PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND POPULATION
Bulgaria occupies 42,800 square miles of the Balkan Peninsula, and its
1973 population was estimated at 8.7 million (see fig. 1). It is a
member of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact), together with
five other Eastern European countries to its north and northwest and the
Soviet Union. Bulgaria's location is such that its natural features are
combinations of those found in the western Soviet Union and in southern
Europe. Its climate is transitional between that of the Mediterranean
countries and that of north-central Europe. The blend of the various
geographic influences is unique, however, and gives the country a degree
of individuality that is not anticipated until it is explored in some
detail.
It is a land of unusual scenic beauty, having picturesque mountains,
wooded hills, beautiful valleys, grain-producing plains, and a seacoast
that has both rocky cliffs and long sandy beaches. Soil and climate are
adequate to permit production of a variety of crops. Although only a few
mineral resources are present in quantity or in good quality ores, the
country has a number of them. Large quantities of brown coal and lignite
are available, but resources of the better fuels are limited.
The people of the country have been influenced by its location, which is
close to the point of contact between Europe and the Orient. The area
had been overrun by so many conquerors and occupied for so long that
only since liberation in 1878 have a majority of the peasants dared come
out of the hills to farm the better land of the plains and valleys.
The country fared poorly in the distribution of the spoils after the
First Balkan War in 1912. It was then on the losing side of the Second
Balkan War in 1913 and of the two great wars since. In spite of this,
its boundaries contain most of the Bulgarian people in the area, and
only some 10 to 15 percent of the population within its borders is not
ethnically Bulgarian. It has until recently been predominantly
agricultural. Industrialization was undertaken late, and it was not
until 1969 that the urban population equaled that of the rural areas
(see ch. 2).
NATURAL FEATURES
Topography
Alternating bands of high and low terrain extend generally east to west
across the country. The four most prominent of these from north to
south are the Danubian plateau, the Stara Planina (Old Mountain), or
Balkan Mountains, the central Thracian Plain, and the Rodopi (or Rhodope
Mountains). The western part of the country, however, consists almost
entirely of higher land, and the individual mountain ranges in the east
tend to taper into hills and gentle uplands as they approach the Black
Sea (see fig. 2).
The Danubian plateau, also called a plain or a tableland, extends from
the Yugoslav border to the Black Sea. It encompasses the area between
the Danube River, which forms most of the country's northern border, and
the Stara Planina to the south. The plateau rises from cliffs along the
river, which are typically 300 to 600 feet high, and abuts against the
mountains at elevations on the order of 1,200 to 1,500 feet. The region
slopes gently but perceptibly from the river southward to the mountains.
The western portion is lower and more dissected; in the east it becomes
regular but somewhat higher, better resembling a plateau. Bulgarians
name local areas within it, but they do not name the region as a whole.
It is a fertile area with undulating hills and is the granary of the
country.
The southern edge of the Danubian plateau blends into the foothills of
the Stara Planina, the Bulgarian extension of the Carpathian Mountains.
The Carpathians resemble a reversed S as they run eastward from
Czechoslovakia across the northern portion of Romania, swinging
southward to the middle of that country, where they run westward and
cross Romania as the Transylvanian Alps. At a famous gorge of the Danube
River known as the Iron Gate, which forms part of the Romania-Yugoslavia
border, the Carpathians again sweep eastward, becoming Bulgaria's Stara
Planina range.
Considered in its local context, the Stara Planina originates at the
Timok Valley in Yugoslavia, continues southeastward as it becomes the
northern boundary of the Sofia Basin, and then turns more directly
eastward to terminate at Cape Emine on the Black Sea. It is some 370
miles in length, and some twelve to thirty miles in width. It retains
its height well into the central part of the country, where Botev Peak,
its highest point, rises to about 7,800 feet. The range is still
apparent until its rocky cliffs fall into the Black Sea. Over most of
its length, its ridge is the divide between drainage to the Danube River
and to the Aegean Sea. In the east small areas drain directly to the
Black Sea.
Sometimes considered a part of the foothills of the Stara Planina, but
separated from the main range by a long geological trench that contains
the Valley of Roses, is the Sredna Gora (Middle Forest). The Sredna Gora
is a ridge running almost precisely east to west, about 100 miles long.
Its elevations run to only a little more than 5,000 feet, but it is
narrow and achieves an impression of greater height.
The southern slopes of the Stara Planina and the Sredna Gora give way to
the Thracian Plain. The plain is roughly triangular in shape,
originating at a point east of the mountains that ring the Sofia Basin
and broadening as it proceeds eastward to the Black Sea. It
encompasses the Maritsa River basin and the lowlands that extend from it
to the Black Sea. As is the case with the Danubian plateau, a great deal
of this area is not a plain in strict terms. Most of its terrain is
moderate enough to allow cultivation, but there are variations greater
than those of a typical plain.
[Illustration: _Figure 2. Topography of Bulgaria_]
The Rodopi occupies the area between the Thracian Plain and the Greek
border. This range is commonly described as including the Rila mountain
range south of Sophia and the Pirin range in the southwestern corner of
the country. As such, the Rodopi is the most outstanding topographic
feature, not only of the country, but also of the entire Balkan
Peninsula. The Rila contains Mount Musala--called Mount Stalin for a few
years--whose 9,500-foot peak is the highest in the Balkans. About a
dozen other peaks in the Rila are over 9,000 feet. They feature a few
bare rocks and remote lakes above the tree line, but the lower peaks are
covered with Alpine meadows, and the general aspect of the range is one
of green beauty.
The Vitosha range is an outlier of the Rila. A symmetrical, 7,500-foot
high, isolated peak in the range is a landmark on the outskirts of
Sofia. Snow covers its conical summit most of the year, and its steep
sides are forested.
The Pirin is characterized by rocky peaks and stony slopes. An
impression of the landscape is provided by a local legend, which says
that when the earth was being created God was flying over the peninsula
with a bag of huge boulders. The rocks were too heavy for the bag, and
it broke over southwestern Bulgaria.
Some Bulgarian geographers refer to the western Rodopi and the Pirin as
the Thracian-Macedonian massif. In this context, the Rodopi includes
only the mountains south of the Maritsa River basin. There is some basis
for such a division. The Rila is largely volcanic in origin. The Pirin
was formed at a different time by fracturing of the earth's crust. The
uplands east of the Maritsa River are not of the same stature as the
major ranges.
Sizable areas in the western and central Stara Planina and smaller areas
in the Pirin and in Dobrudzha have extensive layers of limestone. There
are some 2,000 caves in these deposits. The public has become more
interested in the caves during the past three or four decades, but only
about 400 of them have been completely explored and charted.
