THE FUTURE OF BULGARIA
It is impossible, in my opinion, to doubt the future of Bulgaria. The
disasters of 1914 would seem to suggest that the Bulgarian nation was
without the moral balance to withstand the intoxication of victory. But
whilst the events of that unhappy year showed the lack of that balance,
the fault was with the leaders of the people rather than with the people
themselves.
The misfortune of Bulgaria in this generation of the nation's life--a
misfortune which is being rapidly repaired--is that she has no middle
class: and no class with any "tradition" of leadership behind it. There
are the peasants--admirable material for nation-making--heroic, thrifty,
moral, industrious, practical. Above the peasants there is no class from
which to draw a good supply of competent administrators, law-makers,
officers, professional men. The peasant has his own limited capacities
for leadership; but they are limited. I have encountered him frequently
as Mayor of some little commune, as captain of an infantry regiment, and
admired his administrative abilities, within a narrow and familiar
scope, exceedingly. But the peasant does not go higher than that. It is
the son of the peasant with some extra gift of cleverness who is "given
an education," who becomes legislator, official, cleric, diplomat. In
many cases he does not take his polish well. Advanced education for the
ambitious Balkan lad has in the past generally meant education abroad;
and in Paris or Vienna or Petrograd the young Bulgarian, plunged into an
altogether new life of luxury and of frivolity, often suffered a loss of
natural strength of fibre for which no book-learning could compensate.
That evil will pass away. It is now possible to get a fairly advanced
liberal education without going beyond Bulgaria. Also the people are
becoming more immune to the effects of Western civilisation. Measles is
a dangerous, indeed generally fatal, disease in countries to which it is
first introduced. But in time immunity comes to make it almost
harmless. Bulgaria's material for a modern national organisation is
being quickly improved by the upgrowth of a middle class whose sons will
be able to keep their Bulgarian qualities even under the circumstances
of life in Paris or other great modern city. In future, then, the
courage of the people is likely to have a wiser, more reasonable
leadership, and, with that, it will do wonders.
But I do not wish to be misunderstood as representing that to-day the
official classes and the leaders of the Bulgarian nation are generally
unworthy or incompetent. That would be very far from the truth. But it
is the truth that as yet Bulgaria has not a class sufficient in numbers
and strong enough in tradition to supply her needs in leadership. How
could it be otherwise, seeing that the nation is not much more than a
generation old, and has had to begin working up its organisation from
bed-rock?
The events of 1913-1914 have left Bulgaria weak in her greatest element of
national strength--in the numbers of her citizens. The wars with the
Turks and the subsequent war with the other Balkan states, the ravages
of cholera and, one may unhappily conclude too, the ravages of hunger
after the dreadful ordeals of the successive campaigns, have taken heavy
toll of Bulgarian manhood. But the country will "stock up" quickly. Its
birth-rate is the highest in the world; and its "effective" birth-rate,
_i.e._ the proportion of survivals of those born, is also the highest.
If only a period of peace can be secured, all will be well in time.
[Illustration: A YOUNG MAN OF THE CHOUMLA DISTRICT]
Poor as were her acquisitions of territory compared with her hopes from
the war, Bulgaria at least won a free outlet to the open sea. Her ports
on the Black Sea were always felt to be of limited use, because traffic
to and from them had to pass through the Dardanelles and was therefore
at the mercy of Turkey in case of war. But now Bulgaria has free access
to the Aegean Sea, and though without a good port has a possible port
there.
