Bulgaria Month

Following the news of the day out of Bulgaria is not for the faint of heart ... Reuters' Irina Ivanova writes that "Bulgarians are set to punish the Socialists in July" and that "Bulgaria's average monthly salary of about 300 euros ($420) remains the lowest in the EU." Despite the country's poor economy--forecasted by the International Monetary Fund to bottom out this year--versatile Nick Iliev's Sofia Echo reporting indicates that "ATM skimming" is a growing industry.

Of course, following the news of yesterday is pretty grim, too. Check out the Bulgaria exhibit at the Global Museum on Communism, which launched yesterday. Its history section includes these two paragraphs about Bulgaria's "People's Courts," which show up again and again in the Collier's Encyclopedia Yearbook reports from the second half of the 1940s:

"... The next stage of the communist takeover began in December 1944, when the government installed special People’s Courts authorized to prosecute 'fascists.' Similar tribunals were established in every European state that was occupied by or collaborated with Nazi Germany; in Bulgaria, however, the purges were of a magnitude unseen elsewhere. In Hungary or Czechoslovakia individual members of parliaments and governments were indicted – whereas in Bulgaria the government put on trial all members of all governments and all parliaments between 1941 and 1944. Each one of these individuals was sentenced to death – 2800 death sentences overall – and the verdicts were carried out immediately. In contrast, People’s Courts in Hungary handed out 322 death sentences 176 of which were commuted.

"The term 'fascist' was applied to anyone who had opposed the communists in the past or might oppose them in the future. In addition to the judicial and extra-judicial murders, 'fascists' were subjected to imprisonment (the People’s Court sentenced to life imprisonment more than 2,000 defendants), deportations (5,000 families were sent into internal exile), and incarceration (by the end of 1945 approximately 10,000 people languished in concentration camps). ..."