To the east of the higher Rodopi and east of the Maritsa River are the
Sakar and Strandzha mountains. They extend the length of the Rodopi
along the Turkish border to the Black Sea but are themselves
comparatively insignificant. At one point they have a spot elevation of
about 2,800 feet, but they rarely exceed 1,500 feet elsewhere.
Formation of the Balkan landmasses involved a number of earth crust
foldings and volcanic actions that either dammed rivers or forced them
into new courses. The flat basins that occur throughout the country
were created when river waters receded from the temporary lakes that
existed while the rivers were cutting their new channels. The largest of
these is the Sofia Basin, which includes the city and the area about
fifteen miles wide and sixty miles long to its northwest and southeast.
Other valleys between the Stara Planina and the Sredna Gora ranges
contain a series of smaller basins, and similar ones occur at intervals
in the valleys of a number of the larger rivers.
Drainage
From a drainage standpoint, the country is divided into two nearly equal
parts. The slightly larger one drains to the Black Sea, the other to the
Aegean. The northern watershed of the Stara Planina, all of the Danubian
plateau, and the thirty to fifty miles inland from the coastline drain
to the Black Sea. The Thracian Plain and most of the higher lands of the
south and southwest drain to the Aegean Sea. Although only the Danube is
navigable, many of the other rivers and streams have a high potential
for the production of hydroelectric power and are sources of irrigation
water. Many are already being exploited.
Insignificant when compared with the watersheds that drain to the seas,
about 125 square miles of the country drain into a few small salt lakes
that have no outflowing water. The largest such lake has a surface area
of 2.5 square miles.
By far the greater part of the country that drains to the Black Sea does
so through the Danube. Most of its major tributaries in the country
(from west to east, the Ogosta, Iskur, Vit, Osum, Yantra, and Lom) carry
more water than do the combination of the Provadiyska, Kamchiya,
Fakiyska, and Veleka rivers, all of which flow directly into the Black
Sea. Of the Danube's Bulgarian tributaries, all but the Iskur rise in
the Stara Planina. The Iskur rises in the Rila and flows northward
through a narrow basin. Territory not far from the river on both sides
of it drains in the opposite direction, to the south. The Iskur passes
through Sofia's eastern suburbs and cuts a valley through the Stara
Planina on its way to join the Danube.
The Iskur and the other of the Danube's north-flowing tributaries have
cut deep valleys through the Danubian plateau. The eastern banks tend to
rise sharply from the rivers; the western parts of the valleys may have
broad fields with alluvial soils. The peculiar, though consistent,
pattern is caused by forces resulting from the earth's rotation; these
forces give the water a motion that tends to undercut the right banks of
the streams. Some of these rivers are sizable streams, but the Danube
gets only a little more than 4 percent of its total volume from its
Bulgarian tributaries. As it flows along the northern border, the Danube
averages one to 1.5 miles in width. Its highest water levels are usually
reached during June floods, and in normal seasons it is frozen over for
about forty days.
Several major rivers flow directly to the Aegean Sea, although the
Maritsa with its tributaries is by far the largest. The Maritsa drains
all of the western Thracian Plain, all of the Sredna Gora, the southern
slopes of the Stara Planina, and the northern slopes of the eastern
Rodopi. Other than the Maritsa, the Struma in the west and the Mesta
(which separates the Pirin from the main Rodopi ranges) are the two
largest of the rivers that rise in Bulgaria and flow to the Aegean. Most
of these streams fall swiftly from the mountains and have cut deep,
scenic gorges. The Struma and Mesta reach the sea through Greece. The
Maritsa forms most of the Greek-Turkish border after it leaves Bulgaria.
About 3,750 square miles of agricultural land have access to irrigation
waters. Dams provide the water for about one-half of the acreage;
diversions from rivers and streams serve about one-third; and water
pumped from the ground and from streams accounts for the remainder.
Of the dams, ninety-two are termed large state dams. Their combined
capacity is three times that of some 2,000 smaller dams. The sources of
four large rivers--the Maritsa, Iskur, Mesta, and Rilska (a major
tributary of the Struma)--are within a few miles of each other in the
high Rila. Water from the upper courses of these and several other
streams supplies the Sofia area with both water and electricity, and
they have a potential for further development. There are major dams on
the Tundzha, Iskur, Rositsa, and Struma rivers. The Danube is too
massive a stream to harness, and damming the Maritsa along most of its
course would flood too much valuable land. The rivers flowing north
across the Danubian plateau also tend to be overly difficult to use in
the areas where they are most needed.
The Vucha River, flowing from the Rodopi into the Maritsa River, is
often used to illustrate how rivers have been effectively harnessed to
provide a variety of benefits. Its cascade system of hydroelectric
development employs six dams having the capacity to generate over
600,000 kilowatts of electricity. The water they back up serves the
municipal water systems in Plovdiv and a number of other towns in its
vicinity, and the dams provide irrigation water for nearly 250,000 acres
of cropland. The reservoirs themselves are being developed as
recreational areas and mountain resorts.
Where a stream is difficult to dam or to divert, water is pumped from
it. This has been feasible only since about 1950, when low-cost diesel
engines and sufficient hydroelectric power became available from newly
constructed dams on other streams. About eighty-five huge pumping
stations have been set up along the Danube River, which furnishes about
three-quarters of the water acquired by this method; and in 1970 there
were about 1,200 lesser stations operating on smaller streams, most of
them on the Thracian Plain.
Climate
For so small an area, the climate varies widely and is unusually
complex. Depending upon the depth to which they study the area,
climatologists list six or more climatic subzones. The country lies on
the line of transition between the strongly contrasting Eastern European
continental and the Mediterranean climatic zones, and its mountains and
valleys are local factors that act as barriers or channels to the air
masses, contributing to sharp contrasts in weather over relatively short
distances. The Black Sea, although too small to be a primary influence
over much of the country's weather, also affects the immediate area
along its coastline.
In general, continental systems prevail in the north. They are
characterized by hot summers, cold winters, and precipitation well
distributed throughout the year, a major portion of it in early summer
thunderstorms. The Mediterranean climate that is influential most of the
time in the south has mild, damp winters but hot, dry, rain-free
summers. The Stara Planina marks the lower limits of the area in which
continental air masses circulate freely in typical circumstances. In the
area between them and the Danube River there is an extension of the
climate that is common to east-central Europe and adjoining regions of
the Soviet Union.
In the same fashion, the Rodopi marks the northern limits of domination
by Mediterranean weather systems. The southern slopes of these mountains
are sufficiently mild to merit the region's being called the Green
Greece or Bulgarian California.
The area in between, which includes the Thracian Plain, is influenced by
both types of climate, but more of the time by continental systems. The
result is a plains climate resembling that of the corn belt in the
United States, which is characterized by long summers and high humidity.