Considerations of strategic position and of territorial acquisition are,
however, of minor importance in considering Bulgaria's future. It is in
the character of the Bulgarian race and the conditions of life
encouraging the growth of that sturdy character in which the hopes of
that future are bound up. The young Bulgarian is born usually in the
country, and usually also as one of a large family. Here is an
interesting table--compiled before the war--showing at once the
proportion of urban and rural population and the prevalence of large
families in Bulgaria:
------------------------------------------------------------------
| | Number of such || | Number of such |
| Number of| Families. || Number of| Families. |
|Members of|--------------------||Members of|--------------------|
| Families.| | In the || Families.| | In the |
| | In Towns.| Country.|| | In Towns.| Country.|
|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | 19,299 | 11,807 || 11 | 737 | 11,506 |
| 2 | 22,311 | 25,035 || 12 | 340 | 7,570 |
| 3 | 28,182 | 45,747 || 13 | 180 | 4,853 |
| 4 | 29,732 | 66,554 || 14 | 79 | 3,446 |
| 5 | 27,884 | 82,771 || 15 | 44 | 2,187 |
| 6 | 21,746 | 83,635 || 16 | 39 | 1,499 |
| 7 | 13,636 | 69,216 || 17 | 16 | 1,069 |
| 8 | 7,619 | 48,218 || 18 | 14 | 786 |
| 9 | 3,646 | 30,756 || 19 | 8 | 528 |
| 10 | 1,757 | 19,005 || 20 | 1 | 368 |
------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bulgarian infant in the beginning of life will have no handicap of
artificial feeding. The "feeding bottle" is practically unknown in his
country. From the very early age of three this Bulgarian infant may
begin to go to school. Primary education is obligatory. The infant
schools are for the preparation of the children for the primary schools.
Infants between the ages of three and five years are admitted in the
lower divisions, and those between five and six in the higher division.
They are taught games, songs, drawing, manual work, and simple
arithmetic. The teaching in these schools is entrusted exclusively to
school mistresses.
The proclaimed object of the primary school is "to give the future
citizen a moral education, to develop him physically, and to give him
the most indispensable knowledge." The studies last four years. The
school year begins on September 1 and lasts, in the towns, until June
25, and in the villages until the beginning of May. Thus the whole
summer and part of the autumn is exempt from school duties--a wise
exemption in an agricultural community where the children, and perhaps
some of the teachers, have to work in the fields. The subjects taught
include morals, catechism, Bulgarian and ancient Bulgarian history,
civic instruction, geography, arithmetic, natural history, drawing,
singing, gymnastics, manual work (for boys), and embroidery (for girls).
Every parish or village of more than fifty houses must have at least one
primary school. The hamlets and villages of less than fifty houses are
considered, for educational purposes, as parishes.
The enactment rendering public instruction obligatory extends to all
children between the ages of six and twelve. The only temporary or
permanent exception allowed by the law is in favour of children
physically or intellectually unfit. Disobedience to the law is punished
by fines.
Ordinary education ceases with the primary schools or with the private
schools for Mohammedans and Jews which the Bulgarian law allows to be
maintained. The cost to the State of the education of each child at
these schools is less than L1 a year, of which the State provides rather
more than half, the communes the other half.
Thus the young Bulgarian gets a fairly sound start in life, so far as
schooling is concerned, if he intends to go on the land or to follow an
industrial occupation. If he, or she, has greater ambitions, there are
gymnasia for boys and high schools for girls. At these gymnasia the
subjects of instruction are religious knowledge, Bulgarian, French,
German, Russian, Latin and Greek languages, history, geography and civic
instruction, arithmetic, geometry and geometrical drawing, algebra,
descriptive geometry, physics, chemistry, natural science, psychology,
logic and ethics, and gymnastics. The subjects of instruction at the
girls' high schools include most of those mentioned above and also
hygiene and the rearing of children, domestic economy, embroidery, music
and singing. There are further special pedagogical schools for the
training of teachers, and there is a University at Sofia having chairs
for Historico-Philological, Physico-Mathematical, and legal courses.
This University is beginning to take the place of foreign universities
for the training of young Bulgaria for public life. The training is
narrower but, on the whole, probably better from a national point of
view. Only the more seasoned minds of a young nation should be submitted
to the test of foreign study.
But let us get back to the young Bulgarian who is going on the land. At
the age of twelve he leaves school and henceforth devotes himself
wholly, instead of partly, to work on his father's farm. He begins, too,
to be introduced to the work of the village commune, though he may not
take any part in its control for some time yet. With great care the
makers of the Bulgarian Constitution have tried to guarantee the
independence of the communes. The central government must take no part
in the administration of the communes, nor maintain any agents of its
own to interfere with their affairs. The commune, which forms the basis
of the State fabric, enjoys thus a complete autonomy. It is the smallest
unit in the administrative organisation of the country. Every district
is subdivided into communes, which are either urban or rural. Every
Bulgarian subject must belong to a commune and figure in its registers,
or else he is a vagrant and punishable as such. The commune is governed
by a Mayor and Council, and at the age of twenty-five the Bulgarian is
eligible to become a councillor. Not only is the commune the organ of
local government, but it has much to do with the control of the land
affairs of this nation of peasant proprietors.
