Word: bulgarias
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...least-known and most loyal of Russia's Eastern European satellites is little Bulgaria (pop. 8.5 million). TIME Correspondent Strobe Talbott recently visited some of the country's major urban, industrial and agricultural centers and sent this report...
...oddest monuments in the Communist world: a huge equestrian statue of Alexander II, Czar of All the Russias from 1855 to 1881. While Moscow abounds with likenesses of Lenin and Peking with those of Mao, Sofia has chosen to preserve an image of the Emperor who helped liberate Bulgaria from Turkish rule in 1878. The Bulgarians still feel that they owe a historic debt of gratitude to Russia's rulers...
...Soviet Union regarded the country as its own private vegetable patch, vineyard and Tobacco Road. Bulgarians have labored under an ultra-orthodox Communist regime to keep Russian consumers supplied with farm produce, cigarettes and heady red wine. Total economic dependency, combined with brutal political and intellectual repression, assured Bulgaria's status as the most benighted nation in the Soviet bloc...
Massive infusions of Russian capital, raw materials and technology are pushing Bulgaria into the industrial age. A major reason for Bulgaria's windfall lies in its geographic position. The only trustworthy Soviet satellite in the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria is bordered by relatively independent Rumania, maverick Yugoslavia, and two NATO member states, Greece and Turkey. Expanding Soviet interest in the nearby Middle East and Mediterranean has given this 43,000-sq. mi. enclave new strategic importance. Although the Kremlin is so confident of Bulgarian loyalty that no Russian troops are stationed there, the Soviets have deployed "Frog" and "Skud" ground...
Even without armed divisions, the Soviet presence in Bulgaria is exceptionally high-powered. The Kremlin's emissary to Sofia, Vladimir Bazovsky, acts more like an imperial proconsul than an ambassador. Bazovsky's staff includes high-ranking "advisers" to the Bulgarian armed forces and secret police. Such supervision seems scarcely necessary, however; Bulgaria's Moscow-trained leadership has maintained a tighter grip on its people than any other Soviet-bloc government. Party Leader Todor Zhivkov, 61, who has been in power for 18 years, presides over the oldest Politburo in Eastern Europe (average age of full members...