The climate is generally more severe than that of Spain and the portions
of Italy, France, and Soviet Georgia that are in the same latitude.
Because it is a transitional area and the Mediterranean systems may
prevail for most of some seasons or retreat from the scene altogether in
other seasons, average temperatures and precipitation are erratic and
may vary widely from year to year.
Precipitation over the country averages about twenty-five inches a year
and, when it is distributed normally throughout the seasons, it is
satisfactory for most agricultural crops. Dobrudzha, in the northeast,
the Black Sea coastal area, and parts of the Thracian Plain usually
receive less than twenty inches. The remainder of the Thracian Plain and
the Danubian plateau get less than the country average. Higher
elevations are the most generously watered, in some places receiving
forty inches or more.
Although a low figure of 7.6 inches was recorded in Dobrudzha for one
year and the normal precipitation is marginal, both Dobrudzha and the
Danubian plateau are in the continental climate zone and usually receive
most of their rainfall during crop-growing seasons. The Thracian Plain,
however, has frequent seasons when it is under Mediterranean influences
and, when this is the case, it may experience prolonged summer droughts.
Irrigation is, therefore, necessary for dependable agricultural
production.
A few sheltered pockets in the higher mountains may remain covered with
snow all year, and much of the other higher land remains white well into
springtime. Lower elevations are snow covered an average of twenty-five
to thirty days a year. Average cloudiness is about 55 percent, and
average relative humidity is as high as 70 to 75 percent.
The many valley basins throughout the uplands frequently have
temperature inversions resulting in stagnant air. The Sofia area, for
example, is occasionally troubled by smog. The city's elevation of about
1,800 feet, however, tends to moderate summer temperatures and to
relieve the oppressive quality of the high humidity. It is also
sheltered from the northern European winds by the mountains that ring
the basin. Its temperatures in January average about 29 deg. F, and in
August they average about 70 deg. F. Its rainfall is near the country
average, and the overall result of the several contributing features is
a rather unexpectedly pleasant climate.
The climate of the coast is moderated by the Black Sea, but there are
many windy days and violent local storms during the winter. The area
along the Danube River experiences bitterly cold winters, and sheltered
valleys opening to the south along the Greek and Turkish borders may, in
contrast, be as mild as though they were on the Mediterranean or Aegean
coasts. The so-called Black Wind, a local phenomenon similar to the
African sirocco, consists of hard-blowing, hot, very dry air and wreaks
havoc on crops. It gets its name from the quantities of dust it carries,
which often darken the skies.
Regions in the Rodopi and the higher elevations around Sofia feature sun
and snow in a pleasant combination for about four months a year. Several
places have good and reasonably dependable skiing and are being
developed into holiday resorts.
Soils
Fine, dark chernozem (black earth) soils, rich in loess and humus, occur
over a considerable portion of the northern Danubian plateau. They are
fertile, easy to work, and compare with the best soils in Europe. Away
from the river, approaching the mountains, there is a broader area that
is basically similar, but the subsoils are more porous and have allowed
the humus and loess to leach downward from the surface. The resulting
gray soil no longer rates among the finest, but it yields good crops in
some areas and, where it is less satisfactory, the land is forested.
The Thracian Plain has comparatively little of the finest soils, but it
has much soil that is more than adequate to produce reasonably good
crops. The best on the plain is locally called _smolnitsa_. It is
basically a chernozem, but it is less fully matured and coarser than the
darker variety along the Danube. The plain also features fairly
extensive areas of good brown and brown forest soils. Meadow soils occur
in large areas in the vicinity of Plovdiv. Some are irrigated and
cultivated.
Meadow and layered podzol (gray forest) soils occur in most of the
higher elevations throughout the country. Intermediate elevations
usually have brown forest soils, some of which are excellent. The
Maritsa and Tundzha and the major rivers that flow into the Danube have
wide valleys with alluvial soils. They may be coarse, but most of them
are fertile, drain well, and are extensively cultivated.
Vegetation
Both the natural vegetation and the cultivated crops that have replaced
it on all areas that could be put to agricultural use reflect the
transitional climate of the country. North of the Stara Planina the
original flora was a continuation of that on the Russian steppe. The
steppe influence was greatest in the east, giving way to deciduous
forests farther to the west.
Lands south of the mountains, sheltered from the colder extremes of the
continental weather systems, have been able to support plant life that
could not exist on the steppe. Areas along the Black Sea coast and in
valleys of the Rodopi that open to the south experience further
moderation. Many Mediterranean and subtropical species have existed in
them naturally, and others introduced by man have thrived.
What remains of the original vegetation on the Danubian plateau is found
mainly along the river, where the land has been difficult to cultivate.
It includes brush grass, reeds, and licorice. The last two have
commercial value. Most of the original lowland deciduous forests have
been removed, and grain flourishes on the level expanses where the soils
are favorable. Other food and fodder crops are grown to satisfy local
requirements. The foothills of the Stara Planina are dotted with
orchards; plums are the most prevalent fruit in these northern areas.
The depression, or geological trench, between the Stara Planina and the
Sredna Gora ranges, which is at the near center point of the country and
contains the upper valleys of the Tundzha, Stryama, and Topolnitsa
rivers, is sheltered and very humid and is ideal for the raising of
roses. One in particular, Rosa Alba, has become known as Bulgaria's
gold. Its flower is not an especially lovely variety, but it is
extremely rich in the rose oil that is the basic fragrance in many
perfumes and a flavor in certain liqueurs. Fields of them flourish in
the Kazanluk area, the so-called Valley of Roses.
The Thracian Plain, between the Sredna Gora and the Rodopi, originally
featured a mixture of midlatitude forest and Mediterranean flora. The
forests have been removed from the level lands and have been replaced by
a diversification of crops, including truck vegetables, fruit orchards,
strawberries, raspberries, vineyards, tobacco, and cotton. The plain
also produces a variety of herbs and medicine derivatives. Digitalis is
produced from foxgloves; menthol, from peppermint; opium, from a species
of poppy; linseed oil, from flaxseed; laxatives, from iris and rhubarb;
and castor oil, from the castor bean. All of them are grown on this
plain.
Where the plain touches the Black Sea, varieties of tropical or
subtropical vegetation appear. Vegetation is dense along the Kamchiya
River and on the banks of a few of the smaller streams as they approach
the sea. Reeds, lianas, exotic flowers, and huge old trees that grow
nowhere else in the country flourish in this region.
In the southern Rodopi, where a few of the river valleys--those of the
Struma, Mesta, and Maritsa, for example--open to the south, the
vegetation is typically Mediterranean. Natural species include the
Mediterranean scrubby underbrush, maquis, and an assortment of flowering
plants and shrubs. Vineyards and subtropical fruit grow well in these
valleys. Such areas produce the country's peaches, figs, and peanuts.
