Big Beat in the Balkans

Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov may still toady to the Kremlin's foreign-policy wishes (see above), but when it comes to internal matters, he is as reform-minded as any other Eastern European.

At the Bulgarian Party Congress last week, Zhivkov proudly detailed "an all-round upsurge" in the nation's economy -- the product of a quiet three-year-old reform experiment that has placed 60% of Bulgaria's industry on a profit-incentive basis.

In factories freed from the rigid grip of central planning, Zhivkov reported output improved and labor productivity nearly tripled. Partly as a result, Zhivkov was able to promise Bulgarians "TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, cars, furniture"--coupled with a shorter work week (down from 46 hours to 44) and a much needed 7% wage increase across the board.

The Yellow Tiles. Sofia, once the dreariest of East-bloc capitals, has already taken on a new vigor and vivacity. A burgeoning fleet of privately owned automobiles now dominates yellow-tiled Russki Boulevard, having driven into retirement the babushka-topped, overall-clad street cleaners who once were its only traffic. Red Coca-Cola trucks bustle about town, carting the bubbly produce from three local bottling plants. In such cafes as the Astoria and the Alenmak, where only two years ago the twist was a reform-school offense, big-beat music blares from well-stocked jukeboxes (current top hit: Get off of My Cloud).

"It is inevitable," said a Bulgarian official last week over a Coke. "Our people, especially the young, are influenced by the increasing number of Western tourists who come here." Since Bulgaria opened its borders to currency-laden

Westerners three years ago, 3,000,000 tourists have swept through--most of them to bask in the sun on once-deserted Black Sea beaches, others to visit Sofia's antiquity-rich hinterland dotted with Thracian, Macedonian and Roman ruins. Recently, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Turkey joined in a tourist venture publicizing "historic" Highway E-5--the Roman route to the Near East that later carried Crusaders and pilgrims in their long journey to the Holy Land. The publicity blurbs pointedly failed to mention that the road also served the Turkish janizaries in their harsh 500-year occupation of Bulgaria.

Shield on the Underbelly. The highway project reflects Bulgaria's growing interest in cultivating its once-hated Balkan neighbors. Foreign Minister Ivan Bashev visited Ankara last year, recently approved an agreement with Greece to increase trade and tourism. Exulted one Bulgarian in Sofia last week: "The Balkan powder keg is a thing of the past." Nothing dies harder in the Balkans than ancient history, however, and the Bulgarians are still effusive each year in their thanks to Russia for freeing them from Turkish bondage 88 years ago. What's more, the Kremlin is pleased to see Bulgaria on a friendly footing with NATO members Turkey and Greece: Sofia is Russia's shield on the "soft underbelly."

Bulgarians themselves seem in no great rush either to advance toward the prosperity levels of their neighbors to the west or to shed the yoke of Russian foreign-policy domination. "Everything in my country takes a long time," said one Bulgarian official last week. "After all, it took us half a millennium to get rid of the Turks."

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