/ world today news/ Today is November 10 – 26 years after the overthrow of Todor Zhivkov and the change of the system in Bulgaria. What they were then and what they are now Pazardzhik region (at the time a district) and in particular the village of Kalugerovo, which became famous a few years ago as the first Eurovillage. Former regional leaders share their impressions through a BGNES reporter.
Ivan Gechev, one of the leaders of the industrial sector in the Pazardzhik district, and also of some of the leading industrial plants in the district at the time:
When I went to Pazardzhik in 1974, the total industrial output of Pazardzhik District was 583 million BGN. When I left 9 years later (the post of head of industry of the district), the figure was BGN 1.3 billion. During this period, we launched the factory for magnetic disks in Dragor, 100-200 megabyte packages, the production of preparations for agriculture began, the cardboard and corrugated board plant was launched in Pazardzhik. The fodder plant, the battery plant, and the high-quality paper plant in Belovo were reconstructed. The canning factory “Maritsa” in Pazardzhik for the processing of tomatoes and vegetable products processed 80,000 tons of tomatoes per year, before November 10, many tomatoes were grown. Now tomatoes are not produced, no other vegetable is produced for human needs. Before November 10, we made an industrial workshop in the Turkish settlement of Nova Mahala – for denim clothing at the denim clothing factory in Batak. We also made a carpet workshop there. In the village of Sarnitsa, where the Pomaks are, we built an optoelectronic workshop, a factory for 400 people.
Before November 10, Pazardzhik District exported $250 million worth of produce – mainly to the Soviet Union and the Middle East. All the production of the cannery, the various preserves and compotes, were going for export. We supplied the Soviet cosmonautics with the 120 megabyte packets.
70-80 percent of the county’s enterprises were profitable. The created industrial base took over all the work of the county and there was no unemployment.
In the social sphere, almost all large enterprises had rest stations by the sea. For the miners, we made a prophylactic in Banya, they could recover and rest there for a month. Free food and mineral water “Mihalkovo” were given to miners from the Panagyur Mines ore mining plant, where 1,700 people worked, and from the Medet mining plant with its 3,000 workers. Their water was free not only during work, when a lot of water is drunk, but also when they took it home after the work day. (“Panagyur Mine” was closed in the early 1990s due to a fall in the price of copper concentrate on the London Stock Exchange, which years later rose again, today “Medet” is the company “Asarel-Medet” for mining and beneficiation of ores with 1700 employees – row).
Now I go to buy potatoes in Pazardzhik from people in Sarnitsa and ask them if there is an optoelectronic plant there? Everything is destroyed, they tell me. Two or three years after November 10, I had a conversation with Dr. Ivan Kolchakov, he was an MP from the SDS, and also the mayor of Pazardzhik and regional governor. He is from Kalugerovo. I told him not to stop production, not to liquidate the enterprises, not to sell off. I told him: “If you have to change the director, put your people in, but don’t sell, don’t liquidate one or another enterprise. A product may not work for the moment in the market, but the base should not be destroyed, it should be adapted to something else to work.” He replied: “We will profit from the customs.” I told him that it will be profited from the duties when it is produced and there is production for export. It has to be produced, that’s the truth.
Especially for the village of Kalugerovo, Dimitar Dikov will give more details, I will only say that viticulture developed as the main industry in the village, and a wine cellar was built. Drip irrigation was used and so many grapes were produced that they simply couldn’t all be picked. Now nothing is produced, the vines are destroyed, everything is liquidated. Only here and there an acre has been restored. Before November 10, the entire range of vegetable crops was grown in Kalugerovo, everything was produced. While now mainly wheat, a little sunflower, cereals are produced.
In general, after November 10, mining, engineering, electronics, and agriculture were liquidated in Bulgaria. Where are we going? The Bulgarian state is liquidated.
I think that Bulgaria’s current policy is dictated from outside, by other countries, large monopolies and transnational corporations.