Mountainous regions feature Alpine meadows and pastures above the tree
line, where the terrain permits, and conifer forests immediately below
the tree line. Deciduous trees are native to all of the uplands of the
country with tolerable elevations. Beech predominates at intermediate
elevations, particularly on northern slopes, and oak, on the lower
foothills. There are dense elm, oak, and ash forests at lower elevations
in the Kamchiya River valley where it descends from the eastern part of
the Stara Planina. Scrub and brush prevail at all upland elevations
where terrain and soil conditions are poor or where the original forest
has been removed and has not been replaced.
The Stara Planina has grassy meadowland and pastures on rounded summits
and higher slopes. In the springtime these higher lands may also be
brilliant with wild flowers and flowering shrubs. Cherry laurel, for
example, grows wild over wide areas. The meadows usually give way to
beech and to other mixed deciduous forests at lower elevations. Mixed
forests may contain varieties of oak, chestnut, hornbeam, elm, and ash.
The most valuable forests are in the Rodopi, although many of them are
interspersed among inaccessible craggy hills. A majority of the
country's conifers, both the natural forest and those that have been
planted in preference to the slower growing deciduous, are in the higher
Rodopi, including the Rila and the Pirin. The most common of the
conifers are pine and fir. At elevations beneath those dominated by the
conifers, the mixture of broad-leaved deciduous trees is similar to that
of the Stara Planina. Of the forest area, only about one-half has tall
timber. Scrub on the remainder, however, serves to stabilize the soil of
the forest lands against erosion and to slow the runoff of water. The
rare and exotic edelweiss can be found on the higher slopes of the
Pirin.
Wildlife
The clearing of forestland and the increase in human population have
driven most of the larger wildlife from their natural habitats, except
in the higher and more rugged terrain. Of the larger species, some
bears, wild boars, wild goats, wolves, elk, and several species of deer
continue to exist naturally. Foxes, wildcats, polecats, squirrels and
other rodents, and hare--better able to adjust to existing
conditions--are also surviving.
Quail, turtledoves, wild fowl, and other game birds are hunted in
restricted seasons. Hunting seasons are also provided for some of the
deer species; the seasons usually last between two and four months,
depending upon the need to protect the animal, between the months of
August and February. There are bounties on wolves and foxes. Wildcats,
falcons, and hawks are also considered harmful and may be killed at any
time. The polecat--in Europe the _Mustela putorius_, a fetid-smelling
member of the weasel and otter family--is a bloodthirsty, insatiable
hunter that terrorizes poultry. It also may be exterminated.
The many caves in limestone-dominated regions have given rise to various
types of blind fauna. The largest of them are crabs, but most are
insects, including mosquitoes, butterflies, spiders, locusts, and common
flies. Although they are blind, exposure to light is usually fatal to
such species.
Rivers contain several kinds of freshwater fish, the most plentiful of
which are sturgeon, whitefish, and European carp. Mackerel account for
the largest percentage of fish taken from the Black Sea. There are no
sharks or other dangerous fish in these waters, but a rare Black Sea
seal breeds along the rocky coast north of Varna.
Mineral Resources
The country's mountains contain a variety of metallic and nonmetallic
minerals. A few are of good quality, but most of these occur in very
small quantities. Iron and coal, which are basic to a metallurgical
industry, are mined, but neither of them is of the proper variety or
quality nor are they available in adequate quantities to be used
economically.
Largest deposits of iron ore occur in the far western Stara Planina and
the Strandzha mountain range. There are smaller deposits in the vicinity
of Burgas, along the Black Sea coast, and near Sofia to the north and
west of the city. Estimated reserves total in excess of 10 million tons.
Coal has been located in some twenty small deposits. There is an
anthracite basin in the Stara Planina twenty miles north of Sofia and
another in the extreme northwest end of the range. Bituminous coal
occurs in a larger basin in the central Stara Planina, but brown coals
and lignite are much more abundant.
Copper, lead, and zinc are mined in quantities that exceed domestic
requirements. Bulgaria ranks high in the production of them among the
eastern and southeastern European countries and exports small amounts of
them. Among the other metallic ores, Bulgaria has three of the more
important alloying metals--manganese, molybdenum, and chromium--but the
manganese is of poor quality. Uranium has been discovered in several
deposits near Sofia and is being extracted from one or more of them.
Gold occurs in a number of locations but in small quantities.
Of the fuels, coal is by far the most abundant and most important to the
economy. The search for oil and natural gas resources was intensive in
the early post-World War II years, and what were hoped to be valuable
fields were discovered in the early 1960s. Production, however, reached
a peak in the latter part of that decade. If it becomes economic to
exploit them, there are oil-bearing shales west of Sofia and in the
northwestern region of the country. The extent of these shales appears
to be limited, but their potential is believed to be considerably
greater than that of the oil-bearing formations where the crude product
is extracted by pumping.
Other minerals extracted include salt, kaolin, chalk, talc, asbestos,
gypsum, mica, fluorite, quartzite, antimony, lime, sandstone, slate, and
pyrites. The pyrites are plentiful and produce exportable quantities of
sulfur and sulfur products. Fuel resources tend to be concentrated in
basins and on lower lands; most other resources, both metal and
nonmetal, are more frequently found in the Rodopi, the western Stara
Planina, and in the other western highlands.
Mineral waters are locally considered to be an important resource. The
country boasts some 500 mineral springs, about one-half of which are
warm or hot. Their mineral content varies, as does the concentration of
the chemicals. The stronger of those considered medicinal are used for
drinking only. The milder are used for drinking and bathing. Sofia has
active hot springs that have been in use and have attracted people to
the area for centuries. Its first settlement was built around such a
spring.
BOUNDARIES AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS
Boundaries
Bulgaria has had nearly a century of modern independence, during which
its borders have invariably been imposed upon it by others. This has
been the case partly because the Balkan Peninsula was for many years a
pawn in the balance-of-power politics of the more powerful European
nations and also because Bulgaria has been on the losing side in three
of its four major wars. It even fared badly at the peace table after the
only war in which it emerged victorious (see ch. 2).
In spite of these circumstances, the country has boundaries that have
many natural physical characteristics and that have imposed no serious
economic hardship on any significant group of people. They also contain
a large percentage of the Bulgarian people, although numerous population
resettlement movements have contributed to this end. None of its borders
are officially disputed.
The total boundary of Bulgaria is about 1,415 miles long. Rivers account
for about 425 miles of it, the Black Sea coast for 248 miles, and a
great portion of the remainder adheres to ridges in high terrain.
