Officially Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgarian Republica Bulgaria, a Balkan country lying along the Black Sea in southeastern Europe.Bulgaria is separated from Romania by the Danube River along most of its northern border. The Black Sea coastline constitutes its eastern border, Greece and Turkey form the southern boundary, and Yugoslavia and Macedonia form the western boundary. Its capital is Sofia. Area 42,855 square miles (110,994 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 8,473,000.

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Three major physiographic regions define the Bulgarian landscape from north to south. The northernmost is the Danubian Plain, a fertile lowland with rolling hills, occupying nearly a third of the country. Two-thirds of the plain lies below 700 feet (210 m), and its entire area nowhere exceeds 2,000 feet (600 m) in elevation. Immediately south of the Danubian Plain lie the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planin, or "Old Mountains"), which average 2,368 feet (722 m) in elevation. Bulgaria's third major region, the Rila-Rhodope massif, is separated from the Balkan Mountains by the Thracian Plain, or Rumelian Basin. Generally higher and more rugged (with many snowfields and lakes of glacial origin) than the northern ranges, the Rila-Rhodope massif has the country's highest mountain, Musala Peak, at 9,596 feet (2,925 m), and some of southern Europe's most scenic countryside. While less extensive in area than the three major regions, Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, with its sandy beaches and harbours at Varna and Burgas, is among eastern Europe's favourite resort areas.

Bulgaria has two major drainage systems. The Black Sea receives more than half of the country's runoff from the tributaries of the Danube in the north (such as the Iskur and the Yantra rivers) and from the direct discharge of other rivers in the east. The remainder empties southward into the Aegean Sea through the Struma and Mesta rivers in the southwest and the Tundzha, Maritsa, and Arda rivers in the south.

Bulgaria's climate is typical of the Balkan Peninsula: moderately continental in the north and northwest (with colder winters) and Mediterranean (with summer drought) in the southeast and in the Mesta and Struma river valleys. A transitional climate prevails in the central mountains and along the Black Sea coast. The average winter temperature is 30^o F (-1^o C), and the average summer temperature is about 70^o F (21^o C). With the exception of the highland areas, which may average more than 47 inches (1,200 mm) of annual precipitation with little seasonality, rainfall averages between 21 and 27 inches (530 and 685 mm) throughout the remainder of the country.

Nearly two-fifths of Bulgaria's land is arable, and a fourth of this is irrigated (mostly in the southeast during the summer dry season). About one-fifth of the country is pastureland, and one-third is forested.

Ethnically, the population is fairly homogeneous, Bulgarians making up about 85 percent of the total. The Turks, Bulgaria's largest minority, live in some regions of the northeast and in the eastern Rhodope Mountain region. Gypsies and Macedonians are two other sizable minorities, and there are a few thousand Armenians, Russians, and Greeks (mostly in towns) and Romanians and Tatars (mostly in the villages).

The Bulgarian language belongs to the South Slavic group, together with Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, and Macedonian. A number of regional dialects appear in common Bulgarian speech.

Most Bulgarians who profess religion are Eastern Orthodox, with smaller numbers of Roman Catholics and Protestants. About 7 percent of the population is Muslim; most of these are ethnic Turks, but there are also some ethnic Bulgarian Muslims known as Pomaks.

As a result of the introduction of free medical care and improved working conditions in the decades after World War II, Bulgaria's death rate, and especially the infant mortality rate, dropped significantly. The birth rate has also dropped. By the 1990s Bulgaria had a negative natural growth rate.

Emigration since World War II has for the most part affected non-Bulgarians. Some 500,000 Turks have left the country; 155,000 of them were expelled in 1949-51, and another 250,000 fled in 1989 to avoid a government campaign of forced assimilation. Internally, the movement of population has been from rural areas to larger towns and cities. By the late 20th century Bulgaria was almost 70 percent urban.

