Bulgaria's regular military forces are organized within the Bulgarian People's Army (Bulgarska Narodna Armiya) and are subordinate in the governmental system to the Ministry of National Defense. Approximately 80 percent of the personnel are in the ground forces. Of the remaining 20 percent about three-quarters are in air and air defense units, and about one-quarter are naval forces.

Although Bulgaria is possibly the most staunch and sympathetic of the Soviet Union's allies in Eastern Europe, the country has no common border with the Soviet Union nor with any other of its Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact) allies except Romania. Because Romania has succeeded in establishing a precedent prohibiting movement of any foreign forces across its borders—even those of its closest allies—Bulgaria is to a large degree isolated from pact affairs. Unable to participate in more than token fashion in pact training, short of skilled men to care for complex equipment, and possibly restricted from an ability to become engaged during the early days of a combat situation, Bulgaria has undoubtedly lost some Soviet matÉriel support.

Because of this the forces have only small armored units, although the military establishment as a whole is large in relation to the population of the country. The air forces have been supplied with a few modern aircraft, but most of its airplanes are older than those of its pact allies. Naval forces are small. Even though logistic support has been meager, morale has been considered good, and the men and their leaders have been considered ideologically reliable.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The communist leadership considers only a few incidents in the history and tradition of the armed forces before World War II to be significant. Even in respect to that war, the sole esteemed service is that of the partisans in their resistance movement against their own government and against German troops in the country. Driving out the Turks to gain national independence in 1878 is remembered, as is the abortive uprising of the leftists against the government in September 1923. Emphasis on only these few historical events is encouraged, at least in part, because in much of their other warfare Bulgaria's fighting men frequently experienced frustration or defeat, sometimes violent and humiliating.As no indigenous armed forces had been allowed during the five centuries of Ottoman occupation, there were no national forces at the time that independence was gained. The uprising by the local population two years earlier, in 1876, had been heroic, and it contributed to the weakening of the Turkish grip on the land, but it was a failure at the time. It is still, however, remembered. On ceremonial military occasions a roll call of the local men killed in the uprising is read aloud at memorial rites.

Participation in four wars between 1912 and 1945 produced negative results for the country. Bulgarian forces were engaged in a major share of the fighting during the First Balkan War (1912) but, from its standpoint, the country received an inadequate share of the spoils at the peace table. A year later, when Turkey and its former allies joined forces against Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria was defeated.

Allied with Germany in both world wars, Bulgaria experienced defeat twice more, although the situation was somewhat different in World War II. The government and nationalists bent on acquiring territory they considered theirs—primarily from Greece and Yugoslavia—succeeded in joining in the war on Germany's side. The population was generally far more sympathetic to the Soviet Union, however, and during the years of German success in the early part of the war, Bulgarian forces did little in support of their ally. In the latter days of the war, as the Germans were being driven back, the Bulgarians joined the armies of the Soviet Union. In fact, the 30,000 casualties they claim to have suffered in campaigns against the Germans were far more than were suffered in their support (see ch. 2).

After World War II, when the Communists had gained control of the country, training and unit organization were modeled on those of the Soviet army; heavy matÉriel items were supplied by the Soviet Union; and all other equipment was made to adapt to Soviet specifications. Personnel considered unreliable by the new regime were weeded out as fast as possible, and rigorous measures were taken to ensure that political orientation considered correct in the new atmosphere would be adhered to by those who replaced them.

Equipment received first was surplus to the needs of the Soviet Union as three-quarters or more of its massive wartime forces were demobilized. Replacement matÉriel came more slowly, having to await the reequipping of Soviet units, but by the late 1950s the most essential combat weapons had been upgraded.

GOVERNMENTAL AND PARTY CONTROL OVER THE ARMED FORCES

The armed forces are subordinate to the Ministry of National Defense, which is one of the governmental ministries whose chief is a member of the Council of Ministers. Administration and routine operational controls are accomplished through government channels. The party, however, has policy authority and ultimate operational control. Division of authority is more apparent than real because nearly all high-ranking governmental officials are also important party members. The minister of national defense in 1973, Army General Dobri Dzhurov, was also a member of the party's Central Committee. Almost without exception the higher ranking military officers are party members, as are nearly 85 percent of the officers of all ranks. The 15 percent who are not in the party are junior officers who are still members of the Dimitrov Communist Youth Union (Dimitrovski Komunisticheski Mladezhki Suyuz), commonly referred to as the Komsomol. Only a small percentage of Komsomol members become party members, but all except a very few of the young officers are selected for party membership when it becomes apparent that they probably will be successful career officers.

