As "Novy Inostranets" notes, it is almost impossible to get used to such a manner. You approach, for example, a kiosk and ask: "Tsigari ima?" The seller in response shakes his head from side to side. You automatically turn to leave, and the seller shouts at your back: "Hey, gospodine, ima tsigari, ima!" Gestures are not a language; you cannot learn them; you need to absorb them, so to speak, at the level of instinct.
By the way, one such head shake with the directly opposite meaning is enough to refute the stupid stereotype that has persisted since Soviet times about who is not a bird and who is not abroad. Incidentally, the fact that Bulgaria is indeed abroad was well understood by Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, who decisively refused Todor Zhivkov's request to accept Bulgaria into the USSR as the 16th union republic. Why repeat the hackneyed saying about the chicken now?
But, on the other hand, no one will deny the long-standing and indeed very close ties between Bulgaria and Russia, based on the commonality of the Orthodox faith, the closeness of languages and cultures, and the deep gratitude of Bulgarians to Russia for the decisive role it played in the liberation of Bulgaria from the 400-year Ottoman yoke. It is no wonder that one of the most famous and revered monuments of the Bulgarian capital, despite almost half a century of communist rule and other historical cataclysms, remains the equestrian statue of the "Tsar Liberator" – Russian Emperor Alexander II.
True, Russian-Bulgarian historical ties did not become an obstacle to Bulgaria's participation in wars against Russia. During the First World War, it fought on the side of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey, and during the Second it was an ally of Hitler. However, Bulgaria did not declare war on the Soviet Union and did not send its soldiers to the Eastern Front. Much greater damage to the warm attitude of Bulgarians toward our country was done by the years of communist rule, from which little Bulgaria suffered greatly. Naturally, the Bulgarians, not without reason, associated all these troubles with the Soviet Union and sometimes transferred their unkind feelings toward the "bulwark of world socialism" to its individual representatives in the person of Soviet citizens who visited Bulgaria.
I remember how in 1990, when a local variety of the "velvet revolution" was unfolding in Bulgaria, when on all streets they vilified communists and their Soviet masters, when they were carrying out of the mausoleum the mummy of Georgi Dimitrov, the walls of houses (for example, on Alexander Nevsky Boulevard in Sofia) were painted with various slogans, among which quite often one would encounter such as: "Russians! Go Home!". And many young Bulgarians, seeing a communist in every Russian, demonstratively refused to speak Russian with our compatriots, although almost every Bulgarian learned it at school and can, if not converse in it, then at least understand it. And in the resort town of Lozenets, at one Bulgarian company, I had to sit at the table next to a young guy, a student at Sofia University. He kept squinting at me unkindly, and then suddenly blurted out: "You are a communist! I know russian, but I don't want to speak russ-ian! I'll speak to you only in english!" I was stung, I explained to him for a long time, in English, naturally, that not all of us are communists, and many are even anti-communists, including his interlocutor. The student was incredibly surprised, then believed and softened. In short, our further meetings and conversations with him went, as they say, in the spirit of friendship and mutual understanding, but he still refused to speak Russian on principle. However, with all the then inconsistencies, open hostility such as, say, in Poland, the Czech Republic, or Hungary, was practically not encountered. In the main, Bulgarians still treated us as "little brothers".
So, this same attitude in principle has been preserved to this day, especially since time has passed and passions have subsided. The only difference is that the false tenderness toward everything Soviet and Russian, broadcast from above, with its accompanying official praise of the traditional "brotherhood," has disappeared, and the pragmatism characteristic of Bulgarians has increased. I mean that the traditional fraternal feelings that a Bulgarian feels for a Russian become even warmer if that Russian has a pocket full of dollars and, roughly speaking, you can get some from him.
And besides purely material benefit, a Bulgarian can also gain an increase in social status in the eyes of others. Acquaintance with a foreigner, and even more so friendship with him, is considered prestigious among Bulgarian commoners. You may even be used as a kind of advertisement. So, my friend Antony, who owned a small portable drinking-and-eating establishment on the beach, a so-called "caravaning", asked me to come for the opening of his place, sit at one of the tables and spend some time there (from an hour to an hour and a half) over a free mug of beer or a glass of rakia. And then also come for lunch (also free) and eat and drink, talking with the owner and emphasizing in every way that we were closely acquainted.
My relationship with Antony was indeed friendly. And they arose not at all because Antony wanted to get something from me. But since the relationship arose, why not get something from it? Antony explained: "It's immediately obvious that you are a foreigner. Everyone, including the German tourists, will see that foreigners come to me, which means my 'caravaning' is good and the food is good here. And the fact that you are also my friend will tell them that I am an honest merchant, since a foreigner is friends with me, and I will not cheat them, well, for example, put various junk into sandwiches. And it's good for you – you sit at my place and drink and eat, and it's good for me – advertising for the establishment."
