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Creating a ‘socialist way of life’: family and reproduction policies in Bulgaria, 1944–1989

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2004

ULF BRUNNBAUER  and
KARIN TAYLOR
ULF BRUNNBAUER
Affiliation:
Institute for East European Studies, Free University of Berlin.
KARIN TAYLOR
Affiliation:
Department of Southeast European History, University of Graz.
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Abstract

This article explores the policies of the Bulgarian socialist regime (1944–1989) towards the family. Initially, the Bulgarian Communist Party focussed on the abolition of the patriarchal family, the emancipation of women and the struggle against ‘bourgeois residues’ in family life. However, the dramatic decline of the birth rate – a result of rapid urbanization and increasing female employment – led to a re-direction of official discourse. Reproduction became heavily politicized, as the 1968 ban on abortion makes evident. Despite pro-natalist measures, the government was unable to stop the fertility decline. This article demonstrates how socialist family policy was gradually modified through negotiation between the Party and the population.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , August 2004 , pp. 283 - 312
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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