Political education is given priority equal to that of combat training at all levels in the military organization. Party cells are formed in all units where there are three or more party members; Komsomol cells exist in virtually all units. In 1972, 65 percent of the armed forces participated in scientific-technical competitions, symposia, conferences, reviews, exhibitions, and other Komsomol activities.

One-man command has superseded the dual control system of the 1950s. In those days a political officer was placed alongside the commanding officer of all units to ensure the reliability of the forces. The political officer was in many ways equal in authority to, and independent of, the commander. The unit commander has allegedly reassumed a position where he is described as the central figure, leader, planner, and organizer; he is responsible for the discipline and combat effectiveness of his unit and for fulfilling its party tasks. The unit commander's deputy is still a political officer in most units and, although there is no question of his subordinate position, the political officer is still responsible in part directly to the Main Political Administration of the army.

ORGANIZATION AND MISSION

The several military forces under the Ministry of National Defense are referred to collectively as the Bulgarian People's Army. The army includes the ground, naval, and air and air defense forces and also the Border Troops (see ch. 15). Tradition prevails in common usage and even in official pronouncements, so that when the term army is used alone, it invariably refers to the ground forces or the directorates and service organizations that are common to all of the forces. Naval and air forces are frequently referred to as though they were separate service branches.

Uniformed military personnel permeate the Ministry of National Defense. All deputy ministers and, with the exception of the medical branch, all major administrative chiefs are military officers. During the early 1970s the first deputy minister of national defense was also chairman of the General Staff and chief of the ground forces. One of the deputies was chief of the air and air defense forces, and all of the others were generals. Following the pattern of other Warsaw Pact armed forces organizations, the political, rear services (logistics), training, armor, artillery, communications, engineering, and chemical sections are directorates, administrations, or branches responsible to the minister of national defense. This is the case in spite of the facts that such branches as armor and artillery are concerned primarily with the ground forces and that others—training, for example—must be tailored to widely different kinds of operations of all the individual services.

Bulgaria is the point of contact between the Warsaw Pact nations and Greece and Turkey, which are the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries on the southern flank of the Soviet alliance. Although little is known of Warsaw Pact war plans, it is probable that Bulgarian forces would be charged with containing an attack from the south. Statements of military leaders indicate that considerable thought has been given to the problems they would face in a nuclear war. They apparently anticipate involvement in the initial engagements but, if nuclear weapons are used, they would employ holding tactics, staying alert to exploit any opportunities that might develop. Their pronouncements repeatedly affirm a determination to perform their pact mission to the best of their capabilities.

Ground Forces

The ground forces have approximately 120,000 men. Their major units consist of eight motorized rifle divisions and five tank brigades. There are also various smaller special purpose units and support organizations. The forces are distributed among three territorial commands having headquarters at Sofia, Plovdiv, and Sliven. The division is the basic organizational unit in Warsaw Pact combat forces and has about 10,000 men. Five of Bulgaria's divisions are believed to be near combat strength, but three probably have only skeletal strengths and would be built up with the mobilization that would accompany a major national emergency.

Each of the other Warsaw Pact armies has a number of tank divisions. The fact that Bulgaria has only tank brigades, which are probably one-half or less the strength of divisions, reflects the austerity of its armed forces. Motorized rifle divisions have one tank regiment, one artillery regiment, and three motorized rifle regiments. The tank brigades, because they are smaller, probably have fewer tanks than the motorized rifle divisions.

Most of the tanks used by the Bulgarian army are the early post-World War II model T-54. There are some newer models in the inventory, and a few of the older World War II T-34s are still being retained. Artillery pieces include guns and gun-howitzers from 82 mm to 152 mm, antitank weapons up to 100 mm, and small antiaircraft guns. Some units are equipped with short-range missiles and unguided rockets. There are enough personnel carriers or self-propelled weapons so that all men in a unit can be transported simultaneously.