The western and northern boundaries are shared with Yugoslavia and
Romania, respectively, and the Black Sea coastline constitutes the
entire eastern border. The southern boundary is shared with Greece and
Turkey.
Nationalists have territorial ambitions stemming from the size of the
Middle Ages Bulgarian empire that encompassed about one-half of the
Balkan Peninsula but, in the local political climate that has existed
since World War II, such ambitions are not seriously considered.
The post-World War I boundaries were established in rough detail by the
Treaty of Peace between the Allied and associated powers and Bulgaria,
signed in 1919 at Neuilly-sur-Seine. They were demarcated by
international commissions between 1919 and 1922, formalized by the
Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, and reconfirmed by the Treaty of Paris in
1947.
During World War II, again as an ally of Germany, Bulgaria briefly
reacquired the coveted portions of Macedonia and Thrace, but the
interwar boundaries were restored without much deliberation in 1947 with
the agreement of the Soviet Union as well as all of the other major
victorious allies. Small deviations from the borders established in the
early 1920s have been made for local reasons, but none of them have been
of national significance.
The 335-mile border with Yugoslavia was drawn in an attempt to follow
the high ridges separating the watersheds of the Morava and Vardar river
valleys in Yugoslavia from those of the Iskur and Struma valleys in
Bulgaria. The border starts in the north at the junction of the Timok
River and the Danube, but it follows the river for only about ten miles.
Leaving the Timok (with a few exceptions when it must cross river
valleys), it remains on high ground until it reaches the tripoint with
Greece. Although nationalist Bulgarians continue to feel that Bulgaria's
share of Macedonia--which it shares with both Yugoslavia and Greece--is
less than just, there are no overt official disputes of the boundary.
The border with Greece is 307 miles long--all but forty-nine miles of
which are overland. The major portion of it follows higher elevations
and ridges in the Rodopi. East of the Struma and Mesta river valleys,
insofar as it is feasible, the border is at the dividing line between
the Maritsa River basin and those of the streams that flow southward to
the Aegean Sea.
Following an official visit by the Greek foreign minister to Sofia in
1946, the Bulgarian premier stated that "all territorial claims [between
Greece and Bulgaria] are excluded forever." This statement indicates
that boundary frictions that had persisted for many years were
officially eliminated at that time, and as of 1973 the border was not
disputed.
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.
[Illustration: _Figure 3. Political Subdivisions of Bulgaria, 1973_]
The number of _okruzi_ has been changed only at times of major
governmental reorganization, the most recent of which was in 1959. The
_obshtini_, on the other hand, are in a state of relatively constant
change. Cities grow, towns become cities, new enterprises are set up and
attract population, and other factors affect the need for local
administration. Since the reorganization of 1959, when the _obshtini_
were reduced by nearly one-half--from about 1,950 to just over
1,000--their number has tended to grow again. By the late 1960s there
were about 1,150 of them.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
The Bulgarians, who were mounted archers from the steppes of central
Asia, rode into the area between the Danube River and the Stara Planina
in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. They interbred with the Slavs
and adopted a Slavic language and many Slavic customs, but they retained
enough individuality to remain readily identifiable. In spite of
horrifying defeats and treatment at the hands of Byzantines and
Ottomans, they were in the land to stay and never relinquished their
title to a share of the peninsula.
For several centuries before their independence from the Turks, the
people preferred to live in the hills, motivated by the sheer necessity
of having to escape the notice of their oppressive occupiers. They
returned to the fertile plains and valleys in large numbers only after
independence in 1878. Since 1945 there has been a major movement of
people to the cities as the country has become industrialized, and there
has been a lesser movement of the rural population resulting from the
collectivization of agricultural lands.
Each major movement has brought about some improvement over the
conditions of the period that preceded it. Settlement in the back hills
was particularly necessary during the last years of Turkish control,
when the Ottoman Empire was in decline and its local controls and
taxation became increasingly oppressive. To avoid attracting attention
to themselves, the people settled into small hamlets and built their
homes as bare and unattractive as possible.
With independence life on the plains was safer and easier. For a time
there was plenty of good land available but, as the population grew,
inevitably the land became occupied, and the size of individual
landholdings decreased. Between the turn of the century and the
mid-1980s, for example, the average landholding decreased from 18.2 to
12.2 acres, a size that was agriculturally uneconomic and that
overpopulated the rural areas. People remained poor and, although it was
no longer necessary to keep them plain, peasant homes amounted to little
more than small, bare, essential shelter.
Under the communist government, the first near-complete collectivization
program served to increase the size of farmland units in collective and
state farms to an average of about 10,000 acres each. In 1970, with an
average of less than 1,100 fully employed farmers at each of the larger
units, the ratio of farmers to acres of arable land had fallen sharply.
In 1973 the agricultural lands were again recombined, this time into
about 170 units called agroindustrial complexes. The rural population is
still, however, for the most part clustered in unplanned, nucleated
villages or hamlets. Long, single-street villages are rare. Many
villages are situated in valleys for shelter from cold winter winds. A
gradual movement to housing at the agroindustrial centers will
undoubtedly take place, but there was no indication in 1973 that the
movement would be a rapid one or that the government intended to make it
a matter of urgent priority.
Post-World War II emphasis on educational and cultural pursuits and
rural development has made more community life and more amenities
available to the rural areas. Dwelling space remains meager, with only a
little more than 500 feet of floorspace per dwelling. By 1970 central
water supplies were available to over 90 percent of the population, but
fewer than one half of the dwellings had individual service. Nearly all
dwellings have electricity.
Bulgaria has been primarily agricultural and has been overrun, pillaged,
and occupied by so many conquerors that its cities have suffered, and
their inhabitants have had less opportunity than have those in most
European countries to develop a culture. There are relatively few cities
with noteworthy associations with the country's past. There are,
however, a few notable exceptions, and some of their histories antedate
the introduction of the Bulgar people into the region. There are others
that, if not altogether new, have had rapid and well-planned growth
during the country's recent history. Modern city growth has been
accompanied by the construction of large numbers of apartment houses,
many of them built as rapidly as possible to recover space destroyed
during World War II and to accommodate the heavy influx of people to
urban areas.
Sofia was founded by the Thracians and has had a continuous history of
some importance for 2,000 years. No trace of its original founders
remains in the city, although it retained its Thracian name, Serdica,
while it was a part of the Roman Empire. It is situated in a sheltered
basin at the base of the Vitosha range, a location that has been both
strategically and esthetically desirable. Long-established
communications routes cross at the city. The most traveled and most
famous is that from Belgrade to Istanbul. It is Sofia's main street for
that portion of its route. At the city it crosses the north-south route
from the Aegean Sea to the Danube River that uses the Struma and Iskur
river valleys. Some of the other routes that radiate from the city,
particularly those to the Black Sea coastal cities, are of more local
importance than the international routes. Sofia's pleasant climate, plus
its strategic location, made the city a contender in the selection of a
capital for Rome in Emperor Constantine's reign. Its hot springs were an
added attraction to the Romans, and their baths remain.
