facilities with state funds. Many new orchestras,
theater companies, publishers, and art galleries have come into
existence since World War II. Touring exhibits and road companies take
the arts into small towns and villages. Radio and television have been
extensively utilized to promote the arts and learning. Through state
support, the prices of books and admission tickets have been kept
extremely low in order to bring them within the reach of as many persons
as possible. The traditional library clubs have been reinforced by a
network of "houses of culture," which serve as cultural centers in
villages and in urban neighborhoods.

LITERATURE

The origins of Bulgarian literature date back to A.D. 855 when the Greek
priests Cyril and Methodius designed an alphabet--Cyrillic--suitable for
the Slavic languages in order to facilitate the Christianization of the
Slavs (see ch. 2). At first the alphabet was used to translate the Bible
and other Christian religious texts, but in the Golden Age of the First
Bulgarian Kingdom several original religious and secular tests were
written by Bulgarians in their own language. In the late Middle Ages a
substantial literature in Bulgarian was created. Although the authors
were all churchmen, much of the literature was secular. A whole body of
apocryphal literature--so-called heretical tales and legends--came into
being at that time.

During five centuries of Turkish rule, no literature was produced except
the orally transmitted folksongs and ballads. Not until the second half
of the eighteenth century, when Turkish rule began to degenerate, did
Bulgarian literature revive itself as part of the awakening national
consciousness of the people. The first book to appear was Father Paisi's
_Slav-Bulgarian History_, a highly nationalistic book published in 1762
that played a major role in the struggle for liberation. During the
first half of the nineteenth century, several Bulgarian texts were
published in neighboring countries. These were extremely influential in
developing the modern Bulgarian language as their publication coincided
with the establishment of schools and the spread of education among the
Bulgarian people. A number of periodicals were also started by
Bulgarians abroad, but most of them were irregular and short lived. Of
considerable significance, however, was the collection and publication,
first in periodicals and later in book form, of the folksongs and
ballads that had ke