The Turkish border is 149 miles long. It follows small rivers and streams for more than 40 percent of its length, but neither they nor the overland sections constitute physical boundaries or barriers of any consequence.
The Romanian border follows the Danube River for about 290 miles from the northwestern corner of the country to the city of Silistra and then cuts to the east-southeast for about eighty-five miles across the old province of Dobrudzha. The Danube, with steep bluffs on the Bulgarian side and a wide area of swamps and marshes along much of the Romanian, is one of the better natural river boundaries in Europe. Most of the river islands that might be expected to bridge the gap between the countries are damp and covered with marsh vegetation. They are subject to regular inundation by floodwaters and, therefore, are uninhabited. The line across Dobrudzha is arbitrary and has been redrawn on several occasions. The population of the area that has changed hands is mixed, but most of those who have strong national preferences have been resettled in the country of their choice.
A joint resolution adopted between Bulgaria and Romania in April 1971 allowed somewhat easier transit of their border. A passport was still required, but residents of the twelve-mile-wide zone on each side of the border became able to make one crossing each month without a visa. Each visit was limited to six days, and the destination and residence to be visited were subject to the approval of local police. The agreement made no changes in custom regulations and was not, therefore, intended to change trade relations between the countries.
Political Subdivisions
The country is subdivided into twenty-eight okruzi (sing., okrug), which are usually translated as districts, and has some 200 towns and cities and approximately 5,500 villages or settlements. The cities and larger towns are subdivided into rayoni (sing., rayon), and the smaller villages are grouped together into obshtini (sing., obshtina). The rayoni and obshtini are the urban boroughs and village communes that are the smallest units of local government, that is, those that have people's councils (see fig. 3).
The twenty-eight okruzi include one for the city of Sofia and its immediate vicinity as well as one for a larger Sofia district. Each okrug is named for the city that is its administrative center. They have areas ranging from 794 to 2,916 square miles and populations of about 130,000 to about 650,000.
Figure 3. Political Subdivisions of Bulgaria, 1973