Sofia was a thriving city under the Romans. Attila the Hun destroyed it
in the fifth century A.D., but it was rebuilt in the sixth and seventh
centuries, when its population grew to about 40,000. It declined again
under the Ottomans, and in 1878, when it was liberated, it had only some
15,000-20,000 inhabitants. It has grown rapidly since becoming the
capital of the modern state.
Sofia is the city's fourth name. Saint Sophia's sixth-century church
occupies the highest land in the city and is one of the most famous of
its landmarks, although the city was named for her several centuries
after the church was built. As the capital, the city has most of the
nation's administration and has become the educational and cultural
center of the country. It retains much charm and beauty, in spite of its
rapid growth. From its hundreds of small parks and thousands of trees,
it claims the right to call itself the garden city.
Plovdiv is the second most important city. It is older than Sofia,
having been established in the fourth century B.C. by Philip of Macedon;
it was first named Philippopolis after him. On the plain and astride the
route from Belgrade to Istanbul, it has been exposed to all who have
passed that way, for good or ill, and this is reflected in its violent
history. It has been captured and devastated in turn by Greeks, Romans,
Goths, Huns, and Turks. It was also ravished on four different occasions
by Christian armies during the Crusades.
Plovdiv has continued to be an important commercial city, having more
rail lines radiating from it than Sofia. It also has a university and
some of the country's most important museums and art treasures. The old
town center is typically Macedonian and, although it was severely
damaged by an earthquake in 1928, part of it has been termed a national
monument, to be reworked only for its restoration.
Veliko Turnovo, situated astride a mountain stream on the northern
slopes of the central Stara Planina, was the fortress capital of the
medieval Second Bulgarian Kingdom. It was also the site of the first
constituent assembly held as the country was liberated from the Turks,
and the Turnovo Constitution was adopted there in 1879. It remains an
artistic and cultural center, and some of its fine examples of Bulgarian
renaissance architecture have survived.
Varna and Burgas are the chief Black Sea ports, and Ruse is the only
major Bulgarian port on the Danube River. Burgas is a young city,
growing to most of its size in the late 1800s, and it was a more
important port than Varna until the 1950s. Varna, however, attracted the
naval academy, has become the naval base, and has acquired most of the
shipbuilding industry. Ruse has also grown rapidly. In addition to its
river trade, the first bridge across the river between Bulgaria and
Romania was built just north of the city.
A number of new towns have been built since World War II, in some cases
from the ground up. These include some at industrial complexes, others
at resorts. Madan is a new mining center in the Rodopi; Dimitrovgrad is
a new industrial town on the Maritsa River; and there are several
mountain and seaside resort cities. Zlatni Pyassutsi (Golden Sands),
opened in 1956, is one of a group of Black Sea resort cities that, upon
opening, could accommodate tens of thousands of holiday vacationers.
POPULATION
Structure
In spite of its three most recent wars, comparatively few Bulgarians
live outside the country in the areas adjacent to its boundaries.
Bulgarian sources estimate the total number of Bulgarians abroad at
approximately 1 million. Many of these are in Greek and Yugoslav
Macedonia and are, in fact, Macedonians who may or may not prefer to be
called Bulgarians. Other Bulgarians are in Greek Thrace, and a few are
in Romanian Dobrudzha and in Soviet Bessarabia. A scattering are settled
in other Eastern European countries, Australia, and North and South
America. There are only a few in the United States.
When The Macedonians and Gypsies in the country--whom Bulgarian official
sources include as fully integrated into the Bulgarian population--are
not counted separately, Bulgarians constitute about 91 percent of the
population. The approximately 700,000 Turks out-number all other
non-Bulgarians in the population by a large margin. Small numbers of
Greeks, Romanians, Armenians, and Jews make up a total of only about 1
percent (see ch. 4).
In the absence of official statistics, the number of Macedonians and
Gypsies are impossible to estimate accurately. It is probable that there
are a few more Gypsies than Macedonians and that they total about 5
percent of the population. Pomaks (Muslim Bulgarians), who tend to live
separately, have been persecuted on occasion and have represented a
social problem. Some authorities have listed them as a separate ethnic
group but, with diminishing emphasis on religion, local authorities
attempt to make no distinctions between them and the rest of the
population.
Bulgaria is one of an extremely few countries in the world where the
males in the population have outnumbered the females over a considerable
portion of its modern history. This has been a phenomenon that could not
be adequately explained by events or circumstances; but of nine censuses
taken between 1887 and 1965, only in those taken in 1920 and 1947 did
the females constitute a majority. These two years following the great
wars were undoubtedly atypical in that, although Bulgaria did not suffer
great manpower losses from war casualties, the males were probably more
mobile, and many of them may not have returned to the country or, in the
immediate aftermath of the wars, may not yet have settled down (see
table 1).
_Table 1. Bulgaria, Population by Age and Sex, 1973 Estimate_
---------+----------------+----------------+----------------+------------
|Number of People| | Male Female|
| in Age Group | Percentage of |----------------|Females per
Age Group| (in thousands) |Total Population| (in thousands)| 100 Males
---------+----------------+----------------+----------------+------------
Under 5 | 676 | 7.8 | 348 328 | 94
5-9 | 609 | 7.0 | 313 296 | 94
10-14 | 647 | 7.5 | 331 316 | 95
15-19 | 665 | 7.7 | 340 325 | 96
20-24 | 703 | 8.1 | 357 346 | 97
25-29 | 629 | 7.3 | 317 312 | 98
30-34 | 558 | 6.4 | 280 278 | 99
35-39 | 616 | 7.1 | 310 306 | 99
40-44 | 649 | 7.5 | 327 322 | 98
45-49 | 668 | 7.7 | 334 334 | 100
50-54 | 467 | 5.4 | 231 236 | 102
55-59 | 421 | 4.9 | 210 211 | 100
60-64 | 460 | 5.3 | 225 235 | 104
65-69 | 372 | 4.3 | 178 194 | 109
70-74 | 264 | 3.0 | 122 142 | 116
75 year | | | |
and over| 263 | 3.0 | 110 153 | 139
| | | |
TOTAL. | 8,667 | 100.0 | 4,333 4,334 | 100*
---------+----------------+----------------+----------------+-----------
* Overall ratio for total population.
Source: Adapted from Godfrey Baldwin, (ed.), _International Population
Reports_, (U.S. Department of Commerce, Series P-91, No. 18), Washington,
1969.