At nineteen the Bulgarian youth, at seventeen the Bulgarian girl are
marriageable, and their parents set about the work of mating them as
quickly as possible. Marriages are almost always arranged by the
parents, and it is not usual for husband and wife to come from different
communes. After marriage the Bulgarian wife is supposed to devote
herself exclusively to family life and not to wish for any social life.
There is an almost _harem_ system of seclusion, but--except that the
Bulgarian is monogamous in theory and generally in practice, whilst the
Turk is polygamous in theory and usually monogamous by force of
circumstances, since he cannot afford more than one wife--the Bulgarian
idea of home life shows evidence of Turkish influences.
The Bulgarian civil law gives to the Church complete control of the
matters of marriage and divorce. Divorce is allowed on various grounds,
but is not common. Adultery does not of itself entail the dissolution of
marriage. The party which has been found guilty of adultery is not
allowed to marry the partner in guilt. The custody of the children, in
case of divorce, is given to the innocent party, except when the
children are below the age of five years, in which case they are left
with the mother. Mutual consent of the married is not a ground for
divorce. All marriages contracted in opposition to the canon laws are
considered null. The Diocesan Council is the sole competent authority to
judge affairs of divorce, its decisions being submitted to the approval
of a metropolitan bishop.
I think Gibbon was responsible in the first instance for ascribing to
the Bulgarians a low moral character. But all the evidence that came
under my notice suggested that the Bulgarians were exceptionally
virtuous.
In their hospitals I found no cases of disease arising from vice. In
their camps they had no women followers. I passed through many villages
which their troops had traversed, and never observed any evidence of
women having been interfered with.
[Illustration: A BULGARIAN FARM]
The young Bulgarian, married--without much romance in the wooing, but
perhaps none the less happily married for that according to his
ideas--tilling his little farm, joins now in the main current of the
national life. He is exceedingly industrious, rising early and working
late. His food is frugal--whole-meal bread, hard cheese, soft cheese
(which is like rank butter), vegetables, very occasionally meat and
eggs. From his Turk cousins he has acquired a love of sweetmeats, and so
for his treats lollies and cakes are essential. But also he is a Slav
and likes a glass of _vodka_ on Sundays and feast days. He is very
sober, however, and drunkenness is rare. His chief drink is water, with
now and again tea made in the Russian fashion, or coffee made in the
Turkish fashion. At the village _cafes_ these are the chief
refreshments--_vodka_, tea and coffee. But a light beer is also brewed
in Bulgaria, and drunk by the inhabitants.
Both as regards food and drink, however, the Bulgarians' habits are
usually governed by an intense frugality. The country gives no very rich
return to the peasant. He almost invariably marries young and has a
large family. The household budget thus leaves very little margin over
from the strictly necessary food-expenses. That margin the Bulgarian
prefers in the main to save rather than to dissipate. The Bulgarian is
economical, not to say grasping. He dreams always of getting a little
richer. In his combination of the instincts of a cultivator and of a
trader he resembles a great deal the French Norman peasantry.
The duties of national defence make heavy demands on the national
industry in Bulgaria. Training for military service is universal and
compulsory. There is no hope at all that there will be any lightening of
military burdens for some time to come, since the 1914 wars have left
Bulgaria in a position which the national pride refuses to accept as
final. The burdens are borne cheerfully. The patience of the Bulgarian
peasant soldiery during the awful campaigns of 1913 and 1914 was heroic,
and their steadiness in the field showed how well they had profited by
their training.
For this Bulgarian nation, so frugal, industrious, persevering and
courageous there must be a splendid future. It has all the essential
elements of greatness and must overcome in time the misfortunes of the
past. If but the Fates will shield Bulgaria for a time from the
desperate policy of attempting any new war of revenge or of enterprise,
her growing economic strength, her superiority in industry and in
application to other peoples of the Peninsula will in time assert
themselves, and give her a strong position in the Balkans.