Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables, Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreciations
- INTRODUCTION: The Europeanization of Bulgarian Society: A Long-Lasting Political Project
- CHAPTER ONE Institution-Building, Political Culture and Identity in Bulgaria: The Challenge of ‘Europeanization’
- CHAPTER TWO Appropriations of Bulgarian Literature in the West: From Pencho Slaveikov to Iordan Iovkov
- CHAPTER THREE Communism and Cold War in Bulgaria: The Absence of Europe?
- CHAPTER FOUR Bulgarian Turks During the Transition Period
- CHAPTER FIVE Women's Identity and Social Policy in Bulgaria Before and After 1989
- CHAPTER SIX Legal Status and Migrant Economic Performance: The Case of Bulgarians in Spain and Greece
- CHAPTER SEVEN Bulgaria's Path to EU Membership – and Beyond
- CHAPTER EIGHT Accession into the Euro-Atlantic Institutions: Effects on Bulgaria's Balkan Policy(-ies)
- CHAPTER NINE Mirroring Gazes: Europe, Nationalism and Change in the Field of Bulgarian Art and Culture
- CHAPTER TEN The Emergence of Regional Policy in Bulgaria and the Role of the EU
- EPILOGUE
- Appendix I Tables, Figures and Maps
- Notes
- List of Contributors
CHAPTER THREE - Communism and Cold War in Bulgaria: The Absence of Europe?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables, Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreciations
- INTRODUCTION: The Europeanization of Bulgarian Society: A Long-Lasting Political Project
- CHAPTER ONE Institution-Building, Political Culture and Identity in Bulgaria: The Challenge of ‘Europeanization’
- CHAPTER TWO Appropriations of Bulgarian Literature in the West: From Pencho Slaveikov to Iordan Iovkov
- CHAPTER THREE Communism and Cold War in Bulgaria: The Absence of Europe?
- CHAPTER FOUR Bulgarian Turks During the Transition Period
- CHAPTER FIVE Women's Identity and Social Policy in Bulgaria Before and After 1989
- CHAPTER SIX Legal Status and Migrant Economic Performance: The Case of Bulgarians in Spain and Greece
- CHAPTER SEVEN Bulgaria's Path to EU Membership – and Beyond
- CHAPTER EIGHT Accession into the Euro-Atlantic Institutions: Effects on Bulgaria's Balkan Policy(-ies)
- CHAPTER NINE Mirroring Gazes: Europe, Nationalism and Change in the Field of Bulgarian Art and Culture
- CHAPTER TEN The Emergence of Regional Policy in Bulgaria and the Role of the EU
- EPILOGUE
- Appendix I Tables, Figures and Maps
- Notes
- List of Contributors
Summary
The onset of the Cold War was a period critical for the formation of national identity in the latter twentieth century. As the country was faced with stark dilemmas regarding its overall political development, its position in and relations with Europe were tested to breaking point. With the European context being fundamentally redefined, Bulgaria's choices were overshadowed and, indeed, restricted by the attitudes of the great powers of the day. In addition, the latter's policies projected a particular perception of Bulgaria to the outside world.
The Historical Setting
Bulgaria can hardly be plausibly presented as something other than Balkan at core: after all, the eponymous mountain range runs through the middle of the country. Neither can Bulgaria be dissociated from the imperial legacy of Byzantium, the Ottomans and most recently, the Soviet Union, all of which gave the peninsula its distinctive attributes. In both geographic and historical terms, Bulgaria has indeed been at the heart of the tumultuous Balkans. It itself has contributed to the image of the Balkans as ridden with controversy and war.
The region's centrality for the outbreak of the First World War sealed the prevalent popular perception, which was more often than not upheld by diplomatic and other informed opinion. While the role of the Balkans in the Second World War was not as notorious, their eventual plunge in the conflict can be seen as due in equal measure to the aggressiveness of the Axis powers and the stir of long-unresolved indigenous issues.
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- Information
- Bulgaria and EuropeShifting Identities, pp. 43 - 62Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2010