Air and Air Defense Forces

The air and air defense forces have approximately 20,000 men, 250 combat aircraft, an assortment of antiaircraft guns, a few surface-to-air missiles, and a modest quantity of air defense radar and communications equipment. Combat aircraft are organized in squadrons, usually with twelve airplanes each. In 1973 there were six fighter-bomber, twelve fighter-interceptor, and three reconnaissance squadrons.

The fighter-bomber squadrons use the MiG-17, an aircraft that is obsolescent but that performs well in a ground support role. About one-half of the fighter-interceptors are also MiG-17s, but three of the interceptor squadrons have the newer MiG-21. The only bomber aircraft in the air forces is the near-obsolete Il-28. The Il-28 squadron has a reconnaissance role. A few old cargo or passenger planes provide a minimal transport capability, but there are about forty helicopters that can perform shorter range personnel and transport functions.

Air defense forces are positioned to provide protection for the country's periphery as well as for a few cities and air installations. Ground and naval forces have antiaircraft weapons to defend their own units. Early warning radars are located mainly along southern and western borders, and their communications lines are presumably linked with the Warsaw Pact air defense warning network.

Naval Forces

Naval forces, with only about 7,000 men, constitute less than 5 percent of the armed forces' personnel strength. They man a variety of vessels, however, including escort ships, patrol boats, torpedo boats, two submarines, and miscellaneous supply and service vessels. They also include a contingent of naval infantry, or marines. Some of the smaller craft make up a Danube River flotilla. Other than the torpedo- and missile-carrying patrol boats, the major offensive strength consists of the submarines, which are Soviet-built W-class medium boats, and about twenty landing craft. All of the larger vessels built since World War II have been Soviet built or designed.

Although the naval mission includes tasks confined to the portion of the Black Sea near Bulgaria's coastline, a few fleet units have joined the Soviet fleet for maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea, and the naval cadet training ship sails any of the high seas. For example, it visited Cuba on its 1972 summer cruise.

FOREIGN MILITARY RELATIONS

Bulgaria joined the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Albania in bilateral treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance during the early post-World War II period and added another with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) a few years later. This group became the tighter and more formal Warsaw Pact military alliance in 1955. Albania dissociated itself from the pact in the early 1960s, and its treaties with Bulgaria and the other members have not been renewed since then. Bulgaria's treaties with the remainder of the original allies have been renewed regularly and are the cause for official observances each year on their anniversary dates.

Although Bulgaria may be the most loyal and reliable of the Soviet Union's allies, military cooperation between the two countries is limited by their geographical separation. Even if Romania were to permit Bulgaria's forces to cross its territory in order to participate in Warsaw Pact training, it is probable that Bulgaria's role in a future European war would be limited to southeastern Europe, an area that would be of less immediate concern at the outset of a war between the Warsaw Pact members and NATO. In any event, air and sea transport is in limited supply and is not used for the delivery of large numbers of Bulgarian troops to exercises in an area where they probably would not be employed. As a consequence, Bulgaria sends only token forces and observers to the larger pact exercises.

Bulgaria is not a warm proponent of ideological coexistence but is strongly in favor of arms reductions and limitations on future weapons. It was a member of a United Nations disarmament committee in the early 1970s, and much space in the printed media is devoted to support of proposals for restricting deployment and use of nuclear weapons in certain areas.

MANPOWER, TRAINING, AND SUPPORT

Manpower

Interpolations of the United Nations estimate of the country's 1973 population indicate that there were about 2.3 million males in the fifteen- to forty-nine-year age-group, which Bulgarian authorities consider military age. There were also about 70,000 in the annual groups that were reaching the draft age of nineteen each year. Those conscripted serve two- or three-year duty tours. The basic ground force tour is two years; that of special units and air and naval forces is three years.

