nment and
party posts at all levels, it was also customary for the top officers of
mass organizations to be members of the party hierarchy. The continued
existence of a second political party, the Bulgarian Agrarian Union
(Bulgarski Zemedelski Suyuz--BZS), did not encroach on the
monopolization of political power by the BKP because the prerogatives of
the union had been curtailed to the point where it had become an
auxiliary of the BKP rather than a competitor. Any opposition to the
ruling elite had come from within the party rather than from outside
organizations. As recently as 1965 an abortive attempt to overthrow
Zhivkov was made, but this was the result of intraparty factionalism
rather than antiparty opposition. Zhivkov managed to avert the attempted
coup d'etat and afterward strengthened his power base within the party.

At the helm of the party for nineteen years, Zhivkov, despite occasional
intraparty struggle and friction, remained the undisputed leader and, as
such, he maintained very close relations with the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union and with the Soviet government. On the one hand the close
Bulgarian-Soviet relationship has been interpreted by Marxist
theoreticians as the application of "proletarian internationalism"--a
theory that contends that proletarian unity is "historically the higher
right than that of national self-determination." On the other hand, many
observers of Bulgarian-Soviet relations maintain that the nature of the
unequal alliance stems not only from historical and cultural
affiliations as well as political and ideological identification but,
more important, from Zhivkov's need for strong Soviet support.

At the Tenth Party Congress in 1971 Zhivkov reiterated the necessity for
close ties with the Soviet Union and introduced a five-year economic
plan that continued the long emphasis on heavy industry. The congress
reelected the Politburo, despite the advanced ages of some of the
members and their demonstrated concern for maintaining the status quo at
a time when the changes necessary to transform Bulgaria into a modern
industrial country have placed new demands on old methods and
institutions. Success or failure of the Communists' ongoing efforts to
industrialize, modernize, and communize the country depends on the
adaptability of the leadership and the political institutions to meet
the challenges of the 1970s.

MAJOR POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS, 1965-71

After discovery of the