The male majority, however, narrowed and has apparently evaporated for
the foreseeable future. The reversal reflects a change in life
expectancy statistics. Around the turn of the century average life
expectancy was forty years, and females are estimated to have outlived
males by less than six months. Seventy years later, average life
expectancy had increased by twenty-five years, but females were
outliving males by an average of about four years. Projected from the
1965 census and from vital statistics information accumulated since that
time, numerical equality between the sexes came about in the late 1960s,
and in mid-1973 it was estimated that females outnumbered males by the
small majority of 4.334 million to 4.333 million.
Another exceptional feature of the Bulgarian population is the unusual
number of very old people. Nearly 1 percent of the population in 1970
was eighty years old or older, and more than 500 people were
centenarians. Of these, three-fifths were women.
People in rural areas, after having long outnumbered those in cities and
towns, became the minority in 1969. More than four-fifths of the
population was rural at the time of independence in 1878, and more than
three-quarters was still rural in 1947. The movement to the towns
accelerated with the post-World War II industrialization. Towns that
attracted industries have grown by factors of five or more since 1920,
and by far the most dramatic growth has occurred since 1947.
With 8.7 million people occupying 42,800 square miles in 1972, the
average population density for the country was 203 persons per square
mile. Regions where the densities were highest include the Sofia Basin
and the southwestern portion of the Thracian Plain. The population was
more dense than average in the western and central portion of the
Danubian plateau, in the lower eastern Rodopi, and in the vicinities of
Varna and Burgas on the Black Sea coast. It was least dense in the
higher mountains, particularly in the high western Rodopi, the Pirin and
the Rila, and along the narrow high ridge of the Stara Planina.
Dynamics
Warfare that was endemic to the Balkan Peninsula throughout much of its
early history, exploitation by the Ottomans, and living conditions that
contributed to a short life expectancy served to hold down the
population of the area before independence. Since 1878, although the
country has participated in four wars and most migratory movements have
been at Bulgaria's expense, the population has tripled.
Growth has been comparatively steady during the century of independence.
Its rate has fluctuated but not widely. Until 1910 it was high. It
dropped during the 1910-20 decade, which included the Balkan wars and
World War I. The period of greatest growth occurred between the great
wars, and the three decades since 1941 have been the periods of least
growth.
Vital statistics supplied by the Bulgarian government to the United
Nations in 1972 indicated an annual growth rate of 0.7 percent. This was
based on 16.3 births per each 1,000 of the population, as against 9.1
deaths. Infant mortality, included in the overall death rate, was 27.3
deaths during the first year for each 1,000 live births. In early 1973
the government was alarmed at an apparent change in the statistical
trend. Complete information for 1971 showed that, instead of 16.3 births
per 1,000, the actual figure was 15.9. Indications were that in 1972 it
was dropping to 15.4.
Internal migrations since 1878 have consisted largely of the initial
movement of the rural population from the hills to the plains and the
later movement of people from the rural areas to the towns. External
migrations have been more complex. The earliest occurred in the
aftermath of the liberation; later ones have resulted from the
animosities and territorial changes associated with the various wars in
which the country has been involved.
Having occupied the territory, Turks left in wholesale numbers when they
lost control of it. More of them departed during the Balkan wars. Large
groups emigrated in the 1920s and 1930s, and more were forced to leave
after World War II. Estimates as to the numbers involved in each move
vary widely; the two largest after 1880 were those in the 1920s and
after World War II, and the total in all emigrations of Turks probably
equals or exceeds the 700,000 that remain in the country. Natural
population increases have been such that, over the long term, the actual
number of Turks in the country has changed relatively little.
There have been smaller population exchanges with each of the other
neighbors. In the mid-1920s about 250,000 Bulgarians moved from Greek
Thrace into Bulgaria, and about 40,000 Greeks left Bulgaria for Greece.
After 1940, when southern Dobrudzha was annexed from Romania, some
110,000 Romanians were exchanged for about 62,000 Bulgarians.
Macedonians, also in considerable numbers, have chosen between Bulgaria
and Yugoslavia, requiring many of them to move.
The Jewish people, faring much better in Bulgaria during World War II
than they did in Adolph Hitler's Germany or in most of the countries
overrun by the Germans, have nonetheless emigrated to Israel in large
numbers. Before that war there were about 50,000 of them in the country,
but 90 percent or more of them emigrated during the early postwar years.
All of the major emigrations were completed before 1960. There appear to
be no reasons why others of similar proportions should occur in the
foreseeable future.
Working Force
In mid-1972 there were 5.8 million people in the working-age group
(fifteen to sixty-four years), although the legal retirement age in most
employment situations is sixty or sixty-five for males and five years
younger for females. About 4.4 million--just over one-half of the total
population and three-quarters of those of working age--constituted the
labor force. Population projections indicate that in the ten-year period
after 1972 the working-age group will increase by 0.3 million, but a
large percentage of the increase will be in the segment of the group
aged fifty to sixty-four.
About 95 percent of the males between twenty-five and sixty-four years
of age are economically active. The percentage of economically active
females is lower, but they have constituted over 40 percent of the labor
force. About 36.5 percent of the economically active are employed in
agricultural fields; of the remaining 63.5 percent, about one-half are
employed in industry. The others are in various service, administrative,
or other miscellaneous activities.
Because the country was late in emerging from a predominantly
agricultural economy, its working force has had little technological
experience. Since World War II, however, schools have been increasingly
oriented to train young people to become technologically competent, and
some success in this direction has been achieved. Whether or not the
working force is being used as effectively as is possible under the
circumstances is being debated, but the government finds a decrease in
the birthrate and its possible limiting effect on industrial production
a cause for considerable concern.
TRANSPORTATION
Railroads
The first railroad built in the country was constructed by the British
in 1866 and connected Ruse on the Danube River with Varna on the Black
Sea. The famous and romantic Orient Express and the Berlin-to-Baghdad
route have used a common line through Bulgaria, entering the country
from Belgrade. The route crosses the western mountains at the Dragoman
Pass, continues through Sofia, Plovdiv, and down the Maritsa River
valley to Edirne and Istanbul in Turkey.
The rail network consists of about 3,775 miles of track, about 2,620 of
which were being operated in 1970. Of the portion in use, about 2,470
miles were standard gauge, and 150 were narrow gauge. Approximately 135
miles were double track, and a little more than 500 had been
electrified. Because of the terrain, the system has a large number of
bridges and tunnels and has been constructed with tighter curves and
steeper gradients than are allowed when terrain features are less
extreme. Most of the some 1,600 bridges are short, but at Ruse, where
the Danube is crossed, the river is 1-1/2 miles wide. Most of the
approximately 175 tunnels are also short. One is 3-1/2 miles in length,
but they total only about thirty miles (see fig. 4).
