In mid-1973 political affairs and the administration of the country remained completely in the hands of the ruling circle of the Bulgarian Communist Party (Bulgarska Komunisticheska Partiya—BKP, see Glossary), headed by First Secretary Todor Zhivkov. Political power was exercised by him and by the few select officials in the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, particularly those who were members of the Politburo and the Secretariat. The extent of such power was best described by Vulko Chervenkov, onetime premier and Politburo member, who declared that "no institution, organization, or person can be above the Politburo and the Central Committee." This statement, made in the early 1950s, continues to be the cardinal rule of communist power in Bulgaria.
Retention of power by the party was ensured through its absolute control of governmental machinery and of all organized activities. Virtually every important government post was held by a high-ranking party member. First Secretary Zhivkov, for example, was also president of the State Council, the leading government body, which made him the top man in both party and government. In addition to the interlocking of government and party posts at all levels, it was also customary for the top officers of mass organizations to be members of the party hierarchy. The continued existence of a second political party, the Bulgarian Agrarian Union (Bulgarski Zemedelski Suyuz—BZS), did not encroach on the monopolization of political power by the BKP because the prerogatives of the union had been curtailed to the point where it had become an auxiliary of the BKP rather than a competitor. Any opposition to the ruling elite had come from within the party rather than from outside organizations. As recently as 1965 an abortive attempt to overthrow Zhivkov was made, but this was the result of intraparty factionalism rather than antiparty opposition. Zhivkov managed to avert the attempted coup d'etat and afterward strengthened his power base within the party.
At the helm of the party for nineteen years, Zhivkov, despite occasional intraparty struggle and friction, remained the undisputed leader and, as such, he maintained very close relations with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and with the Soviet government. On the one hand the close Bulgarian-Soviet relationship has been interpreted by Marxist theoreticians as the application of "proletarian internationalism"—a theory that contends that proletarian unity is "historically the higher right than that of national self-determination." On the other hand, many observers of Bulgarian-Soviet relations maintain that the nature of the unequal alliance stems not only from historical and cultural affiliations as well as political and ideological identification but, more important, from Zhivkov's need for strong Soviet support.
At the Tenth Party Congress in 1971 Zhivkov reiterated the necessity for close ties with the Soviet Union and introduced a five-year economic plan that continued the long emphasis on heavy industry. The congress reelected the Politburo, despite the advanced ages of some of the members and their demonstrated concern for maintaining the status quo at a time when the changes necessary to transform Bulgaria into a modern industrial country have placed new demands on old methods and institutions. Success or failure of the Communists' ongoing efforts to industrialize, modernize, and communize the country depends on the adaptability of the leadership and the political institutions to meet the challenges of the 1970s.
MAJOR POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS, 1965-71
After discovery of the plot to overthrow him in April 1965, Zhivkov took steps to secure his position and to prevent future conspiracies. Because the threat to his regime had come mainly from the army, Zhivkov and his minister of defense often spoke to assemblies of military officers to explain party policies and to assuage dissident feelings within military ranks. In addition, state security functions were realigned in an attempt to tighten the system in order that such conspiracies would not be able to germinate in the future. The Ministry of the Interior lost its responsibility for security to the newly created Committee of State Security, which was under the direct supervision of Zhivkov in his position as premier. Later, in 1968, the Committee of State Security and the Ministry of the Interior were again merged under the latter's title.
After the abortive plot against him, Zhivkov offered some reforms to placate disgruntled elements and to avoid a repetition of the incident. Although the principal plotters were imprisoned, Zhivkov's reaction to the conspiracy was one of general appeasement. This policy of appeasement was shown by the fact that no general purges took place and that people who could have been suspected of dissident activity were allowed to remain in positions of authority in the party and in the government rather than being summarily swept aside. The programs of liberal reform that had been implemented before, but interrupted by, the 1965 plot were resumed, and Bulgaria seemed to be reaching for a national destiny rather than accepting the role of a Soviet puppet. The reforms affected all fields—political, economic, and cultural—and for a time it seemed that the abortive coup d'etat had given new impetus to Bulgarian national interests.
The promise of reform appeared to be the focal point around which the Ninth Party Congress was convened in 1966, and at the congress party leaders underscored the need for the widest participation in the democratic process. Reforms, however, fell victim to the conservatism of older party leaders, and Zhivkov did not have the personal strength or magnetism to push forward his program. The ninth congress ended with the reelection of the essentially reactionary Politburo and a reaffirmation of the status quo. The bright hopes for economic, political, and social progress that had been evident in late 1965 and early 1966 collapsed in a return of rigid ideological dogma and a firm reliance on Soviet rather than Bulgarian initiatives.
The failure of the ninth congress to rejuvenate the party hierarchy and to chart a reform course for the future had repercussions throughout Bulgarian society. Initiatives in foreign affairs that had been taken in 1965 and 1966 foundered in the retrenchment into party orthodoxy. Negotiations that had begun with Western European countries as well as with Balkan neighbors bore no fruit as the Zhivkov government failed to follow up earlier moves toward better relations. Even more detrimental to Balkan relations was Bulgarian participation in the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, which Yugoslavia and Romania strongly opposed. In the cultural area the party tightened its controls over creative artists and reorganized the Committee on Art and Culture to better serve the needs of the government. The First Congress of Culture, held in 1967, emphasized the constructive role of culture in society and called for an intensification of anti-Western propaganda in order to counter the dangerous influence of so-called bourgeois culture.
There was also great concern among party leaders about the so-called nihilistic attitude of the country's young people. In December 1967 Zhivkov published his "Youth Theses" in an attempt to counter what the party considered to be dangerous apathy on the part of Bulgarian youth. Zhivkov's theses initiated some institutional reforms that dealt heavily with patriotic education in an attempt to instill some national pride in the young people, but about a year later patriotic education was deemphasized. Evidently the program had aroused strong feelings of nationalism that interfered with the pro-Soviet attitudes that have been characteristic of Zhivkov's government. After publication of the "Youth Theses," all youth activities came under the aegis of the Dimitrov Communist Youth Union (Dimitrovski Komunisticheski Mladezhki Suyuz), referred to as Komsomol, which is the junior auxiliary of the BKP. The moves to politicize young people failed to arouse any widespread interest, and in the early 1970s Bulgarian youth remained essentially apolitical and apathetic.