Bulgia
18-02-2008, 07:50
Bulgia, United and Prepared
Brief History
Bulgia is a Slavic land with a long and diverse history in which its soil has been criss-crossed by many peoples. In the twentieth century the nation succumbed to the allure of Marxism-Leninism and eventually to Stalinist domination.
During the collapse of so much of the Soviet bloc in the last two decades of the century, the Bulgian People's Republic was replaced by a reforming Bulgian Republic following a velvet revolution. In the 1990s the political scene was dominated by two men, President Grigore Istok, a former member of the politburo, and the dynamic young Constantine Nechita, known popularly as Costel.
Nechita's Bulgian Socialist Workers' Party proved to be pro-western, and engaged in rapid market reforms and political, religious, and social liberalisation. President Istok remained firmly in place as chief of state while Nechita, as Prime Minister, was a popular head of government. Held to be quite dashing and possessed of a personal charm, he gained a reputation as something of a golden boy, taking on numerous causes with obvious enthusiasm.
But his fortunes were not to last.
Political and Economic Situation
Recovering from years of inefficient central planning and Party command, the Bulgian economy was in the early 1990s one of Europe's most backward. Few Bulgian homes have indoor plumbing, power blackouts are commonplace, transport infrastructure contributes to low export earnings despite the presence of valuable natural resources such as extensive tar-sands, and corruption became a problem during a dramatic transition to free-market practices.
Unfortunately, many Bulgians were swept-up in pyramid schemes and other programmes recognised as risky in the west but unfamiliar to Bulgians who had come to associate capitalism with boundless prosperity and endless relaxation thanks to misleading western propaganda aimed at undermining the Communist government of the old People's Republic.
Since the start of the C21st the Bulgian economy has become, in the words of a wealthy ex-patriot living in France, "absurd, an economic killing field in which people are prey to dragons". Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, millions are unemployed, and tens of thousands of young people leave the country every year.
PM Nechita's approval rating has slumped to an astonishing 7% as elections approach, with Lubmila Kronyatensko, widow of the People's Republic's last Communist Party Chairman the principle challenger to his position. Kronyatensko is riding a wave of nostalgia amongst older people who feel that their nation is bleeding its future away for a quick buck.
"They say that the Communists needed walls to keep us in, and yet the new capitalist Republic bleeds twenty young people for every one exile who returns home or foreigner who comes to Bulgia! Ha! If the capitalists don't build a wall of their own, we Communists will soon be the only ones left!"
-Lubmila Kronyatensko during her election campaign.
Brief History
Bulgia is a Slavic land with a long and diverse history in which its soil has been criss-crossed by many peoples. In the twentieth century the nation succumbed to the allure of Marxism-Leninism and eventually to Stalinist domination.
During the collapse of so much of the Soviet bloc in the last two decades of the century, the Bulgian People's Republic was replaced by a reforming Bulgian Republic following a velvet revolution. In the 1990s the political scene was dominated by two men, President Grigore Istok, a former member of the politburo, and the dynamic young Constantine Nechita, known popularly as Costel.
Nechita's Bulgian Socialist Workers' Party proved to be pro-western, and engaged in rapid market reforms and political, religious, and social liberalisation. President Istok remained firmly in place as chief of state while Nechita, as Prime Minister, was a popular head of government. Held to be quite dashing and possessed of a personal charm, he gained a reputation as something of a golden boy, taking on numerous causes with obvious enthusiasm.
But his fortunes were not to last.
Political and Economic Situation
Recovering from years of inefficient central planning and Party command, the Bulgian economy was in the early 1990s one of Europe's most backward. Few Bulgian homes have indoor plumbing, power blackouts are commonplace, transport infrastructure contributes to low export earnings despite the presence of valuable natural resources such as extensive tar-sands, and corruption became a problem during a dramatic transition to free-market practices.
Unfortunately, many Bulgians were swept-up in pyramid schemes and other programmes recognised as risky in the west but unfamiliar to Bulgians who had come to associate capitalism with boundless prosperity and endless relaxation thanks to misleading western propaganda aimed at undermining the Communist government of the old People's Republic.
Since the start of the C21st the Bulgian economy has become, in the words of a wealthy ex-patriot living in France, "absurd, an economic killing field in which people are prey to dragons". Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, millions are unemployed, and tens of thousands of young people leave the country every year.
PM Nechita's approval rating has slumped to an astonishing 7% as elections approach, with Lubmila Kronyatensko, widow of the People's Republic's last Communist Party Chairman the principle challenger to his position. Kronyatensko is riding a wave of nostalgia amongst older people who feel that their nation is bleeding its future away for a quick buck.
"They say that the Communists needed walls to keep us in, and yet the new capitalist Republic bleeds twenty young people for every one exile who returns home or foreigner who comes to Bulgia! Ha! If the capitalists don't build a wall of their own, we Communists will soon be the only ones left!"
-Lubmila Kronyatensko during her election campaign.