Socialist Bulgaria Research Articles

The Borsa: The Black Market for Rock Music in Late Socialist Bulgaria

This paper offers an empirical description and analytical interpretation of the borsa—the largest black market for rock music in Bulgaria in the 1980s. The text illuminates the distinct characteristics of the urban locale that became the focal point of rock fans’ desires and ambitions, examines how the interactions between the entrepreneurs who supplied the music and their adoles-cent clients were embedded in enduring networks of trust, and explores the peculiarities of the borsa as a site where western works of art were mechanically reproduced. It also demonstrates that the place where admirers of rock music met was enlivened by political energies and deliberately demarcated as a space in which ideological differences could manifest themselves, thus contesting Alexei Yurchak's argument that in late socialism it was possible to be loyal to and love “both Lenin and Led Zeppelin.“

The Borsa: The Black Market for Rock Music in Late Socialist Bulgaria

This paper offers an empirical description and analytical interpretation of theborsa—the largest black market for rock music in Bulgaria in the 1980s. The text illuminates the distinct characteristics of the urban locale that became the focal point of rock fans’ desires and ambitions, examines how the interactions between the entrepreneurs who supplied the music and their adoles-cent clients were embedded in enduring networks of trust, and explores the peculiarities of the borsa as a site where western works of art were mechanically reproduced. It also demonstrates that the place where admirers of rock music met was enlivened by political energies and deliberately demarcated as a space in which ideological differences could manifest themselves, thus contesting Alexei Yurchak's argument that in late socialism it was possible to be loyal to and love “both Lenin and Led Zeppelin.“

The unbearable lightness of advertising: culture, media and the rise of advertising in socialist Bulgaria

This article offers a historical analysis of the conceptualization of advertising both as a propaganda tool and as a means of encouraging consumption in socialist Bulgaria. By exploring the public discourse on the function and importance of advertising in the popular media over the last 50 years, it seeks to explore the approach used to define the need for advertising, offering an insight into the complex ways in which socialist ideologies recognized the “inevitable” logic of the market – on one hand, acknowledging the need for consumption and on the other, recognizing the utility of advertising, which promotes and supports this very consumption as it sustains the operation of a commercially viable social system.

Pragmatism, not ideology: Bulgarian architectural exports to the ‘Third World’

This essay is the first endeavour to sum up certain features of the Bulgarian export of architecture during the Cold War. Starting with construction firms acting in the ‘Third World’, this export was conveyed mainly by Technoexportstroy, a specialised enterprise established in 1964 by the Bulgarian Ministry of Construction, and later by the planning office Bulgarproject created in 1973. The geopolitical situation between the 1960s and 1980s was beneficial for the entrance of Bulgarian architects to post-colonial markets. They had to hold their own in competition with international architects and this paper argues that the export of architecture was based on the principles of the market economy and not on ideological influences. The number of Bulgarian architects involved can be estimated at 300-400. Alongside financial benefits, export projects gave these architects an understanding of architecture involving the work of several participants, even having to respect in some cases unpredictable interests: a situation which contrasted with socialist Bulgaria. From a range of projects, this paper discusses three examples, which together typified local economic circumstances and contributed to the welfare of the countries involved: the Olympic Sports Complex in Tunis, the bungalow projects in Sousse and the Nigerian National Theatre in Lagos.

Socialist Secularism: Religion, Modernity, and Muslim Women's Emancipation in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, 1945-1991

This article uses the examples of socialist Bulgaria and Yugoslavia to propose some new directions for rethinking scholarly understandings of “secularism” and the ways in which socialist secularizing projects were intricately intertwined with questions of gender equality. Current scholarly debates on the genealogy of secularism root its origins in the Catholic/Protestant West, and systematically ignore cases from the former communist world. This article takes two cases of Balkan states to explore the theoretical contours of what we call “socialist secularism.” Although Bulgaria and Yugoslavia’s experiences of socialist secularism differed in the degree of their coerciveness, this article examines the similarities in the conceptualization of the secularizing imperative and the rhetoric used to justify it, specifically the rhetoric of communist modernism and women’s liberation from religious backwardness.

Housing in Socialist Bulgaria: Appropriating Tradition

ABSTRACTThis analysis of how Bulgaria coped with socialist modernization in the field of housing takes the concept of “consumption regime” as its point of departure. Applying the lens of “regulated consumption” (as opposed to a laissez- faire regime) allows a differentiation between state care and state control. Bulgarian housing policy relied on the notion of the state as the main actor. The article argues that this state did not contradict traditional values in Bulgarian society but made concerted efforts to meet the essential wishes of the people vis-à-vis their own home. During the late 1940s and 1950s, this tradition was reflected in the way construction was organized as well as in the types of housing provided. By contrast, in the time of socialist large-scale slab building (from the 1960s to 1980s) this tradition was reinterpreted to cover favorable conditions of loans for housing—in the first place for building second houses (villas). The regulation of housing supply through the use of tradition explains the very high percentage of private housing in Bulgaria after the fall of socialism. Housing in socialist Bulgaria corroborates the argument that the appropriation of tradition is an important factor in the domestication of socialist modernization.

Let's Twist Again: Youth and Leisure in Socialist Bulgaria. By Karin Taylor. Studies on South East Europe, vol. 6. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2006. Dist. Transaction Publishers, iv, 248 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Illustrations. Photographs. Tables. Map. $49.95, paper.

