The Republic of Bulgaria is a liberal, capitalist state located in Southeast Europe, near Turkey, Romania, Serbia, Macedonia and Greece.
History
Socialist Bulgaria (1946 - 1991)
Main Article: People's Republic of Bulgaria
In 1944, the USSR launched an invasion of Bulgaria due to their support for Nazi Germany, and Bulgarian communists launched a three day coup and managed to establish a short-lived democratic republic composed of an alliance with communists, social democrats and farmers parties. Communist paramilitaries intimidated their political opponents and a referendum declared a republic with 95% of the population voting for a republic that the communists took over, arresting political opponents and restricting religious expression. It soon cut all diplomatic ties to the US and firmly supported the USSR throughout the Cold War and became a fairly average socialist state.
In the 1960s some market economic reforms were adopted, which allowed the free sale of production that exceeded planned amounts. The country became the most popular tourist destination for people in the Eastern Bloc. Bulgaria produced commodities such as cigarettes and chocolate, which were hard to obtain in other socialist countries. The government also signed deals to with Coca-Cola, Renault and Fiat to help produce commodities for them. The country also took loans from western banks which led to a debt crisis.
In the 1980s, the government began to carry out ethnic cleansing of Turks, leading to 300,000 people fleeing to Turkey and causing a massive labor shortage. The government also began to allow for more criticism of the government leading to angry protesters over the violent breakup of environmentalist protesters in Sofia in 1989. Estimates of people killed by the government over its 45 year reign range from 31,000 to 100,000 people (in a country of 9 million, or about 0.3 - 2% of the population).
Current Bulgaria (1991 - Present)
After the fall of socialism, the country had several problems. Life expectancy fell about 1.5 years from 1991 to 1997 (an approximate). Since 1989, the countries population has fallen by nearly 25%, one of the highest depopulation rates in the world. GDP fell by 50% from 1990 to 1994. It has been rated the most corrupt country in Europe and has the highest rate of air pollution and health problems associated with air pollution in the European Union. However, it retains an extremely high level of biodiversity, good water quality and low carbon emissions.