Bulgaria

Coordinates: 42°45′N 25°30′E / 42.750°N 25.500°E / 42.750; 25.500

Bulgaria (ⁱ/bʌlˈɡɛəriə/, /bʊlˈ-/; Bulgarian: България, tr. Bǎlgarija, IPA: [bɐɫˈɡarijɐ]), officially the Republic of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Република България, tr. Republika Bǎlgarija), is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 16th-largest country.

Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period. Its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians and later the Persians,Greeks and Romans. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian state dates back to the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681 AD, which dominated most of the Balkans and functioned as a cultural hub for Slavs during the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State. The following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc. In December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgaria's transition into a democracy and a market-based economy.

National anthem

A national anthem (also state anthem, national hymn, national song etc.) is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people. The majority of national anthems are either marches or hymns in style. The countries of Latin America tend towards more operatic pieces, while a handful of countries use a simple fanfare.

Languages

Although national anthems are usually in the most common language of the country, whether de facto' or official, there are notable exceptions-

States with more than one national language may offer several versions of their anthem: for instance, Switzerland's anthem has different lyrics for each of the country's four official languages (French, German, Italian and Romansh). Canada's national anthem has different lyrics in each of the country's official languages (English and French), and on some occasions is sung with a mixture of stanzas taken from its French and English versions. The Irish national anthem was written in English; an Irish translation, although never formally adopted, is now almost always sung.

People's Republic

"People's Republic" is a title used by certain republican states. Initially associated with populism (people's movements: Völkisch movement, Narodnik, others), it eventually became associated with countries adhering to communism, after the creation of the Soviet Union, such as China. However, the term is not unique to communist states. Many countries adopted the title given its rather generic nature, like Bangladesh, which was founded as a liberal parliamentary republic after a popular war of independence.

Marxist–Leninist People's Republics

The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist–Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist–Leninist republic is a people's republic. Many of these countries also called themselves socialist states in their constitutions; Albania, for instance, used both terms, "socialist" and "people's", in its official name from 1976 to 1991. In the West, countries governed by Marxist–Leninists are referred to as "Communist states", though they never actually used this name for themselves and used the term countries of people's democracy. In the 1990s, many of the self-styled "People's Republics" of Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria) and Mongolia dropped the term and became known simply as "Republics" as they adopted liberal democratic systems of government — the term "People's Republic" being associated with the former Communist regimes.

People's Republic of Bulgaria

The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; Bulgarian: Народна република България (НРБ) Narodna republika Balgariya (NRB)) was the official name of the Bulgarian socialist republic that existed from 1946 to 1990, when the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) ruled together with its coalition partner, the National Agrarian Party. Bulgaria was an Eastern Bloc country, part of Comecon, a member of the Warsaw Pact, and allied with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Founded from the anti-fascist resistance movements during World War II, the kingdom's administration was deposed in the coup of 1944 which ended the country's association with the Axis and led to the People's Republic being established in 1946. From the start, the BCP modeled its policies after those pioneered in the Soviet Union, transforming the country from an agrarian peasant society into an industrialized socialist society over the course of a decade. In the mid 1950s, after the death of Joseph Stalin, the conservative hardliners lost influence and a period of social liberalization and stability followed with varying degrees of conservative or liberal influence over time thereafter. 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 on, 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.

Republic

A republic (from Latin: res publica) is a sovereign state or country which is organised with a form of government in which power resides in elected individuals representing the citizen body and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In modern times, the definition of a republic is commonly limited to a government which excludes a monarch. Currently, 147 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as part of their official names; not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor do all nations with elected governments use the word "republic" in their names.

Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology and composition. In the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as "civic humanism", is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust and Tacitus. However, Greek-influenced Roman authors, such as Polybius and Cicero, sometimes also used the term as a translation for the Greek politeia which could mean regime generally, but could also be applied to certain specific types of regime which did not exactly correspond to that of the Roman Republic. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect.