Family and Women in ocialist Burgaria: Ideology and Practice

The proposed project aims to study the development of the family in Socialist Bulgaria (1944-1989). In particular, it will investigate the dialectical relationship between family ideology and policy on the one hand, and the social transformation of family forms on the other. An important aspect of this problem is the role of women, especially women`s liberation, in Communist ideology. The project`s methodological point of departure is the idea that Socialist systems such as the Bulgarian one cannot be satisfactorily described by referring to their allegedly "totalitarian" character. Such an approach falls short of considering the opportunities of "ordinary" people to change and manipulate the system. These, of course, depended on the level of repression, but in the case of Bulgaria existing research has proven the existence of a rather wide space for manipulative and accommodative strategies. The regime was forced to redress its policies accordingly - and sometimes even its ideological assumptions - in order to integrate changes emanating from independent action into the framework of the Socialist system. This basic assumption shall be proved here by analysing the Bulgarian Communists` attempt to create "Socialist families". This was one of the main projects in the realm of social policies, because Bulgarian Communist leaders felt that the traditionally patriarchal Bulgarian family and its specific distribution of authority and gender roles obstructed the attempt to create a Socialist society and culture. An essential part of this social engineering project was also the making of "Socialist women", as Communist theoreticians were convinced that all "progressive" changes in family forms were intrinsically linked with the promotion of women in all walks of life. The project aims at illustrating and analysing eminent changes in these ideological commitments and the respective political efforts which resulted from them. First of all, family ideology always contained contradictory elements, as illustrated by its ambiguous attitudes towards the emancipation of women. After the initial "progressive" phase, which saw both sexes endowed with the same rights and the family apparently radically transformed due to the processes of urbanisation, industrialisation and collectivisation, the Bulgarian Communists increasingly began to emphasise the reproductive role of families, and particularly of women. Women were supposed to be "worker- mothers". This development, which lasted until 1989, was mostly a response to the dramatic decline of the birthrate. But despite ideological and financial efforts, the demographic down-turn could not be reversed. Other theoreticians deplored the still marginal contribution of men to housework, and on a general level, a solution to the apparent problem of the coexistence of very modern and pre-modern elements in the family was sought. How could this be brought into accordance with what was supposed to be "Socialist culture"? The project will analyse these previously neglected problems with a wide range of methods. It will study social and demographic changes and trends as well as the development of Communist family ideology and policy, and interrelations between them. The project will be the first to investigate Bulgarian reproduction policies between 1944 and 1989. Particular emphasis will also be put on the perception of social change by "ordinary" people, especially women. In order to understand why people acted the way they did, and which responses they developed to the political intrusion on their private lives, it is necessary to examine their experiences and how their mental outlook was formed. This will be done with full consideration of the social and ethnic differences within Socialist Bulgarian society. Rural-urban differences as well as such among different age-cohorts will also be regarded. Thus the project will contribute to our understanding of life under Socialism in Bulgaria.

The project investigated relations between communist ideology on the family, socialist policies and social practice during socialist rule in Bulgaria. The family was an important object in the drive to create a "socialist way of life" launched after the Bulgarian communists took power in 1944. On the one hand, families were to be transformed into "socialist" ones and liberated from so-called "capitalist and bourgeois remnants". On the other, the Party charged families with fulfilling certain duties to the state that it considered natural functions of the family. The most important of these were communist education, and procreation. As a result, issues linked to the family, reproduction and youth were highly politicized and transformed into fields of constant negotiation between the Party-state and the population. The theoretical departure point of the project rejected the notion of the `totalitarian` nature of socialist societies. The project`s aim was to explore how Party assumptions and programmes shaped living circumstances in Bulgaria from `above`, and how the needs and values of citizens transformed policies from `below`. In Bulgaria, socialist rule enjoyed a high level of acceptance. All the same, the government was unable to exert full control over the population and was pushed to develop increasingly flexible strategies. The project did not assume "ideology" as a fixed set of ideas, but investigated how official discourse changed over time, from early ideas of radically remodelling the family to the integration of social practices "on the ground". Although the Bulgaria communists modelled family and youth policies closely on those of the Soviet Union, they adapted policies to the local context. Consequently, the study of the Bulgarian case aimed to broaden scholarly understandings of the heterogeneity of "actually existing" socialist systems. The project was successful in establishing the main trajectories of socialist discourse on the family, women and youth, and how these were translated into actual policies. Importantly, research showed that the political agenda of the socialist government was modified according to what it perceived as the principal current challenges. Regarding family policy, two trajectories were identified that co-existed but were of varying significance. The first was the emancipation of women, the democratization of family relations and the "socialist" remodelling of families. This agenda stood at the centre of government attention, as illustrated by progressive legislation and concerns about "pre-socialist remnants" in families in the 1940s and 50s. However, from the mid- 1960s, family policies increasingly focussed on the issue of reproduction, defining procreation as the primary function of families and women.