Lhomme-1-2004-Ghodsee.Pdf

L’Homme Z. F. G. 15, 1 (2004) Red Nostalgia? Communism, Women’s Emancipation, and Economic Transformation in Bulgaria Kristen Ghodsee Introduction There is a popular joke in Bulgaria about a woman who sits bolt upright in the middle of the night in a panic. She jumps out of bed and rushes to the bathroom to look in the medicine cabinet. Then, she runs into the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. Finally, she dashes to the window and looks out onto the street. Relieved, she returns to the bed- room. Her husband asks her, “What’s wrong with you?” “I had a terrible nightmare”, she says. “I dreamt that we could still afford to buy medicine, that the refrigerator was absolutely full, and that the streets were safe and clean.” “How is that a nightmare?” the husband asks. The woman shakes her head, “I thought the communists were back in power.” This joke highlights a popular nostalgia for the “good” parts of communism that was just starting to re-emerge in the early years of the 21st century. Evidence of this nostalgia has begun to appear in the most unlikely places. In the summer of 2003, in the seaside resorts of Bulgaria, souvenir vendors were selling Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP) and German Democratic Republic (DDR) t-shirts to tourists. At the same time, compact disc pirates in Sofia were running out of the CD Golden Songs of Russia, with a red and yellow cover and the “Hymn of the USSR” as the first track. In front of the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, Bulgarian antique dealers sold all kinds of socialist pins, but- tons, and medals, busts of Marx and Lenin, and old postcards of the now-destroyed Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum. These things had always been for sale to curious tourists who were hoping to pick up a few communist era trinkets, but these days the antique vendors say that nostalgic Bulgarians are becoming their best customers. Walking along the streets in Plovdiv or Varna, or in cafes and bars in Sofia, one can often hear a cell phone with its ring tone set to the chorus of “The Internationale”. On the one hand, these artefacts of the past are probably a form of popular kitsch that Bulgarians have had for some time to distance themselves from the oppressive nature of 23 Kristen Ghodsee, Communism communism. On the other hand, these increasingly visible manifestations of communist nostalgia may also be a product of the frustration that many Bulgarians feel about their dramatically decreased standard of living since Bulgaria began its transition to free mar- kets and liberal democracy in 1989. This nostalgia may be particularly acute among Bulgarian women who, according to the World Bank, are now suffering from “time poverty”.1 The fiscal constraints imposed by the International Monetary Fund on successive Bulgarian governments have meant an inevitable decrease in the public services that once allowed Bulgarian women to com- bine their productive and reproductive work in society. As kindergartens, hospitals, and schools have been systematically closed throughout the 1990s, Bulgarian women have been the ones responsible for providing care to children, the elderly, and the sick. At the same time, real wages and salaries in Bulgaria have declined to such low levels that few families can afford wives and mothers that stay at home. These dual pressures have placed a heavy burden on Bulgarian women and may have helped to modify their attitu- des towards Bulgaria’s relatively short-lived experiment with Marxist-Leninism. A 2001 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) survey found that a nationally representative sample of Bulgarian men and women had very different opinions about the communist government that fell in 1989. When asked who was to blame for the de- teriorating situation in Bulgaria, 47.6 % of the men blamed the “rulers during the socialist times”, versus only 39.3 % of the women. Both men and women, however, felt strongly that Bulgaria’s economic problems were caused by “rulers during the transition” (70.4 and 70.5 %). Another question asked respondents: “What would make you protest in front of the parliamentary building?” 31 % of the men said they would protest against the “introduction of forms of dictatorship” (read by Bulgarians as a synonym for the reintro- duction of communism). Interestingly, only 22.3 % of the women said they would do the same, indicating greater tolerance of “dictatorship” among Bulgarian women in 2001. Women also showed greater intolerance of reductions in the social “responsibilities” of the state; 40.2 % of Bulgarian women said they would protest against a drastic increase in the costs of health care versus only 28.8 % of the men.2 Another UNDP study found that women were more likely to vote for governments that imposed higher taxes but had more state social responsibility. Men preferred lower taxes and individual social responsibility.3 By exploring some of the gains Bulgarian women made under the socialist system, this brief article aims to explore the possible explanations why Bulgarian women may be more inclined to support leftist political parties and have a less critical view of the communist past than their male compatriots. It is my contention that the communist governments between 1944 and 1989 were both ideologically and materially committed to women’s equality in ways that fundamentally reshaped gender relations in Bulgaria. 