The Fall of Communism 1203pendent Slovakia. On January 1, 1993, the “velvet divorce” took place: the
Czech Republic and Slovakia became separate states.
Revolutions in Bulgaria, Romaniay and Albania
Communist regimes also fell in Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania, the three
Eastern European states without significant reform movements. In Bul
garia, long-suppressed unrest began to emerge in response to pressure for
reform in other Eastern European countries. Todor Zhivkov (1911-1998),
the first secretary of the Communist Party of Bulgaria since 1954 and the
head of state since 1971, could boast a record of modest economic growth
until the late 1970s. He also had orchestrated several cover-ups of the mis
deeds of his family members (including the implication of his hard
drinking and -gambling son in the death of a television announcer). When
a Bulgarian airliner crashed at the Sofia airport, killing most passengers,
Zhivkov ordered that his jet leave at once for his Black Sea vacation, flying
over the burning plane. Furthermore, the Bulgarian secret police had
achieved international notoriety, blamed by some for an attempt to assassi
nate Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1981, as well as for a James Bond—like
murder of a Bulgarian dissident killed by the deadly jab of a poison-tipped
umbrella in London. The Bulgarian economy faltered badly in the late
1980s. Bulgarian exports (principally agricultural produce and light manu
factured goods) had difficulty finding markets, particularly as the economic
crisis deepened in the Soviet Union. Rural migrants poured into Sofia and
other Bulgarian cities in search of work.
As the economy deteriorated, Zhivkov and the Communist leadership
sought to displace popular anger in the direction of the country’s large and
rapidly growing Turkish minority. From time to time during the past several
decades, the Turks had been the target of discriminatory government mea
sures, including a law in 1984 requiring them to adopt Bulgarian names
and forbidding the practice of Islam (the religion of most Turks). Just what
the Bulgarian government hoped to achieve by such measures remains
unclear (although this was hardly the first time in the often violent history
of the region that an ethnic group had been targeted for discrimination in
the hope of deflecting public opinion). After launching a harsh campaign
against Turkish customs, Zhivkov’s government encouraged the ethnic Turks
to emigrate to Turkey, which further destabilized the Bulgarian economy.
More than 300,000 of them left for Turkey within three months in 1989.
Many soon returned, however, disappointed that conditions of life in Turkey
seemed even worse than in Bulgaria.
With news of dramatic political changes occurring in the other Eastern
European states, the Bulgarian Politburo surprised Zhivkov by suddenly
demanding his resignation in November, the day after the Berlin Wall had
fallen. The ease with which this was accomplished suggests that some party
bureaucrats, army officers, and even members of the notorious government