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Table of Contents

1. COUNTRY: People's Republic of Bulgaria. Proclaimed by the communist party in the 1947 Constitution. Formerly, Kingdom of Bulgaria.

2. SIZE AND LOCATION: Area 42,800 square miles. Located in eastern part of Balkan Peninsula on Black Sea south of Danube River. Borders Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey.

3. TOPOGRAPHY: Mountains predominate in west and in ranges that run west to east across the central and southern regions. Lower and more level areas south of Danube River and between the mountain ranges permit extensive cultivation.

4. CLIMATE: Transitional between Eastern European continental and Mediterranean. Northern regions have hot summers, cold winters; south is more moderate but has hot, dry summers.

5. POPULATION: About 8.7 million in 1973; density 203 persons per square mile. Growth rate 0.7 percent annually.

6. ETHNIC GROUPS AND LANGUAGES: 85 percent of population is Bulgar. Persons of Turkish, Macedonian, Greek, Romanian, and other origins are guaranteed the right to use their languages and to preserve their cultural heritage, but Bulgarian, the official language, is spoken by the entire population.

7. RELIGION: 90 percent of population adheres to the Eastern Orthodox faith. There are some 750,000 Moslems, 26,000 Protestants, 32,000 Roman Catholics, and 3,000 to 7,000 Jews. Freedom of religion guaranteed, but practice strictly controlled by state.

8. GOVERNMENT: National Assembly is unicameral legislature. Council of Ministers, performing governmental administrative functions, is responsible to State Council, the supreme executive body. Real power vested in communist party's first secretary, Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Committee.

9. ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS: Administration is by people's councils at district (okrug) and township or borough (obshtina) levels. There are twenty-eight districts, including one composed only of metropolitan Sofia. Districts subdivided into about 1,150 townships and boroughs.

10. INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact); the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON); and the United Nations (UN), including several UN specialized agencies.

11. JUSTICE: Three-level court system headed by Supreme Court. Military and special courts responsible directly to Supreme Court. Judiciary administered by Ministry of Justice within Council of Ministers.

12. COMMUNICATIONS: Mass media are state owned and regulated. Little latitude given subject matter produced locally; imports of foreign films and publications are restricted.

13. EDUCATION: Free and compulsory until age fifteen. Priority on scientific, technological, and vocational curricula. Marxism-Leninism stressed in all curricula.

14. ECONOMY: Production, growth, and development programmed in five-year plans, drawn up and monitored by party. The 1971-75 plan, dependent on financial and technical aid from Soviet Union, recognizes need to raise standard of living; improvement is conditional upon rising productivity.

15. LABOR: Work force numbers about 4.4 million. About 27 percent (1.2 million) of the total are in state and collective industries; 25 percent (1.1 million) work full time on agroindustrial complexes. Skilled workers in short supply.

16. AGRICULTURE: Approximately 53 percent of land is agricultural, 69 percent of which is cultivated. All but small mountain farms are organized into 170 agroindustrial complexes. Grains predominate on plains south of Danube River; irrigated Thracian Plain produces more diversified crops. Livestock production inadequate for domestic needs and exports.

17. INDUSTRY: Virtually all state owned. Rapid expansion encouraged by state, increasingly slowed by inadequate raw material resources and skilled labor. Emphasis in early 1970s on improving unsatisfactory productivity levels and quality of industrial products.

18. FINANCE: Nonconvertible lev (see Glossary) has officially declared values ranging from 0.59 to 1.65 leva per US$1; unofficial rates in early 1973 were substantially higher. Banking system consists of Bulgarian National Bank and subordinated Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank and the State Savings Bank.

19. FOREIGN TRADE: State monopoly administered by Ministry of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Finance, and the state banks. Bulk of trade is with Soviet Union and other COMECON countries.

20. RAILROADS: Operational network totals about 2,620 miles, most of it standard gauge. System carried bulk of long-distance domestic cargo and passenger traffic.

21. ROADS: Total mileage about 21,000, but less than one-half has asphalt or other paved surface. Highway vehicles carry increasing traffic, preponderance of short-haul cargo and passengers.

22. INLAND WATERWAYS: Lower course of Danube River accommodates 2,500-ton vessels. Black Sea and ocean commerce increasing rapidly.

23. CIVIL AVIATION: State-owned Balkan-Bulgarian Airlines (BALKAN) connects Sofia with about a dozen cities on internal routes and almost twice as many foreign capitals.

24. ARMED FORCES: Bulgarian People's Army is subordinate to Ministry of National Defense. Ground forces have 80 percent of its personnel; air and naval forces, included in the army, have only about 15 and 5 percent, respectively, of total strength.

25. SECURITY: Ministry of Internal Affairs controls police and security organizations, except Border Troops, which are part of army. Party and mass organizations apply pressures on behalf of public order and in defense of the system.