Approximately 70 percent of the military age groups, or 1.6 million males, are considered physically and otherwise fit for military duty. Any number of them could be called up in the event of an emergency requiring total mobilization, but it is likely that many of the group would be occupying positions having higher priority than basic military duty. A somewhat larger proportion, or about 75 percent, of the nineteen-year-olds are in satisfactory physical condition. Most of them are drafted; a turnover of one-third of the 150,000-man regular armed forces each year would require nearly all of the group. Because there is very little room for flexibility, a young man's education is interrupted unless he was actually enrolled in a university or college before he reached the age of eighteen. In this case he continues his education but serves his military obligation upon completion of his education. Occupational deferments were eliminated by law in 1970, and other deferments are given infrequently and reluctantly. Young men unfit for military duty or for work in the Construction Troops, but who are fit to earn a living in some other work, pay a military tax (see ch. 15).

Those who have had military service and who have not reached the age of fifty are considered reserves. Officers remain in the reserve until the age of sixty. Various factors—primarily occupational situations, physical condition, and lack of reserve training—operate to erode this force, and those considered useful, or trained, reserves constitute one-half or less of the group. Most of the some 250,000 men released in the latest five-year period, however, are available, physically fit, and familiar with the weapons and equipment in use by the armed forces.

Training

In common with its Warsaw Pact allies, Bulgaria uses equipment that is produced or designed in the Soviet Union or that is compatible with Soviet designs. The training program is patterned after that of the Soviet army because the Soviet equipment dictates the training required to maintain and operate it, and joint maneuvers participated in by any or all of the pact forces make it necessary to employ standard procedures and tactics.

The program is carried on in an annual cycle. Immediately after induction a conscript's time is spent in so-called individual or basic training. Physical exercise is rigorous, and the soldier is initiated into the care and use of individual weapons, military drill, and the various aspects of military existence with which he had not been familiar and to which he must learn to adjust. He also learns individual actions that may become necessary in group or combat situations, ranging from personal combat techniques to first aid treatment for battle wounds or exposure to gas or nuclear radiation.

As the cycle progresses, the individual usually becomes part of a crew manning a larger weapon or a more complex piece of equipment. When the crew knows its equipment, it then becomes involved in exercises of increasing size, in which it learns to employ weapons and equipment in coordination with other systems. The training cycle culminates in late summer or autumn with the largest of the year's maneuvers. Although the more important Warsaw Pact maneuvers have been held in the northern group of Eastern European countries, smaller exercises are held in Bulgaria and are occasionally participated in by visiting Soviet or Romanian forces.

Air defense crews with small-caliber antiaircraft guns and tracking radar practice in conjunction with the early warning network and air defense communications. After target identification they practice holding their weapons on the aircraft by radar or visual sighting. Target aircraft average about 450 miles per hour and fly just above the treetops.

Ground forces train with a wide variety of weapons and in many situations, but they claim special capabilities and excellence in mountain and winter exercises. These maneuvers are scheduled to exploit the long winter nights and fog, snow, or blizzard conditions to teach troops how to achieve surprise in encircling movements. Troops exercising in the snow are provided a white outergarment for camouflage.

Combined arms exercises are held when all support units are engaged in supporting offensive operations led by tank and motorized rifle groups. In such exercises the equipment is used as realistically as possible, with blank ammunition and training grenades. Ultra-shortwave communication equipment, whose normal fifty- to sixty-mile range would suffice more than adequately in small maneuver areas, is relayed over long distances to simulate a more typical combat situation.

Political education is the responsibility of a main administration of the Ministry of National Defense and has status on a par with the other most important ministry functions. The administration states its mission as "cultivating moral-political and combat virtues that train men and units for skillful and selfless action under the conditions of modern warfare." Its leaders stress the point that, although large forces and massive firepower are employed in modern combat, the complexity and use of weapons is such that individual initiative is increasingly important. A small group left alone to employ a highly complex weapon must be able to make decisions and must be motivated to do the best that is possible under any kind of unpleasant circumstances.

Political indoctrination is also aimed at combating potentially subversive elements. Political instructors urge stronger "ideological vigilance" and act to counter the influences of, for example, Western radio stations.

