t itself and particularly those opposed to its subservience to
the Soviet Union. The conspirators included Bulgarian Communists, army
officers, and World War II partisans. The discovery of this plot
resulted in purges, the suicide of one of the leading conspirators, and
the reorganization of the Ministry of the Interior and the transfer of
its security functions to the new Committee of State Security, which
fell directly under Zhivkov's personal control.

CHAPTER 3

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND POPULATION

Bulgaria occupies 42,800 square miles of the Balkan Peninsula, and its
1973 population was estimated at 8.7 million (see fig. 1). It is a
member of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact), together with
five other Eastern European countries to its north and northwest and the
Soviet Union. Bulgaria's location is such that its natural features are
combinations of those found in the western Soviet Union and in southern
Europe. Its climate is transitional between that of the Mediterranean
countries and that of north-central Europe. The blend of the various
geographic influences is unique, however, and gives the country a degree
of individuality that is not anticipated until it is explored in some
detail.

It is a land of unusual scenic beauty, having picturesque mountains,
wooded hills, beautiful valleys, grain-producing plains, and a seacoast
that has both rocky cliffs and long sandy beaches. Soil and climate are
adequate to permit production of a variety of crops. Although only a few
mineral resources are present in quantity or in good quality ores, the
country has a number of them. Large quantities of brown coal and lignite
are available, but resources of the better fuels are limited.

The people of the country have been influenced by its location, which is
close to the point of contact between Europe and the Orient. The area
had been overrun by so many conquerors and occupied for so long that
only since liberation in 1878 have a majority of the peasants dared come
out of the hills to farm the better land of the plains and valleys.

The country fared poorly in the distribution of the spoils after the
First Balkan War in 1912. It was then on the losing side of the Second
Balkan War in 1913 and of the two great wars since. In spite of this,
its boundaries contain most of the Bulgarian people in the area, and
only some 10 to 15 percent of the population within its borders is not
ethnically Bulgarian. It has