nasteries, and it eventually inspired the National Revival.
Because of this isolation, however, the focus of the intellectual
activity was parochial.

The Academy of Sciences was founded in 1869 as part of the National
Revival movement and has served, together with the University of Sofia,
as the rallying point of intellectuals and scholars. After World War II
the Academy of Sciences was expanded by the incorporation of several
independent research institutions. Its membership was also vastly
increased with the admission of individuals whose loyalty to the new
government would assure the proper slant to their scholarly work. The
Academy of Agricultural Sciences was founded in 1961 to provide the
scientific know-how that would expand the output of collectivized
agriculture. The two academies coordinate and supervise all research and
scholarly activity undertaken in the country.

Emphasis in all scholarly and scientific activity has been on matters
directly applicable to industrial and agricultural development. Work in
the social sciences has been directed at the government's efforts to
transform Bulgaria into a socialist state. The work of scientists and
scholars must conform to the various theories and formulas developed by
Soviet scholars and must not dispute or contradict the basic precepts of
Marxism-Leninism as interpreted by the Bulgarian leadership. In the
early 1970s scholarly activity in Bulgaria had not yet attained the
freedom of thought and expression that has been evident in Poland and
Hungary.

SECTION II. POLITICAL

CHAPTER 8

GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM

The People's Republic of Bulgaria is a socialist state with a form of
government not too different from the Soviet model on which it was
patterned. Following the classical Marxist-Leninist ideology, it
subscribes to rule by the working class--that is, dictatorship of the
proletariat--a doctrine asserting that all power emanates from the
people and is exercised by them through the electoral process. Corollary
to this right of the people to elect national representatives is the
power to recall them through the same instrument of the ballot. In
practice, however, the dictatorship of the proletariat has been a
dictatorship of the communist party.

The government has its theoretical base in the constitution adopted in
1971, which superseded the earlier version of 1947. The 1971
Constitution provides for a representative unicameral legislature known
a