Word: sofia
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...Ruski Boulevard, in the heart of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, looms one of the 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...
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...
Comfort. In spite of enduring contradictions, there is an overwhelming impression in Bulgaria of modest but widespread comfort, prosperity in the villages around the capital and impressive organization in agriculture. Sofia is striking for its many sumptuously planted parks, its wide-domed churches brightly lit at night and the yellow cobblestones that pave the main boulevards. City residents, proud of their distinctive cobblestones, have successfully persuaded the municipal authorities to abandon plans to replace them with asphalt. One woman journalist explained, "We couldn't let them tear up our streets," adding, "after all, they're paved in gold...
...over whether the Macedonians are a distinct strain of southern Slavs entitled to an autonomous republic within Yugoslavia, or whether they are Bulgars and should be part of Bulgaria. Bulgaria pressed its claim that the Macedonians are really Bulgars until last year, when Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev visited Sofia. After that, the Bulgarians suddenly softened their propaganda attacks against Yugoslavia over the issue...
...Hungarian newspaper recently noted that for the first time since the end of World War II everybody in the Balkans is finally on speaking terms. Still, the terms are by no means always polite. Albania, Peking's principal friend in Europe, is still swapping denunciations with Bulgaria. Sofia and Belgrade are still quarreling over Bulgarian claims to the entire region of Macedonia...