A History of the World From the 20th to the 21st Century

Fund, made a painful start on the road to a market
economy.

For most of the post-war years, from 1954 to
1989, Todor Zhivkov led the Bulgarian Com-
munist Party as a kind of feudal boss, ruling the
country with the assistance of feudal regional
bosses in what was industrially the most backward
of the Eastern European nations, excepting only
Albania. Bulgaria was distinctive too in that it tra-
ditionally looked to Russia as its friend. So there
was none of the nationalist agitation against the
Soviet Union common elsewhere in Eastern
Europe. That hatred was reserved for its Turkish
neighbour, Bulgaria’s bitter foe since the days of
the Ottomans.
Zhivkov was as odious a dictator as any, his
repressive machinery of state claiming thousands
of victims. Prodded by the Kremlin, he proposed
reforms in 1987, but nothing came of them.
Instead, to bolster his popularity, he turned on
the Turkish minority in the summer of 1989.
Violent repression of Turkish demonstrations led
to a mass exodus of the Turks from Bulgaria into
Turkey and badly tarnished Zhivkov’s standing
both in the West and in the Kremlin. The demo-
cratic opposition groups had only recently been
formed, so they were too weak to topple him.
The job was done by reformist communists from
within: in November 1989 Zhivkov, to his aston-
ishment, was dismissed by the Politburo. The
reformers won, and in June 1990, in a free elec-
tion, the communists, now called the Bulgarian
Socialist Party, gained a substantial victory over
the Western-oriented Union of Democratic
Forces, though achieving only a small overall
majority of eleven in the 400-member parliament.
Anti-Turkish nationalism and fear of the conse-
quences of introducing Western capitalism had
swayed the voters. In August 1990, the urban
opposition in Sofia turned to violent demonstra-
tion, but in the circumstances the response of the
ruling communists in the Bulgarian Socialist Party
was moderate. With the direct election as presi-
dent of the incumbent Zheliu Zhelev in January
1992, it was to be hoped that Bulgaria was enter-
ing a more stable period. Much of the commu-
nist bureaucracy remained in place and economic

reform was only halfhearted at best. Not surpris-

ingly foreign investment was slow to appear, and

inflation in 1991 reached 600 per cent, but by

adopting IMF-designed remedies it fell to 80 per

cent in 1992. With Romania, Bulgaria also suf-

fered severely, its output falling to a little over 60

per cent of that in 1987.

Communist rule lasted the longest where Soviet

domination ceased decades ago. Enver Hoxha,

fervent Stalinist admirer, was fortunate to die in

1985 before the wave of revolution. In Albania,

the revolution was delayed. Not until 1991 were

statues of the great leader Enver toppled by angry

students. That there were students at all, a univer-

sity and a high degree of literacy was one of the

few positive results of Hoxha’s forty-year rule. For

Albania was the most backward and the poorest

country in Europe. Hoxha, Stalinist and repres-

sive, broke with the post-Stalin Soviet Union in

the 1960s and with the reformist phase of Chinese

communism in the late 1970s. The intense

nationalism of his regime and the successful asser-

tion of independence from powerful neighbours,

especially Yugoslavia contributed to the popular

support he enjoyed during his years in power. His

successor, Ramiz Alia, was also a convinced com-

munist but was attempting to adjust Albania to

the changing, more liberal climate of Eastern

Europe. He was also leading it out of self-imposed

isolation. He remained as one of the undiluted

communist survivors of the post-revolutionary

years. The West, although accustomed to viewing

poverty in the Third World, was deeply shocked

by the conditions still existing in Albania. Yet

refugees trying to flee in boats to Italy were turned

back. An Italian relief operation codenamed

Pelican launched during the winter of 1991,

alone, saved Albanians from widespread starva-

tion. The communists were not ousted until

1992 when Sali Berisla was elected the first non-

communist president. For the ordinary Albanian

the prospects in the 1990s remained grim. In

1997 order was once more restored when an

Italian peacekeeping force organised elections.

Bloodshed, war and ethnic strife in Eastern

Europe reached heights in what was formerly

898 GLOBAL CHANGE: FROM THE 20th TO THE 21st CENTURY