Let's Twist Again: Youth and Leisure in Socialist Bulgaria. By Karin Taylor. Studies on South East Europe, vol. 6. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2006. Dist. Transaction Publishers, iv, 248 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Illustrations. Photographs. Tables. Map. $49.95, paper. - Volume 68 Issue 3

Making Bulgarians Socialist: The Fatherland Front in Communist Bulgaria, 1944—1989

This paper discusses the activities of the Fatherland Front in communist Bulgaria. The Fatherland Front evolved from the communist-led anti-fascist coalition, which had taken power in 1944, into the largest mass organization in socialist Bulgaria, though without real political power. Since the late 1950s, its primary goal was the creation of the “socialist way of life,” which would signal the triumph of communist ideology in all walks of life. Propaganda campaigns, lobbying efforts, and the peculiar institution of “Comrade Courts” were employed by the Front in its struggle for rendering everyday life socialist. The analysis, which is based on archival records and published texts, elucidates some of the party-state's strategies to establish cultural hegemony. The activities of the Fatherland Front also reveal which popular practices and consequences of social change were considered problematic by the communist regime, and how they were addressed.

Performing democracy: Bulgarian music and musicians in transition

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaled the onset of tumultuous political, economic, and social reforms throughout Eastern Europe. In Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Soviet Union these changes were linked to the activities and philosophies of political figures such as Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In Bulgaria, however, these changes were first heralded and even facilitated by particular musicians and shifting musical styles. Based on fieldwork conducted between 1988 and 1996 with professional Bulgarian folk musicians, Donna A. Buchanan's Performing Democracy argues that the performances of traditional music groups may be interpreted not only as harbingers but as agents of Bulgaria's political transition. Many of the musicians in socialist Bulgaria's state folk ensembles served as official cultural emissaries for several decades. Through their reminiscences and repertoires, Buchanan reveals the evolution of Bulgarian musical life as it responded to and informed the political process. By modifying their art to accommodate changing political ideologies, these musicians literally played out regime change on the world's stages, performing their country's democratization musically at home and abroad. Performing Democracy and its accompanying CD-ROM, featuring traditional Bulgarian music, lyrics, notation, and photos, will fascinate any reader interested in the many ways art echoes and influences politics.

Vanga, la «Pythie bulgare»: idées et usages de l'Antiquité en Bulgarie socialiste

Galia Valtchinova, Vanga, the « Bulgarian Pythia »: Ideas and Uses of Antiquity in Bulgaria, DHA 31/1, 2005, p. 93-127. Abstract: Taking cue from a case study of a seer celebrated as national prophetess, in socialist Bulgaria, this paper is dedicated to the political [abjuses of ancient history in the 20th century Balkans. Its first part is an exploration of the social and cultural construction of the seer Vanga in the context of post-Ottoman Macedonia, successively dominated by three nation-States Bulgaria, and the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), as well as in Bulgarian Macedonia under socialism. The second part starts by a glance to the political uses and abuses of Greek Antiquity in various Balkan national historiographies, and concentrates on the developments of « thracology » - the dominating trend in the recent Bulgarian historiography of Antiquity - in the 1970s and 1980s. This examination highlights the construction of Vanga as the "Bulgarian Pythia" by outstanding thracologists as a strategy of use and appropriation of the symbolic capital related to Greek Antiquity for political purposes. The paper outlines how, by recourse to a certain comparative approach, a branch of the historiography of Antiquity has made for the positive and prestigious image of a contemporary Balkan religious virtuoso under communism, in the same time veiling its cultural background and its social dimensions. It also argues for a critical réévaluation of historiography of ancient Greece, which, loosing the innocence of « objectivism », is increasingly caught between nationalist discourses and the politics of national (or imperial) grandeur.

Product Differentiation and Advertising: Some Lessons from Soviet Experience

Previous articleNext article No AccessProduct Differentiation and Advertising: Some Lessons from Soviet ExperienceMarshall I. GoldmanMarshall I. Goldman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 68, Number 4Aug., 1960 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/258341 Views: 13Total views on this site Citations: 10Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1961 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Ondřej Dufek Advertising on till receipts in socialist Czechoslovakia: language, argumentation and ideology, Journal of Historical Research in Marketing 13, no.11 (Dec 2020): 18–43.https://doi.org/10.1108/JHRM-12-2019-0051Won-Jun LEE , Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 11, no.55 ( 2020): 27.https://doi.org/10.13106/jidb.2020.vol11.no5.27Shelby D. Hunt The ethics of branding, customer-brand relationships, brand-equity strategy, and branding as a societal institution, Journal of Business Research 95 (Feb 2019): 408–416.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.044Irina Yuzhakova, Michael A. Belch, George E. Belch A Content Analysis of Prime Time Television Commercials Reflecting Advertising Appeals used in Russia, (Jan 2015): 125–130.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17356-6_39Elza Ibroscheva The unbearable lightness of advertising: culture, media and the rise of advertising in socialist Bulgaria, Consumption Markets & Culture 16, no.33 (Jun 2012): 290–310.https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2012.668365Shelby D. Hunt, Robert M. Morgan The Resource-Advantage Theory of Competition, (Mar 2015): 153–206.https://doi.org/10.1108/S1548-6435(2004)0000001008Ludmilla Gricenko Wells Western Concepts, Russian Perspectives: Meanings of Advertising in the Former Soviet Union, Journal of Advertising 23, no.11 (Mar 1994): 83–95.https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1994.10673433Douglas F. Greer The economic benefits and costs of trademarks: Lessons for the developing countries, World Development 7, no.77 (Jul 1979): 683–704.https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(79)90081-0Hiram C. Barksdale, William J. Kelly, Ian MacFarlane The marketing concept in the U.S. and the USSR: An historical analysis, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 6, no.44 (Sep 1978): 258–277.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02732311MICHAEL C. LOVELL PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION AND MARKET STRUCTURE, Economic Inquiry 8, no.22 (Jun 1970): 120–143.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1970.tb01083.x