A Reader's Guide to Bulgaria
Society
Ethnicity
A good introduction to ethnic groups and ethnic conflicts in Bulgaria is
provided by the chapters on Bulgaria in Hugh Poulton, The Balkans:
Minorities and States in Conflict (London: Minority Rights
Publications, 1992) and in Janusz Bugajski, Ethnic Turmoil in the
Balkans (Boulder CO: Westview, 1993). The newly formed Project on
Ethnic Relations has also sponsored a study focusing on Turks, Gypsies, and
Pomaks (Bulgarian-speaking Moslems) by Ivan Ilchev and Duncan Perry, "Bulgarian
Ethnic Groups: Politics and Perceptions." In addition to its distribution by
PER it was also published as a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research
Report (19 March 1993).
Ethnic Groups in Bulgaria according
to the census of 4 December 1992
Group Number Per cent
Total 8,472.724 100.0
Bulgarian 7,206,062 85.1
Turkish 822,253 9.7
Gypsy 287,732 3.4
Pomak 65,546 0.8
Other 91,131 1.1
JPRS-EER-93-049-S, 3 June 1993; taken from
Vek 21, 14 April 1993
In 1984 the Bulgarian government undertook the "Revival Campaign"
during which the country's ethnic Turks were forced to adopt Bulgarian names.
During 1989 confrontation between the regime and the ethnic Turks culminated is
a massive exodus to Turkey that focused international attention on Bulgaria's
abuses of human rights. The plight of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria also
brought the attention of academic research, a good product of which is Kemal H.
Karpat, The Turks of Bulgaria: The History, Culture and Political Fate of
a Minority (Istanbul: Isis Press, 1990). The International
Journal of Turkish Studies devoted its entire Fall 1989 issue (vol. IV,
No. 2) to Bulgaria's ethnic Turks. The persecution of the Turkish minority is
documented in three publications of Helsinki Watch, Destroying Ethnic
Identity: The Turks of Bulgaria (June, 1986), Destroying Ethnic
Identity: The Turks of Bulgaria - An Update (September 1987), and
Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Expulsion of the Bulgarian Turks
(October 1989).
Bulgarian Turks demanding the resignation of
the Grand Mufti for collaboration with the Communists
Although Bulgaria has been called a paradise-on-earth for specialists on
Gyspies, owing to the large number of Roma and the variety of their groupings,
there is no monograph in English devoted to them, but the reader will find
useful material in more general treatments of Europe's Gypsies, such as David
Crowe and John Kolsti, eds, The Gypsies of Eastern Europe
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992) and Agnus Fraser, The Gypsies
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).
The existence of a Macedonian ethnic group, either in Bulgaria or in
Macedonia, is not recognized by most Bulgarians, although it is asserted by the
government of Macedonia and by a few citizens of the Pirin region, the portion
of Macedonia retained by Bulgaria after the Second Balkan War. The "Macedonian
Question," discussed briefly in the sidebar, has generated an enormous
literature, most of it highly polemical. Among the basic works on the
Macedonian Question that are recognized for scholarly objectivity are:
Elizabeth Barker, Macedonia: Its Place in Balkan Power Politics
(London: Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs, 1950), which covers the diplomatic
background; Duncan Perry, The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian
Liberation Movements, 1893-1903 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,
1988) on internal developments; and the remarkable Maps and Politics: A
Review of the Ethnographic Cartography of Macedonia (Liverpool:
University Press, 1951) that surveys two centuries of opinion on the ethnic
identity of the Macedonians. An excellent brief introduction to the current
emotions surrounding Macedonia and their historical background is Robert D.
Kaplan's "History's Cauldron," The Atlantic Monthly (June
1991).
Religion
Religious Groups in Bulgaria according
to the census of 4 December 1992
Religion Per cent
Orthodox Christian 86.2
Roman Catholic 0.6
Protestant 0.2
Sunni Muslim 11.8
Shiite Muslim 0.9
Other 0.2
JPRS-EER-93-049-S, 3 June 1993; taken from
Vek 21, 14 April 1993
Orthodoxy is the traditional religion of Bulgaria. In The
Orthodox Church (London: Penguin, 1993) Timothy Ware provides a
comprehensive introduction to the Eastern Church, its theology, liturgy, and
practices. Steven Runciman, The Great Church in Captivity
(Cambridge: The University Press, 1968) is a classic work with much information
on the administration of the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire. The
recent schism in the Bulgarian Church, which has ended with the defeat of those
who wished to remove the Communist-era leaders, is described in Janice Brown,
"The Bulgarian Orthodox Church Schism," Religion in Eastern
Europe (January 6, 1993).
Protestantism, particularly as it was promoted by American missionary
societies, has played a significant role in Bulgaria. A recent comprehensive
study is Tatyana Nestorova, American Missionaries among the Bulgarians,
1852-1912 (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1987). Laura Beth
Sherman, the wife of a Foreign Service Officer stationed in Bulgaria, completed
a dissertation at Sofia University on the sensational case of the kidnapping
of English missionary Ellen Stone for ransom. It has been published as
Fires on the Mountain (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs,
1980).
Bulgaria also contributed its own religious variations, of which the White
Brotherhood founded by Peter Dunov is the best known. David Lorimer has
edited Prophet for Our Times: The Life and Teachings of Peter Deunov
(Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1991) which presents a selection of Dunov's
writings.
Women's Issues
The face of Desislava graces the ancient Boyana Church
and a modern line of cosmetics
The "place" of women in Bulgarian society is examined in historical
perspective by Maria Todorova in "Historical Tradition and Transformation in
Bulgaria: Women's Issues or Feminist Issues? Journal of Women's History (Winter
1994). A survey of current studies of Bulgarian women may be found in
Roumiana Slabakova, "Research on Women in Bulgaria: The Hard Way into the
Future," Women's Studies Quarterly (Fall 1992). Nora Annanieva, leader of the
Bulgarian Socialist Party's parliamentary group, and Evka Razvitzorova present
a rather optimistic picture of an expanding role for women in Bulgaria's
government in "Women in State Administration in the Peoples' [sic] Republic of
Bulgaria," Women in Politics (1991, No. 4). On the other hand, Dobrinka
Kostova argues that traditional patriarchal values have become increasingly
powerful during the transition period in "Similar or Different: Women in Post-
Communist Bulgaria," in Marilyn Rueschemeyer, ed., Women in the Politics of
Postcommunist Eastern Europe (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1994).
Related Sidebars
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