Dimitar Dikov, long-time head of the Lesichovo municipality, which also includes the village of Kalugerovo, which was the most developed settlement in the municipality:
On November 10, the agrarian material and technical base in Kalugerovo represented 4,000 acres of vine plantations. In 1987-1988, the average yield for Pamida, Mavruda, Cabernet, Rkatsitela reached 1,100 kilograms per hectare. Thanks to the introduction of drip irrigation on 3,000 acres of vineyards, average yields increased by about 40 percent. In 1986-1987, Kalugerovo reached a ceiling of 4,000 tons of grape production.
After November 10, through the liquidation councils created to destroy agriculture, this base was liquidated – that is 90 percent of the vineyards and drip irrigation. Now there are about 100 acres of vineyards on the territory of Kalugerovo. They are maintained by the owners with hard work and tremendous efforts.
Until November 10, Kalugerovo had 1,100 decares of orchards, and from them we collected 1,200-1,300 tons of apples. Part of them was used for consumption by the population, and the rest was sent for processing to the “Maritsa” cannery in Pazardzhik. The garden was destroyed, and the factory was also a ruin.
Until November 10, animal husbandry in Kalugerovo developed intensively and included 18,000 heads of animals, of which 13,000 sheep, 2,000 goats and cattle, including a cow farm – 1,100.
Now there are in the private sector a total of 150 cows, 200 sheep and 180-200 goats. This is the legacy of November 10, unfortunately.
By November 10, there were redemption organizations in all settlements. In Kalugerovo, we bought about 50 tons of meat, about 200,000 eggs, and about 100 tons of milk from the private sector, or the land for personal use, as it was called then, – this is from the private sector, I want to emphasize that. There are no such organizations now.
The production of peaches, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes was stopped in Kalugerovo. It is already forgotten that such crops were once grown here. Now people plant 100-200 square meters for home consumption only.
From 1948-49, 4 pumping stations and 15,000 linear meters of irrigation canals were built on the territory of Kalugerovo until November 10. They irrigated 80 or more percent of the cultivated land in the area. After November 10, these pumping stations were destroyed and looted.
In the case of cereal crops, 80 percent of the highly productive land was cultivated in 1989, the remaining 20 percent was not cultivated due to crop rotation – the so-called fallow. After November 10, for 4-5 years, only 15-20 percent of the usable land was used. Recently, with the entry of tenants, the area of cultivated land has increased to 40-45 percent. But these lands are used with massive exploitation of the lands and minimal compensation for the owners themselves. It becomes a predatory use – the land owners receive 15 BGN per acre from the tenants, they literally take crumbs given by 10-15 percent of the rich tenants. Yes, there are already sown fields of wheat, but they are being used for an unjust and predatory use of the land to the detriment of its owners.
And I will say something else, before November 10, the residents of Kalugerovo as a whole worked in agriculture, but a significant part of them earned their living in the industrial facilities in the area. Today, these objects do not exist, and the population of Kalugerovo fell from 3,400 inhabitants to 1,125 inhabitants.
Todor Todorov: a resident of Kalugerovo, but originally from the Veliko Tarnovo village of Ivancha:
I will talk about the village of Ivancha, it is located 30 kilometers from Veliko Tarnovo. In 1970, the village had one vegetable brigade with three units, there was a livestock brigade that was engaged in fattening, sheep breeding and pig breeding. There were also three chicken coops, there must have been 2,000 laying hens each.
Now there is still one cooperative in the village of Ivancha. The land has 28,000 acres, of which 20,000 acres are cultivated. Currently, the agricultural cooperative cultivates about 12,000 decares, with the main production being wheat, barley and corn. Other crops are not grown. And there were two clusters of grapes. They are gone now. There are also abandoned massifs with other crops.
There are two lessees each with 2,000-3,000 decares of land – apart from the cooperative. When told that there is a cooperative, they retort how there can be a cooperative 25 years after the advent of democracy. The inhabitants of Ivancha were 1200, now there are 300. The young man goes to Tarnovo to look for work, he cannot stay in the village without work. For me, this is the difference before and after November 10 – unemployed youth in the villages.
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