsibilities in the field of distribution. Among the committees and commissions the most important have been the State Planning Committee, the Committee on Prices, and the Commission for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation. In December 1972 the Commission on the Living Standard was created to coordinate and control the fulfillment of the national living standard program decided upon by the plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. Attached to the Council of Ministers and chaired by a deputy minister, the commission is composed of ministers and deputy ministers, representatives of public organizations, scientists, and other members.
Since the beginning of 1971 economic management has been more highly centralized than before. A plan for partial decentralization of economic decision making adopted in 1965 was abandoned by 1968. The economy is organized into trusts (officially known as state economic associations) that unite enterprises within branches of economic sectors along functional lines, such as metallurgy, textiles, food processing, railroads, freight forwarding, tourism, wholesale distribution, publishing, and filmmaking. In agriculture, trusts are known as agroindustrial complexes; each complex unites several previously independent farms (see ch. 13). Trusts are subordinated to economic ministries and are ultimately responsible to the Council of Ministers. The extent of the ministries' authority over trusts is not clear. In some important respects trusts receive instructions directly from the Council of Ministers.
Agroindustrial trusts number 170. In the nonagricultural sector about sixty-two trusts were originally created, with an average of thirty branches but as many as 106 in one instance. The process of concentration and centralization continued on a small scale at least until the spring of 1973, in part through the consolidation of separate trusts. Before the reorganization, trust branches had been legally and financially independent enterprises, and trusts served only as administrative links between enterprises and ministries. Whereas individual enterprises were previously regarded as the basic economic units in the country, it is the trusts that have been officially considered as such under the new system of management.
Trusts have assumed various functions previously performed by the enterprises themselves. They formulate economic and technological development policies for the trust as a whole and for each branch; establish relations with suppliers, distributors, and financial institutions; and centralize research and development. Trusts have alsobeen charged with responsibility for providing operational guidance to their branches and for organizing the export of products that they manufacture. Branches remain responsible for the effective organization of operations, efficient uses of resources, and the conscientious fulfillment of tasks assigned to them by the annual plan.
Regulations governing the authority of trusts over their branches were intended to permit the establishment of flexible internal management organizations adapted to the particular needs of each trust. The trusts' policies were expected to be based on the rule that whatever the trust could do better than the branches should be centralized in it and, conversely, whatever the branches could do better than the trust should be left in their field of competence. Each trust was supposed to arrive at an optimal combination of management centralization and decentralization.
The transition to the new management system involved difficulties because of delays in issuing pertinent regulations, misinterpretation of the regulations by trust managers, and the reluctance of enterprise managers to acquiesce in the loss of their independence. Most of the organizational and personnel problems were reported to have been resolved by the end of 1971, and in March 1973 party chief Todor Zhivkov reported that further consolidation of the new management structure had been achieved. In the long run, greater efficiency of economic management is to be attained through pervasive automation of all management functions with the aid of a synchronized national network of electronic computers.
Under the new system of trusts, profits of individual branches are pooled and redistributed by the parent organization. Highly productive branches may thus find themselves in the position of having to share their profits with unproductive branches. This feature, some observers believe, may reduce incentives to raise the level of efficiency, increase output, and improve the quality of products.