Portal:Bulgaria

Welcome to the Bulgaria portal!

The Seven Rila Lakes, Rila, Bulgaria
The Seven Rila Lakes, Rila, Bulgaria

Location of Bulgaria (dark green)

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located west of the Black Sea and south of the Danube river, 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 16th largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities include Burgas, Plovdiv, and Varna.

Bulgaria has an upper-middle-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...)

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 Kingdom 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)

Gallery

Selected Picture

Rila Twin lake.
Rila Twin lake.

The Twin lake (Bulgarian: Близнака) is the largest of the Seven Rila Lakes, which are group of lakes of glacial origin (glacial lakes), situated in the northwestern Rila Mountains in Bulgaria. The lakes are situated between 2,100 and 2,500 metres elevation above sea level. The Twin lake is the largest with 9.1 ha.

More did You Know?

  • ... that the early 17th-century church in the village of Dobarsko features frescoes of Jesus taking off in a rocket?

Topics

Related Portals

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Things You Can Do

Requested articlesBirth rate in Bulgaria (bg) • Boyan Rasate (bg) • Bulgaria of Labor and Reason (bg) • Census of Bulgaria, 2001 (bg) • Bulgarian architecture (bg) • Bulgarian gardenersConservative Union of the Right (bg) • Totyu Mladenov (bg) • Alexander Tsvetkov (bg) • Nona Karadzhova (bg) • Stefan Konstantinov (bg) • Minko Gerdzhikov (bg) • Movement of Non-Partisan Candidates (bg) • Nikolay Liliev (bg) • Nikolay Malinov (bg) • Teodor Trayanov (bg) • Bulgarian dressEvgeni Tanchev (bg) • Plamen Paskov (bg) • Pravoto (bg) • BulMag (bg) • Simeon Slavchev (bg) • Svetozar Saev (bg) • Zamunda.net (bg) • Tsveta Galunova (bg) • Tsoncho Ganev (bg) • Nikolay Drenchev (bg)

ExpandDulo clanYantra RiverNestinarstvoVrana PalacePliskaGate of TrajanGeorgi IvanovGeorgi BenkovskiEkaterina DafovskaName days in BulgariaEvlogi GeorgievSlivenShumenShishman dynasty

Requested imagesKlokotnitsaNaftex StadiumPalitsiVrana PalaceDimitar Petkov

Further informationWikiProject BulgariaBulgarian Collaboration ProjectTranslation into English/Bulgarian

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals

© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search