Between 1946 and 1989 Bulgaria had a centrally planned economy based principally upon manufacturing and agriculture. The Bulgarian economy was modeled after that of the Soviet Union. Agriculture was operated through either cooperatives or collectivized enterprises, and all other sectors of the economy were state owned and operated. Economic development was organized through five-year plans, which stressed industrialization. Measures to privatize certain sectors of the Bulgarian economy were undertaken by the noncommunist governing coalition that came to power in 1991, however. Though relatively low, Bulgaria's gross national product (GNP) per capita is similar to those of the developed countries.

Agriculture accounts for about one-eighth of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs one-fifth of the labour force. Cereals, mainly wheat, corn (maize), and barley, are the principal crops, occupying three-fifths of the sown land. Industrial crops are important, especially tobacco and sunflower seeds. In 1991 the Bulgarian National Assembly voted to restore collective farms to private ownership of farm workers and former landowners. The principal livestock are sheep, pigs, and cattle.

Industry (including mining and construction) accounts for about half of the GDP and employs more than one-third of the labour force. The principal minerals and fuels produced include lignite, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, and crude petroleum and natural gas. Bulgaria's manufacturing is diversified and, apart from refined petroleum products, includes cement, semifinished rolled-steel products, pig iron, soda ash, sulfuric acid, wood pulp and paper, cigarettes, and cotton fabrics. Approximately two-thirds of the country's electricity comes from thermal-power plants, and most of the rest is provided by nuclear-power stations.

Tourism, which is concentrated on the beaches and resorts along the Black Sea coast, provides Bulgaria with an important source of foreign exchange. Most tourists are from eastern Europe or Turkey, but the government is attempting to attract more western Europeans.

Bulgaria's main exports are machinery and equipment; consumer goods; foods and beverages; and fuels, mineral ores, and metals. Its principal imports include petroleum, natural gas, coal, machinery, transport equipment, and food and consumer goods. Russia, Germany, Italy, and Austria are Bulgaria's major trading partners.

From 1946 to 1990 Bulgaria was a people's republic with a constitution modeled on that of the Soviet Union. The Bulgarian Communist Party was the sole legal political party and was assigned the leading role in transforming Bulgaria into a communist society. All of the country's important political decisions were made by that party's Politburo, and the members of the National Assembly (parliament) were selected by the party and elected without opposition. Communist Party members occupied all the important positions in the government. But this totalitarian system was abandoned after 1989, as communist regimes across eastern Europe began to give up their monopoly of power.

According to the constitution of 1991, Bulgaria is a democratic republic with a president elected directly for a five-year term and a unicameral National Assembly whose 240 members are elected to four-year terms. Political parties compete freely for votes; among these are the centrist Union of Democratic Forces, the leftist Socialist Party (formerly the Communist Party), and a movement representing the Muslim minority.

Social-insurance benefits go to workers for sick leave, childbirth, and retirement. Medical services and treatment are readily available. Health conditions are generally good; most infectious diseases have been brought under control or eradicated. Average life expectancy is 68 years for men and 75 years for women. Like other eastern European countries, Bulgaria suffers a shortage of urban housing.

Education at all levels is free and compulsory from 6 to 16 years of age. Children receive their primary instruction from schools of general education and continue in secondary general or vocational schools. Higher education in Bulgaria is available in a variety of post-secondary institutes and universities.

Evidence of human habitation in Bulgaria dates from the Middle Paleolithic Period, and agricultural settlements appeared in the Neolithic Period. The Thracians were its first inhabitants to enter recorded history. Their existence in Bulgaria can be dated from about 3500 BC, when seminomadic pastoralists from the Eurasian steppes moved southwestward to settle in the Balkan Peninsula. The first known Thracian state dates from the mid-5th century BC. Weakened by conflict with the Macedonians and Persians, the Thracian kingdom was finally absorbed by the Roman Empire after a 150-year struggle lasting into the first years of the Christian era. Under Roman rule Bulgaria was divided between the provinces of Moesia and Thrace and lay athwart the main land route from the west to the Middle East.