Antony loved to bring me to all sorts of purely Bulgarian gatherings, introducing me to everyone: “Here he is - my friend, a scholar from Moscow.” Friendship with a foreigner clearly raised the level of Antony’s “vrazki” in the eyes of his compatriots. “Vrazki” means “connections” - the ability to organize, get, or obtain something through relatives, friends, acquaintances, and so on - in short, through informal means. A person’s prestige largely depends on his “vrazki.” Therefore, a conversation between two Bulgarians who have just met often begins with a cautious, or even frank, clarification of the interlocutor’s level of “vrazki” and a demonstration of the high level and intricate network of one’s own “vrazki.” Every Bulgarian is extremely proud of his “vrazki”; this shows his social standing. For example, at the end of communist rule, when even the traditional food products of every ordinary Bulgarian - lukanka sausage and kashkaval cheese - became scarce, while treating me to these simple but very tasty dishes, Bulgarians would always meaningfully emphasize that they got them precisely thanks to their “vrazki.”
What unites us with Bulgaria is also the painful way in which market reforms took place in our two countries. After all, Bulgaria is not the Czech Republic or Hungary; its level of economic and socio-cultural development was always lower, and the Soviet “experience” was introduced here more consistently. Therefore, the first and largely inept steps of the Bulgarian democrats from the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) caused rejection among a significant part of Bulgarian society. As a result, in the mid-90s, former communists from the Bulgarian Socialist Party returned to power (however, these former communists, now socialists, should in no case be identified with ours), who, with their experiments in building a “socially oriented market economy,” quickly brought the country to complete bankruptcy.
In 1997, Bulgarians refused to trust the socialists, and the new government, again formed by the UDF, embarked on a program of accelerating market reforms and Bulgaria’s comprehensive integration into European and Atlantic structures. As a result of tough anti-inflationary measures, the pegging of the Bulgarian lev to the then German mark, and the adoption of market legislation, hyperinflation was overcome, foreign investment increased, and the economy revived.
This was only the very beginning of the road - Bulgaria did not immediately become a rich, prosperous, or even simply well-off country. The social costs of the reforms are very heavy for the majority of Bulgarians, which allows left-wing forces to this day to maintain a very high popularity, especially among older people, who often long for the “prosperous” socialist times as they perceive them. Largely thanks to the votes of precisely this part of the population, in November 2001, socialist leader Georgi Parvanov was elected president of the country.
But recently, a completely different nostalgia has begun to play an increasing role in the life of Bulgaria - at the end of the 90s, the former Bulgarian Tsar Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, expelled from Bulgaria in infancy and having lived his entire life in Spain, burst onto the country’s political scene. His program, not devoid of populism, promised voters a rapid rise in living standards to Western standards and accelerated entry of Bulgaria into NATO and the EU. In the parliamentary elections of July 2001, the National Movement “Simeon II” managed to win 120 out of 240 seats in the National Assembly and, in alliance with a number of other parties, form a government. As a result, the country, under a president - a former communist - got a prime minister - a former tsar.
Simeon failed to raise the living standards of Bulgarians to Western standards, although progress in political, economic, and financial stabilization is evident. Last year Bulgaria joined NATO, and very little time remains until its accession to the European Union.
Nevertheless, many Bulgarians believed that the social costs of Simeon’s policies were too high, and in the summer of this year the former tsar lost the parliamentary elections. The socialists returned to power, led by Sergei Stanishev, who headed the cabinet. However, the socialists were forced to create a coalition with the party “Simeon II.”
The new prime minister confirmed the course toward EU integration. So, according to experts, the investment climate in Bulgaria remains very favorable, and no shocks threaten it in the foreseeable future. One of the most rapidly developing sectors of the economy is tourism. About 3 million foreign tourists visit the country annually, for the famous Bulgarian resorts need no additional recommendation. The real estate market is closely linked to tourism, and it will certainly receive an additional impetus after Bulgaria’s accession to the EU and the planned lifting of the moratorium on land sales to foreigners in 2014.
Our compatriot intending to buy a house somewhere in Crimea should think about why not make a similar purchase on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The sea is the same, but the coast is different - if the living standards of Bulgarians still lag noticeably behind Western European ones, then the development of the Bulgarian coast, the degree of comfort, the infrastructure, and other parameters are quite comparable with Western Europe. And prices - not only for real estate, but for life in general - are significantly lower. They are even lower than in Greece or Cyprus, where our compatriots have also been actively buying houses recently. Moreover, in Bulgaria the climate is much more favorable. Everything has already been said about the language and culture many times - adapting among Bulgarians is much easier than, say, among Greeks, not to mention Turks.
Another interesting and, frankly, unique point: anti-Semitism never existed in Bulgaria. Bulgarians explained this phenomenon to me as follows: we have always respected and still respect talented, businesslike, resourceful people, so why should we hate Jews? Even during the war years, Tsar Boris refused to hand over Bulgarian Jews to the German Nazis for reprisal. True, in recent years a couple of very small anti-Semitic groups have appeared in the country, but their activity, let alone political influence, is barely discernible.
Despite the introduction of a visa regime for our compatriots, the rules for obtaining temporary and permanent residence permits in Bulgaria are still quite liberal. (The same applies to starting one's own business and so-called investment immigration.) They are now roughly the same as in the Czech Republic or Hungary in the 90s, when many citizens of the former Union wanted to settle in those countries. After the transformation of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland into full members of the EU, the rules naturally became stricter. Most likely, the same will happen in Bulgaria when it crosses the threshold of the European Union. But for now, the opportunity to relatively painlessly "get a foothold" in one way or another in a country joining "united Europe" remains.
Михаил КАЛИШЕВСКИЙ.
«Новый Иностранец».