order or establish a new one if the leadership expected to retain any
newly occupied territory.

The most strictly defended borders are those shared with Greece, Turkey,
and Yugoslavia, but the border with Romania is also defended. The Border
Troops operate a number of patrol boats, both on the Danube River, where
it forms the border with Romania, and along the Black Sea coast. The
troops also control the movement of people into and within a border
zone, which is a strip approximately eight miles wide in from the
border. Smuggling, however, even large-scale smuggling, is the concern
of the Ministry of Internal Affairs customs police and not of the Border
Troops.

Construction Troops

A Bulgarian institution that is unique among the Eastern European
communist countries is the organization known as the Construction
Troops. Thousands of young men who are not called for service in the
regular armed forces are drafted into the Construction Troops, from
which the government derives productive labor at the same time that it
instills military discipline and political indoctrination into a large
segment of the young male population. Similar organizations have been
maintained since the establishment of the original Labor Service in the
early 1920s, which was a means of circumventing the World War I peace
terms that prohibited large conscript military forces. Obligatory
military service was restored during the 1930s and, as part of the
change, the Labor Service was militarized. It was made a part of the
army and remained so during World War II, when it became known as the
Labor Army.

Two types of compulsory labor forces emerged after the communist seizure
of power in 1944. The Labor Army continued in existence and, following
the example of the Soviet Union under Stalin and of the other states in
the Soviet post-World War II orbit, Bulgaria also placed those of its
citizens considered politically dangerous in forced labor camps. These
were the prison colonies populated by victims of the secret police,
persons who might or might not have had proper trials but who were
considered to be enemies of the party or the government. Some camps were
temporarily located at sites where large numbers of manual laborers were
needed, but more often camps were at permanent locations. Buildings at
all camps were flimsy, and facilities were minimal. In the early period,
while the Communists were establishing their control over the country,
ab