If ever you ever are in Eastern Europe, and you refer to the former, Stalinistic governments as being communist, Bulgarians, Czechs, Poles, Slovaks and Rumanians will look at you as if you are not that intelligent. As Gavin Gallagher in my 9th period pointed out, communism involves the withering away of government and the sharing of ownership of production as well as property by the people. What the Eastern Europeans reached after World War Two was socialism, which encompassed the state controlling the means of production and most property. Another thing you realize is that we Americans have been to taught to look at these post-World War Two governments as complete failures. However, as one of our hosts pointed out, 80% of Bulgarians were illiterate and 80% of the country was undustrialized before the 1950s. The socialist radically changed that until Bulgaria was an exporter of industrialized goods, albeit military goods.
This rapid industrialization came at a price, though, to the environment. Alexander Ivanov took seven years to complete 120 ariel and was awarded recognition and prizes from National Geographic Magazine. I have included some of his photos that are on display on the pedestrain mall by Hotel Bulgaria, where I am staying. You can see the rest at http://alexanderivanov.com/en/news.html
Bulgaria: land of Continuity and Change
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