Schools and the Komsomol, with the various youth clubs and organizations that it sponsors, are charged with preparing predraft-age youths for military service. A preliminary training program was reorganized and revitalized in 1968. National leaders had noted that the physical condition of the average conscript was becoming less satisfactory each year and that the idea of serving in the armed forces appeared to be meeting with resistance from a small but increasing number of youths. They also were aware that juvenile crime was increasing. Sensing that poor physical fitness, a reluctance to perform military duty, and increasing crime could be related and have common causes, they attributed much of the problem to a change in youth attitudes. Political indoctrination and ideological subjects, presented in an attempt to encourage a more proper attitude are, therefore, given highest priorities in the new program.

The formal portion of the program initiated in 1968 consists of a schedule of premilitary training, obligatory for all young men and women between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Facilities for it were made available in schools for those who were students and at cooperative farms, enterprises, or anywhere that groups of working youths were employed. Young army officers on active duty and reserve officers in the local area were made available for classroom and field instruction.

The party's Politburo issued a statement in March 1971 to the effect that the Komsomol had successfully organized the required program. It cited statistics on recreational facilities, among which were camps that were preparing to accept 125,000 boys and girls for that summer. Camp programs feature political instruction, physical training, sports activities, military field training, and a wide variety of specialized subjects. Other Komsomol cells sponsor aero clubs for those interested in air force service and rowing, sailing, and diving clubs for those interested in the navy. Radio communication, vehicle driving, marksmanship, and many other subjects are sponsored at year-round classes in local areas.

Other than preinduction orientation, conscripts get their basic training, weapons and skills specialization, and combat training while in the service. Noncommissioned officers may also come up from the ranks and be prepared for better positions at in-service schools, but they may also attend special schools and enter regular military units for the first time with a noncommissioned officer grade. Noncommissioned officer secondary schools were provided for in a 1971 law. The schools were to be available to acceptable applicants who had completed the eighth grade and were seventeen years of age or younger. The courses would last a minimum of three years, during which students would be considered to be on active military duty and after which graduates could continue in the service as noncommissioned officers. If an individual did not go on with a military career, he would be credited with a completed secondary school education and also with the completion of his regular required military service. Under any but exceptional circumstances, however, graduates would be obligated to serve in the armed forces for at least ten more years.

Cadet programs in several university-level higher military schools provide officers for the services. Applicants to these schools must have completed secondary school, be active members of the Komsomol, and indicate an intention that, upon graduation, they would accept appointment to serve in one of the armed services. They must also be single, in excellent physical condition, and under twenty-four years of age. Many apply during their tours of conscript service but are accepted only if they have the prerequisite educational qualifications.

Line officers for infantry or armored units and logistics officers have four-year courses. Engineer, signal, transportation, artillery, electronics, and other technical specialties are five-year courses, as are those that fit candidates for air and naval careers. The men are commissioned in a common ceremony shortly after they have graduated.

Morale and Conditions of Service

The basic ingredients of good morale are present in good measure in Bulgaria's armed forces. The vast majority of the troops believe in their overall mission, take their obligation for granted, enjoy a respected status, and receive valuable training. The country's principal ally, the Soviet Union, is a long-standing friend and is held in high esteem. Greece and Turkey, the countries that the men are taught to expect to fight, are traditional enemies; so also is Yugoslavia.

In addition to being obligatory, military service is nearly universal, and it is difficult to evade. Service life is extolled in the media, and no widespread criticism, either of the forces as a whole or of individuals as servicemen, is aired. Military experience provides vocational training, much of which is beneficial to the individual and to the national economy.

Special social benefits are available to the forces' personnel. If their service results in unusual hardships for their dependents, the families are given extra consideration. Monthly benefit payments to wives or parents experiencing financial problems exceed those to nonmilitary families by 30 percent. Wives who remain behind get preferential treatment for prenatal or child care or while job hunting. As the men come to the end of their duty tours, they are assisted in their transition to civilian life, in their search for educational opportunities, or in job placement. If disabled in the service, a veteran gets a pension that is more liberal than usual for the same disability acquired elsewhere and continuing assistance that includes free transportation on public transport as well as medical treatment and care of such things as orthopedic apparatus.

