Portal:Bulgaria

Welcome to the Bulgaria portal!

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, and Romania to the north. It covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi) and is the sixteenth-largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities include Burgas, Plovdiv, and Varna.

Bulgaria has a high-income economy. Its market economy is part of the European Single Market and is largely based on services, followed by industry—especially machine building and mining—and agriculture. The country faces a demographic crisis; its population peaked at 9 million in 1989, and has since decreased to under 6.4 million as of 2024. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, the Schengen Area, NATO, and the Council of Europe. It is also a founding member of the OSCE and has taken a seat on the United Nations Security Council three times. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; Bulgarian: Народна република България (НРБ), pronounced [nɐˈrɔdnɐ rɛˈpublikɐ bɐɫˈɡarijɐ] Narodna republika Bŭlgariya, NRB) was the official name of Bulgaria when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) together with its coalition partner, the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union. Bulgaria was closely allied and one of the most loyal satellite states of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, sometimes being called the 16th Soviet Republic rather than an independent country. Bulgaria was also part of Comecon as well as a member of the Warsaw Pact. The Bulgarian resistance movement during World War II deposed the Tsardom of Bulgaria administration in the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944 which ended the country's alliance with the Axis powers and led to the People's Republic in 1946.

The BCP modeled its policies after those of the Soviet Union, transforming the country over the course of a decade from an agrarian peasant society into an industrialized socialist society. In the mid-1950s and after the death of Stalin, the party's hardliners lost influence and a period of social liberalization and stability followed under Todor Zhivkov. Varying degrees of conservative or liberal influence followed. After a new energy and transportation infrastructure was constructed, by 1960 manufacturing became the dominant sector of the economy and Bulgaria became a major exporter of household goods and later of computer technologies, earning it the nickname of "Silicon Valley of the Eastern Bloc". The country's relatively high productivity levels and high scores on social development rankings made it a model for other socialist countries' administrative policies. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Tsvetana Jermanova survived imprisonment in two forced labour camps in communist Bulgaria?
... that during the 1899–1900 peasant unrest in Bulgaria, some troops refused orders to fire on the protesters?

edit

Gallery

Image 1Varna lake is a salt lake near Black sea.
Image 2Maritsa is a river in South Bulgaria.
Image 3Sofia is the biggest city in Bulgaria.
Image 4Razgrad is a city in East Bulgaria.
Image 5Rila is a mountain in West Bulgaria
Image 6A beach in Bulgaria.
Image 7Danube river in Bulgaria

edit

Selected Picture

Credit: MrPanyGoff

The St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia or Sofia University (Bulgarian: Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“) is the oldest higher education institution in Bulgaria, founded on 1 October 1888. The university's edifice was constructed between 1924 and 1934 with the financial support of the brothers Evlogi Georgiev and Hristo Georgiev, whose sculptures are now featured on its façade.

More selected pictures • Read more...

edit