ABSTRACT
The book traces the history of communist Bulgaria from 1944 to 1989. A detailed narrative-cum-study of the history of a political system, it provides a chronological overview of the building of the socialist state from the ground up, its entrenchment into the peaceful routine of everyday life, its inner crises, and its gradual decline and self-destruction. The book is the definitive and the most complete guide to Bulgaria under communism and how the communist system operates on a day-to-day level.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|2 pages
The times of high Stalinism
chapter 1|29 pages
Bulgaria in the shadow of Stalin
chapter 2|15 pages
Georgi Dimitrov and “the people’s democracy”
chapter 3|7 pages
Bulgaria in the years of classical Stalinism
chapter 4|20 pages
Building the communist economy in Bulgaria
chapter 5|23 pages
The Bulgarian village under communism
Collectivization, social change, and adaptation
chapter 8|21 pages
State Security within the structure of the communist state
Ruling through violence
chapter 9|16 pages
Education and culture within the system of the communist state
chapter 10|14 pages
Communist Bulgaria’s foreign policy and the Cold War
part II|2 pages
From sheepish de-Stalinization toward the consolidation of the regime and its penetration into everyday life
chapter 13|8 pages
Sovietization in the shadow of Khrushchev and the Brezhnev Doctrine
chapter 14|17 pages
In search of a communist model of consumer society
chapter 16|11 pages
The ghosts of national communism and pressure on Muslim communities
chapter 17|16 pages
The church on the periphery of society
chapter 18|15 pages
Processes within the culture of “real socialism”
part III|2 pages
The collapse and peaceful withdrawal of communism in Bulgaria