Beginning in the 3rd century AD the Balkans suffered desolation brought about by successive invasions of Goths, Huns, Bulgars, and Avars. Gradually, from the mid-6th century, Slavic agriculturists repopulated most of the region. During the 7th century the Bulgars rose against the Avars, crossed the Danube, and subjugated the Slavic communities to the south. In 681, following an unsuccessful war with the Bulgars, the Byzantine Empire formally recognized Bulgar control of the region between the Balkans and the Danube. This is considered the starting point of the Bulgarian state. The ruler Boris I adopted Orthodox Christianity in 864, and the adoption of the new religion facilitated the assimilation of the Bulgars into the more numerous Slavic population. Although the name "Bulgaria" survived, the Bulgar language and customs died out, leaving few remnants among a population speaking a Slavic language.

The first Bulgarian empire flourished under Tsar Simeon (reigned 893-927) but was forced to accept Byzantine domination in 1018. A successful revolt led by the Asen brothers regained Bulgarian independence in 1185. The second Bulgarian empire, with its capital at Turnovo, ruled much of the Balkan Peninsula before succumbing to internal divisions and foreign invasion. In the second half of the 14th century, Bulgaria was invaded by the Ottoman Turks, and in 1396 the last vestiges of independence were lost. During the five centuries of Ottoman rule (1396-1878), imposed on Turkey by Russia, the Bulgarian nobility was destroyed and the peasantry enserfed to Turkish masters. The Turks did not attempt, however, to eradicate either Christianity or the Bulgarian language.

Bulgaria lagged behind its neighbours, Serbia and Greece, in the creation of a movement for independence; but, by the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78), a movement known as the National Revival had brought about a widespread sense of Bulgarian identity. The Treaty of San Stefano (1878), imposed on Turkey by Russia, created a practically independent Bulgaria covering almost three-fifths of the Balkan Peninsula. This was unacceptable to the other Great Powers, and the Congress of Berlin (1878) permitted the creation of only a small, autonomous principality covering the core area between the Balkans and the Danube. Alexander of Battenberg, a nephew of the Russian emperor, was made prince. In 1885 Alexander annexed Eastern Rumelia, lying to the south between the Balkan and Rhodope ranges, and in 1908 his successor, Ferdinand, declared Bulgaria an independent kingdom. Ferdinand then joined Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro in forming the Balkan League, which seized Macedonia and Thrace from Turkey in the First Balkan War (1912-13). Dissatisfied with the small portion of Macedonia that he received as spoils, Ferdinand precipitated a Second Balkan War (June-August 1913) against Turkey, Romania, and his own former allies. Bulgaria lost this war, along with most of the territory it had gained in the first conflict. This effectively ended the expansion of the Bulgarian state, although Ferdinand sided with the Central Powers during World War I in an attempt to regain Macedonia. Bulgaria's defeat in 1918 forced Ferdinand's abdication and the accession of his son, The interwar years were a period of economic crisis and political extremism and violence. Boris finally established a royal dictatorship and, during World War II, sided with Germany in yet another unsuccessful attempt to expand westward.

A communist-inspired coalition seized power on Sept. 9, 1944, in conjunction with an invasion by the Soviet Red Army. In 1946 a plebiscite abolished the monarchy and formed a people's republic that was henceforth ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party. The country's industries were expropriated from their owners by the state, and the country's peasant farmers were forced into collective farms. Under the successive rule of the communist leaders Georgi Dimitrov, Vulko Chervenkov, and Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria was transformed into a predominantly urban and industrial society. It remained firmly allied to the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc.

In 1989, however, Bulgaria was caught up in the wave of democratization that was sweeping eastern Europe, and Zhivkov resigned and was replaced by younger, reform-minded leaders. Like its Soviet-bloc counterparts in eastern Europe, the Bulgarian Communist Party then abandoned its constitutional monopoly of power and thus freed noncommunist opposition parties to participate in multiparty parliamentary elections. The Communist Party, renamed the Socialist Party, won a majority of seats in the parliamentary elections of June 1990, but, in elections held in October 1991, the opposition Union of Democratic Forces won and went on to form Bulgaria's first noncommunist government since 1946.

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