Democratization of Eastern Europe
The Gang of Four and Their Nemesis
Based on Chpt. 2 in The Walls Came Tumbling Down by Gale Stokes

Gang of Four:  Zhivkov in Bulgaria, Ceausescu in Romania, Husak then B'ilak in Czechoslovakia, and Honecker in the GDR

Most loyal to Soviet system





Their "nemesis"??

Eventually




Bulgaria


Geograpy
About the size of TN
Capital: Sophia
Geography:  mostly mountains, lowlands in N and SE
Climate: temperate
Environmental Concerns:  air and water pollution; deforestation, forest damage from pollution; soil contamination

People
Population:  7.5 mln
Annual Growth Rate:  -.92%
Life Expectancy at Birth: 72 (76 female; 68 male)
Infant Mortality:  20.55/1000
Births per Woman: 1.3
Literacy:  98%

Rural/Urban Population:  31/69

Ethnic Breakdown: 
    83.7% Bulgarian
    9.4% Turkish
    4.7% Romani
    2% Other (Macedonian, Armenian, Tatar, Circassian)

Religion:
    82.6% Bulgarian Orthodox
    12.2% Muslim
    1.2% Other Christian
    4% Other

Economy
GDP: $26 bln
GDP per capita:  $9000 (2005)
GDP growth:  5.4% (2005)

GDP by sector:
10% agriculture
30% industry
60% services

Unemployment:  11.5%

Population below poverty line:  13.4%
Inflation: 4.5%

History
Before WWII - monarchy
WWII under Fascist control
Bulgarian communists fought with other anti-Fascist causes in the Fatherland Front

By 1953, People's Republic of Bulgaria installed
Soviet replica


Of interest:
Bulgarian monasteries

Romania

Geograpy
About the size of OR
Capital: Bucharest
Geography:  mountains and plains
Climate: temperate
Environmental Concerns:  soil erosian and degradations; air and water pollution; deforestation; contamination of Danube delta wetlands

People
Population:  22.3 mln
Annual Growth Rate:  -.12%
Life Expectancy at Birth: 70 (74 female; 66 male)
Infant Mortality:  26.43/1000
Births per Woman: 1.36
Literacy:  98%

Rural/Urban Population:  44/59

Ethnic Breakdown: 
    89.5% Romanian
     6.6%  Hungarian
     2.5%  Romani
     1.5%  Other (Ukrainian, German,Russian Turkish)

Religion:
    86.8% Orthodox
     7.5%  Protestant
     4.7%  Catholic

Economy
GDP: $74 bln
GDP per capita:  $8300 (2005)
GDP growth:  5.2% (2005)

GDP by sector:
31.6% agriculture
31.7% industry
37.7% services

Unemployment:  6.5%

Population below poverty line:  28.9%
Inflation: 8.9%

Larger Dynamics of Opposition (and Lack thereof in Bulgaria/Romania)
Stokes p. 47
Three great revolutionary moments from Stalin's death to 1989:
    Hungary 1956
    Czechoslovakia 1968
    Poland 1980

All in countries historically:
 Catholic or Protestant (not Orthodox)
 part of Germanic empires
 economically linked to rest of Europe by trade

"Neither Bulgaria nor Romania produced significant dissidence let alone the emergence of an independent society" (Stokes, 47).

Cultural argument: "semi-orientalism"
Ottoman Empire
    400 years of control in Bulgaria
Christian Orthodoxy "emphasizes form over substance"
neither had pre-existing lengthy experience with democracy or capitalism


Yet, Stokes is not satisfied with a "culturally determinist" argument

Rather, he finds explanation in personalities and personas of their long time leaders

Todor Zhivkov in the case of Bulgaria
who ruled from 1962 - 1989
   

Nicolae Ceausescu in the case of Romania
who ruled from 1965-1989
            

Similarities between them:
peasant origins
education in Communist opposition rather than formal schools
Zhivkov may have completed secondary school, then became a printer
Ceausescu left school at age 11, became shoemaker, then (supposedly) an electrician (although this is doubted)

During were arrested
Zhivkov spent WWII in partisan movement
Ceausescu, in prison

At the time they took power of their respective countries:
    neither had ever been outside of their countries
    and "both understood the world in terms of simplistic catechisms they had learned as young Stalinists" (Stokes, 48)

Both had considerable political skill, yet neither was particularly charismatic (48)

Both played the nationalism card

Zhivkov's "Quiet Bulgaria"
constant "reform" - 1963, 1965, 1968, 1970-71, 1978-79, 1982, 1985-1987
yet reform really meant "better" central planning

USSR supplied it with fuel and ore
and bought its machinery (heavy and electronic) in return

Import of technology from Germany led to heavy indebtedness
1970s debt service = 40% of hard currency reserves

collectivization of agriculture
huge, administration heavy collectives
yet one of "best fed countries in the bloc" (49)

Very little opposition
no major strikes
no samizdat literature

Secret police yes, but soft on penalties
forced to live in parents' village or under house arrest

Zhivkov's personal style
    self-deprecating
    flattered and rewarded people
    managed to 'divide and corrupt' the intelligentsia without creating martyrs
    delivered modest economic gains
    natioanlistic "outbursts" against Turkey, Yugoslavia (52)

Romania
Difference
Large degree of state terror, surveillance, etc.
Use of secret police the Securitate

Romania as the Maverick
Previous leader Georgiu-Dej refused to be integrated in COMECON plan of supplying USSR with agricultural products and raw materials

Developed his own steel mill at Galati with investment from Anglo-French consortium (52)

Made Romania the favorite of the West, the maverick, no matter how despotic

Ceausescu began by inviting discourse, opening
allowed some privately owned restaurants 1968-72

Closed with the "July Theses" of 1971

Ceausescu's Megalomania
Cult of personality
"a unique mountain peak"
"the torchbearer among torchbearers"

Staged enormous public displays of adulation
"a permanent ceremonial enacted by the entire country in front of a single spectator" (Ciurescu)


Ceausescu's Palace

Nationalism
natalism

abortion ban
horror of Romanian orphanages



Elena Ceausescu
Comrade Academician Doctor Engineer Elena Ceausescu
no evidence of her going beyond the 4th grade

Both at strict organic vegetarian diet

The End of the Ceausescu's
Christmas Day 1989