Medicine

The medical service provides treatment and preventive medicine for military personnel and, in certain circumstances, for dependents and for persons employed by the military. Its services are also available to the public at large during individual emergencies, if they are the most immediately available, and on a larger scale during epidemics or natural disasters. Military personnel may also avail themselves of emergency facilities in nonmilitary hospitals or clinics.

Since about 1960 the medical service has been upgraded in several major respects. That year saw the formation of a higher military medical institute, located on the site of the army's general hospital, for advanced, specialized training of physicians. In addition to providing better training for military doctors, the objective was to establish a research center for in-depth study of the special military aspects of medical science. A more pragmatic objective was to initiate long-overdue improvement in medical services for the armed forces. In its first ten years the institute gave advanced instruction to 6,500 medical personnel and an additional specialty to some 200 medical officers.

After the formation of the higher medical institute, the medical services were given considerably broader authority over sanitation and hygienic conditions throughout the military establishment. They determine standards to be maintained and make inspections of living quarters, food services, water supplies, bathing and laundry facilities, and training and recreational areas; they give instruction in personal and group hygiene. They also participate in the planning and design of new barracks and any other buildings where troops work or train.

Appropriate to the enhanced status and authority of the medical service, its section of the ministry was upgraded and has become one of the dozen more important branches under the minister of national defense. Its chief has been a doctor, the only major staff member who has been neither a general officer of one of the armed services nor a high-ranking party official.

Military Justice

Military courts, or tribunals, are special courts but are part of the national judicial system and subject to the same codes as are the civilian courts. In the same kind of relationship, military crimes are a special category of crime but are listed within the overall Bulgarian criminal code. The separation of military justice from the rest of the judicial machinery is almost complete, however, although jurisdiction in a criminal situation could be in question and, in its early treatment, a case could be transferred from the jurisdiction of a military to a civil court or vice versa. Once tried before a military tribunal, the proceedings and sentence of a trial might be reviewed by a higher military court or might go to the Supreme Court, but it would be extremely rare for a case to be reviewed by a civil court. Within the Supreme Court a review would be accomplished only by a military panel of that court.

Military crimes are those committed on military installations or those that relate to the performance of military duty, to military property or personnel, to military honor, or to certain aspects of national security. Servicemen of all ranks, military reserves during their training or whenever they are under military control, personnel of the police or any of the other militarized security units, or any other persons involved in military crimes are liable to military justice. In general, sentences for military crimes are more severe than for equivalent crimes tried before civilian courts. For example, failing to carry out the order of a superior is punishable by up to two years' deprivation of freedom, and conviction for "clearly indicating dissatisfaction with an instruction" can result in a year's confinement. On the other hand, in many such crimes the perpetrator's fate is subject to the discretion of his commander. If the commander determines that the offense does not "substantially affect military discipline," he may administer some lesser punishment without a trial, or he may refer the case to a Komsomol or party cell in his unit and allow it to take whatever action it sees fit. In times of war or under combat conditions possible sentences are much more severe, and the death penalty may be handed down for many more crimes.

Logistics

Bulgaria's armed forces cost the country considerably less per man than do those of its allies, and the amount spent on equipment and maintenance is relatively austere. This is also indicated by the composition of its forces, in which all armored units, for example, are of less than division strength.

Nearly all heavier and more complex items of military hardware are produced in the Soviet Union, and Bulgaria receives only those items that are being replaced in the Soviet forces' inventory or that have been produced in quantities greater than needed in Soviet units. Older equipment, however, is seldom retained after it has become obsolete. Armies engaged in combined operations must have compatible equipment, and maintaining supply channels required for indefinite maintenance of old items can become more costly than replacing them.

Each of the Warsaw Pact allies produces ammunition, small arms, some vehicles, and spare parts for a portion of its matÉriel that was originally produced elsewhere. Bulgaria, with its less developed industrial base, produces a relatively small amount of military equipment locally. In order to preserve items on hand, much of the training schedule is devoted to proper storage and handling of equipment. Because the standard of living in the country is low, most of the troops are familiar with few luxuries and get along with fewer nonessentials than do the forces of its more relatively affluent allies.