Route mileage is adequate to meet the requirements of the country. It
will probably not be expanded further; shorter spurs become uneconomic
and are abandoned as motor transport takes over short-haul traffic.
Programmed modernization includes improving roadbeds, ties, and track to
achieve a higher load-bearing capacity. Quantity installation of
continuously welded rail is also underway, and the busiest of the lines
are being electrified.
Although the system is adequate, performs its services reasonably well,
and continues to be the backbone of domestic transport, it suffers in
bare statistical comparisons with the other carriers. Highway transport
may carry a cargo to the rail station and get credit for a second
shipment when it moves the same goods from the train to its final
destination. Trucks also carry local freight more directly and much more
simply than railroads for short hauls. Ton mileage statistics of the
merchant marine are similarly misleading. Although the railroads remain
by far the most important domestic carrier, their share of total cargo
carried and their share of ton mileage continues to decrease (see table
2).
The railroads also continue to give way to motor vehicles in numbers of
passengers carried. Between 1960 and 1970 the situation changed
radically; on the earlier date the railroads carried more passengers
than buses did, but a decade later they carried hardly more than
one-third as many. In long-distance passenger travel, the railroads
remained the major carrier by a narrow margin in 1970, although the
difference was narrowing.
[Illustration: _Figure 4. Communications Systems of Bulgaria, 1973_]
_Table 2. Use of Transportation Facilities in Bulgaria, 1960 and 1970_
-------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------
| Total Freight* | Ton Miles**
Cargo Traffic: |------------+------------|------------+------------
| 1960 | 1970 | 1960 | 1970
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
Railroads | 38.4 | 68.2 | 4,360 | 8,650
Motor transport | 128.3 | 492.8 | 1,270 | 4,940
Seaborne shipping | 1.1 | 14.5 | 1,530 | 24,375
Inland waterways | 1.6 | 3.7 | 384 | 1,145
Air transport | 0.007 | 0.083 | 0.2 | 9
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
-------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------
| Total Passengers** | Passenger Miles**
Passenger Traffic: |-------------------------+------------+------------
| 1960 | 1970 | 1960 | 1970
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
Railroads | 79.0 | 106.1 | 2,260 | 3,890
Motor transport | 72.6 | 282.0+ | 1,020 | 3,740+
Seaborne shipping | 0.6 | 0.6 | 12 | 17
Inland waterways | 0.8 | 0.3 | 29 | 19
Air transport | 0.2 | 1.1 | 56 | 750
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
* In million tons.
** In millions.
+ 1969 information.
Source: Adapted from _Statistical Yearbook, 1971_, Sofia, 1971.
Conversion from steam to diesel and electric locomotives is proceeding
rapidly. As late as 1962 the country had no diesel locomotives and only
a few passenger-carrying electric trains. By 1972, about 80 percent of
the freight and a larger proportion of passenger traffic were carried on
diesel or electric trains. Steam locomotives will probably have been
replaced completely by 1978.
Roads
Construction is expensive, engineering problems are frequently
challenging, and the roads are difficult to maintain on the mountainous
terrain, with its many narrow and steep gorges. Ice and snow close most
routes at times during the winter months. Spring thaws and floods damage
the best roads and make the poorer roads impassable for considerable
periods. Of the approximately 21,000 miles of roadway, about 8,000 are
paved, another 8,000 have surfaces hardened with stone or gravel, but
nearly 5,000 remain dirt surfaced.
Waterways
The 290 miles of the Danube River that flow along the northern border
are navigable. Other streams are too short, too shallow, or have too
great gradients to use or to allow development as waterways. The fact
that the Danube leaves the country to exit into the Black Sea from
Romania limits its potential as an avenue to seagoing trade, and the
fact that it flows along the country's periphery keeps it from being the
central feature that it is, for example, in Hungary. Bulgaria's entire
portion of the river is, however, downstream from the Iron Gate and thus
can handle 2,500-ton vessels. There are no locks or dams in this area
and, although it freezes for a short time in the winter and floods
during the spring, it is usable for an average of about 300 days per
year.
The Black Sea is more commercially significant to Bulgaria. Burgas and
Varna are thriving ports. Burgas has been a busy port for a longer time,
but Varna has developed rapidly and by 1970 had surpassed Burgas as the
major port and had become the center of maritime industry in the
country. Between 1971 and 1975, for example, the city expects to produce
23,000-ton and 38,000-ton dry cargo ships in series production and to
build one, and possibly more, 80,000-ton tankers.
By 1970 inland waterways--which consisted exclusively of the Danube
River--were carrying only about 0.6 percent of the country's freight
cargo. Because the distances that the average cargo was transported
exceeded those of rail or road transport, however, they accounted for
about 2.5 percent of the total ton mileage. Seaborne shipping carried
about 2.5 percent of the total cargo weight but, because of the far
greater shipping distances, it accounted for nearly two-thirds of the
total ton mileage. Traffic transported by inland waterway remained
relatively constant during the late 1960s and early 1970s; traffic
carried on seagoing vessels was increasing rapidly.
United Nations reports in 1971 credited Bulgaria with the fastest
developing shipbuilding industry in the world. The pronouncement is less
meaningful than it might appear, however, because the industry started
from very little. Moreover, a major portion of the products are for
export, and much of the industry's local impact is as a production,
rather than as a transportation, enterprise. Nonetheless, the country's
capability for sea shipment increased by more than five times during the
1960s. There are no large passenger vessels in the fleet, but several
hydrofoils, some having capacities to carry more than 100 passengers,
operate between the Danube River ports.
By 1972 the merchant marine consisted of more than 100 ships, having a
total of nearly 1 million deadweight tons. It has increased at an
average rate of about 6 percent a year between 1967 and 1971, the rates
of increase accelerating in the latter part of the period.
Airways
Civil aviation was carried on by Bulgarian Civil Air Transport before
1970, when that entity was reorganized as Balkan-Bulgarian Airlines
(BALKAN). Its airplanes, all of Soviet manufacture, are identified by
BALKAN inset within a five-pointed star that is elongated to give the
impression of flight. BALKAN operates under the Ministry of Transport.
Sofia is the center of all the air operations. International routes stop
at the capitals of the six other Warsaw Pact countries and at sixteen
other cities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The 1973
scheduled flights also connected Sofia with eleven other cities within
Bulgaria, most of them on a daily basis.
Percentages of total cargo and passenger traffic carried by air are
insignificant, and the rates of increase in the utilization of air
transportation have been erratic. Air cargo shipments, for example,
increased by a factor of seven between 1960 and 1967 but increased
little the following year and decreased for the remainder of the
decade.