In many ways, Bulgaria remains the
unknown country of the Balkans. Less
newsworthy than the former
Yugoslavia, and less heavily
touristed than neighbouring Greece
and Turkey, it's a place that brings
few distinct images to mind. Despite
being the site of extensive Black
Sea package resorts and the source
of several good wines, it's all too
often dismissed as the dour place it
was before 1989, when it served as
one of the Soviet Union's most loyal
East European allies. As with many
little-known destinations, however,
there's a great deal to discover
here: much of Bulgaria is like an
open-air museum of Balkan culture,
with beautifully decorated churches,
fine mosques, wonderfully preserved
rustic villages and a great deal of
enduring folklore. The mountainous
interior makes it one of the top
hiking destinations of Europe, while
over on the Black Sea coast, the
white-sand beaches are just as
magnificent in reality as they look
in the tourist brochures.
Bulgarians are frustrated by
their country's lack of a clearly
defined image abroad. Heirs to one
of Europe's great civilizations, and
guardians of Balkan Christian
traditions, they have a keen sense
of national identity distilled by
centuries of turbulent history. In a
constantly repeating cycle of
grandeur, decline and national
rebirth, successive Bulgarian states
have striven to dominate the Balkan
peninsula before succumbing to
defeat and foreign tutelage, only to
be regenerated by patriotic
resistance to outside control.
The Bulgarian nation was formed
in the seventh and eighth centuries
when the Bulgars , warlike
nomads from central Asia, assumed
the leadership of Slav tribes in the
lower Danube basin and took them on
a spree of conquest in southeastern
Europe. The resulting First
Bulgarian Kingdom , after
accepting Orthodox Christianity as
the state religion, became the
centre of Slavonic culture and
spirituality before falling victim
to a resurgent Byzantine Empire
in the eleventh century. Recovery
came a century later when the local
aristocracy broke free from
Constantinople and restored past
glories in the shape of the Second
Bulgarian Kingdom . However, the
rise of Ottoman power in the
fourteenth century ushered in the
500-year-long period of Tursko
robstvo or " Turkish
bondage ", when the
achievements of the medieval era
were extinguished. Bulgarian art and
culture recovered during the
nineteenth-century National
Revival , and the emergence of a
potent revolutionary movement
prepared the ground for Bulgaria's
eventual Liberation in 1878,
achieved with the help of Russian
arms. However, Europe's other Great
Powers conspired to limit the size
of the infant state at the Berlin
Congress of 1878, the first of a
series of betrayals which denied
Bulgarian claims to a territory
which had long been considered an
integral part of the historical
Bulgarian state, Macedonia .
In the twentieth century alone,
Bulgaria went to war three times (in
the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, World
War I and World War II) to try and
recover Macedonia, only to be
defeated on each occasion. By 1945
it seemed like a country that had
somehow missed out on its destiny,
and rapidly turned in on itself
during the subsequent deep sleep of
Communism.
Today, while undoubtedly more
open to the outside world and more
visitor-friendly than ever before,
Bulgaria remains a country in
transition. Back in the momentous
winter of 1989, it looked as if it
was dragging its feet on the road to
democracy while others forged ahead.
The Communist Party ditched a few of
the old guard, changed its name to
the Socialist Party and promptly won
the first multiparty elections for
more than forty years, remaining the
country's most coherent political
force until the elections of April
1997, when the SDS took over.
Despite stabilizing the economy, the
SDS failed to stamp out corruption,
and were swept aside four years
later by a new movement, the NDSV,
centred around the former Tsar of
Bulgaria, Simeon of Saxe-Coburg
Gotha . With the Tsar installed
as Prime Minister, and a Socialist (ie
former Communist) occupying the post
of President, Bulgaria is in for
some interesting times.
Since 1989, market economics
have been introduced more cautiously
than in the more developed former
Communist states, but the steady
growth of private enterprise is
making its mark nonetheless. Locals
are quick to point out that the move
towards capitalism has meant poor
conditions for many. Full employment
and job security are things of the
past, and the new business culture
is riddled with corruption and
organized crime. While these
problems shouldn't affect your
enjoyment of an invigorating and
little-experienced culture, it's a
good idea to remain sensitive
towards such issues.