Ranks, Uniforms, and Decorations

Ground and air forces use the same system of ranks although, at least during peacetime, the four-star army general rank has no equivalent in the air or naval forces. Below the army general there are three general grade, three field grade, and four company grade officer ranks. In descending order the general grades are colonel general, lieutenant general, and major general; the field grades are colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major; and the company grades are captain, senior lieutenant, lieutenant, and junior lieutenant. Naval officer ranks include three admiral, four captain, and three lieutenant grades. The ground and air forces have six enlisted grades: four sergeant and two private. The naval forces have equivalent petty officer and seaman grades.

According to military spokesmen there has been a continuing program to improve uniforms since about 1958, when the forces began to replace Soviet World War II styles with locally designed and manufactured models. Most of the changes adopted since the original change-over have consisted of improvements in the materials used and increasing the number of clothing items issued to each man. Until the early 1960s, for example, the same uniform was used by several classes of draftees. Each draftee now receives a complete new issue and receives new trousers and footwear each year.

New styles, several including changes in materials and minor changes in color, were shown and tested in 1970. Issue of the newer varieties to the forces was begun in 1972. Most changes involved tailoring details and the use of more wrinkle-resistant and lighter, tighter woven cloth. The aim has been to improve the appearance of the men with as little as possible sacrifice in long-wearing qualities.

Officers continue to wear a service uniform consisting of a tailored blouse with patch pockets and trousers that tuck into high boots. A Sam Browne belt and sidearms are optional. The styles introduced in the early 1970s have a vent in the blouse to make it fit in a better tailored fashion, and they are a lighter green than their predecessors. Ground forces have stripes and piping on caps and rank insignia that vary in color to identify their branch of service (armored forces, infantry, transport, engineer, and others). The enlisted men's uniform is similar in design but has different quality material and less ornate trim. Air forces have the same uniforms but may be identified by their blue stripes and piping. Naval personnel wear the traditional navy blues and whites.

Rank insignia on the uniforms seen most frequently consists of stars or stripes on shoulder boards. Officer ranks are identified by varying numbers of stars. The boards themselves become progressively more ornate with higher rank. Those of the company grades are relatively plain; those of the generals are highly ornate. Enlisted grades are shown by stripes. Privates have none, their shoulder boards are plain; and the number and width of the stripes increase with promotion to higher grades.

Decorations and medals are awarded profusely, and most of them are ornate and colorful. The highest ranking and most respected, however, is a simple gold star, which identifies its recipient as a Hero of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. The Order of Georgi Dimitrov and the newer Stara Planina medal, which has been declared equal to the former in seniority, are the next most important. These three most highly cherished decorations are awarded in only one class each. The highest of the orders that are presented in several classes are the Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Madarski Konnik medal, which are equal in seniority. They are awarded in three and two classes, respectively.

THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT AND THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

Bulgaria's gross national product (GNP) is only about one-third the average of the other Warsaw Pact allies, and during the late 1960s and early 1970s Bulgaria spent a smaller proportion of its GNP on defense than did any of its allies. Although its 1973 estimated population was less than one-half the average of its allies, it maintained about five-sixths as many men in its regular forces. On the surface, therefore, it would appear that the armed forces were a less-than-average financial burden but a greater-than-average manpower burden.

The appearances may be misleading to some degree. The country has been the slowest of the pact nations to industrialize, and its standard of living has been the lowest. It is probably, therefore, less able to afford its relatively moderate defense costs. Its labor force is large enough for the level of the country's industrialization, but there is a shortage of skilled workers. The training and experience that young men receive in the armed forces broaden their familiarity with complex mechanical and electronic equipment and provide many of them with skills that are of value to the national economy. The regime also considers that the disciplinary habits and the political orientation acquired in military service are of positive social value, outweighing the time that young men are withheld from the labor force.

When extraordinary measures are required in an emergency situation—such as during the 1972 drought—the armed forces are able to provide a mass labor force and to contribute the use of a considerable amount of heavy mechanical equipment. In 1972 force units were called upon to get maximum efficiency from irrigation systems and to add to the sources of irrigation water whenever possible. Military units also do field work on public projects. They are encouraged to contribute the days before public holidays, the holidays themselves, and other time that does not interfere with training schedules.