1 World Bank, Bulgaria at a Glance. World Bank data from www.worldbank.org (access date August 2nd, 2002). 2 See United Nations Development Program (UNDP), National Human Development Report Bulgaria 2001: Citizen Participation in Governance, from Individuals to Citizens, Sofia 2001, 75. 3 See UNDP, National Human Development Report Bulgaria 1999: Bulgarian People’s Aspirations, II, Sofia 1999, 63. 24 L’Homme Z. F. G. 15, 1 (2004) Admittedly, there was still gender discrimination and occupational segregation under communism, and Bulgarian patriarchal values never disappeared completely. There was, however, a real commitment to women’s education and women’s full incorporation into the public sphere that resulted in some of the highest labour force participation rates for women in the world. Furthermore, the communist state carried out many policies and programs that helped ease the Bulgarian woman’s notorious “double burden” of paid employment and family responsibility. The end of communism meant the end of most of these supports, and many of the negative effects of the economic transformation have disproportionately accrued to women. Shrinking state budgets and calls for restructuring the economy have inevitably compromised women’s position in the new free-market economy. At the same time, women in Bulgaria still believe in the fundamental equality of the sexes and continue to look to the state for social support. It is therefore not surprising that Bulgarian women may have some fond memories of what they call, colloquially, “the old system”. Bulgarian Women and Communism From the beginning of the 20th century, Bulgarian women were organized and active in the struggle for women’s emancipation. In fact, Klara Zetkin, a most influential German Socialist Feminist, claimed in 1925 that Bulgaria had one of the best developed women’s movements in Europe.4 Already before the advent of communism, Bulgarian women were highly valued not only as wives and mothers, but also as workers and citizens. In customary law, women had the right to inherit and own their own land. When a woman married, the land constituted her dowry, yet, in case of divorce, a woman was fully entit- led to take the land back.5 As early as 1934, the Bulgarian Supreme Court of Appeal pas- sed a special rule which made violence against one’s wife punishable by law.6 Further- more, in multi-generational households the wife rather than the eldest son became head of the family upon the husband’s death. In 1944, when the communists took power, women’s rights were extended; they could stand for election and were thus officially incor- porated into the Bulgarian polity.7 The equality of men and women was one of the key ideological tenets of socialism. The notion that women should and could be emancipated through socialism was first theorized in the work of Friedrich Engels. In his 1884 book, “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”, Engels argued that the cause of women’s oppression did not stem from the dominance that men held over them, but instead from the institu- 4 Klara Zetkin’s, Lenin on the Women’s Question. An Interview with Lenin on the Woman Question (Lenin po vuprosa za zhenite) was widely read in Bulgaria during communism. See www.marxists.org/ar- chive/zetkin/works/zetkin2.htm, 18. 5 Marija Todorova, Historical Tradition and Transformation in Bulgaria: Women’s Issues or Feminist Issues?, in: Journal of Women’s History, 5, 3 (1994), 129–144. 6 Council of Europe, International Workshop on Problems of Equality in the Current Period of Transition in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Sofia, Bulgaria, Strasbourg 1993. 7 UNDP, Human Development Report 2002, New York 2002, 239. 25 Kristen Ghodsee, Communism tion of private property. Engels described an ideal, primitive, matriarchal communism that was destroyed by the emergence of private ownership. The accumulation of surplus value through capitalist production allowed for the emergence of social relations in which men became dominant. In reference to slave societies, Engels wrote: “The first class antagonism which appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in monogamous marriage, and the first class oppression with that of the female sex by the male.”8 In Engels’ view, gender-based inequalities predated class-based inequalities although they are both the result of the emergence of private property.

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