Bulgaria - The Wide Worlds Snaps

Republic of Bulgaria

President: Rosen Plevneliev (2012)

Prime Minister (Acting): Georgi Bliznashki (2014)

Land area: 42,683 sq mi (110,549 sq km);

total area: 42,823 sq mi (110,910 sq km )

Population (2012 est.): 7,093,635 (growth rate: –0.781%); birth rate: 9.32/1000; infant mortality rate: 16.68/1000; life expectancy: 73.59

Capital and largest city (2009 est.): Sofia, 1,192,000 million

Monetary unit: Lev

Languages: Bulgarian 85%, Turkish 10%, Roma 4%

Ethnicity/race: Bulgarian 83.9%, Turk 9.4%, Roma 4.7%, other (including Macedonian, Armenian, Tatar, Circassian) 2% (2001)

National Holiday: Liberation Day, March 3

Religions: Bulgarian Orthodox 83%, Islam 12%, other Christian 1% (2001)

Literacy rate: 98.2% (2006 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP $101.2 billion (2011 est.); per capita $13,500.

Real growth rate: 2.2%.

Inflation: 4%.

Unemployment: 8.8%.

Arable land: 29.94%.

Agriculture: vegetables, fruits, tobacco, wine, wheat, barley, sunflowers, sugar beets; livestock.

Labor force: 2.533 million; agriculture 7.1%, industry 30.6%, services 64.2% (2011 est.).

Industries: electricity, gas, water; food, beverages, tobacco; machinery and equipment, base metals, chemical products, coke, refined petroleum, nuclear fuel.

Natural resources: bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, coal, timber, arable land.

Exports: $26.08 billion (2011 est.): clothing, footwear, iron and steel, machinery and equipment, fuels.

Imports: $28.39 billion (2011 est.): machinery and equipment; metals and ores; chemicals and plastics; fuels, minerals, and raw materials.

Major trading partners: Russia, Germany, Italy, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, France (2010)

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 2.2 million (2010); mobile cellular: 10.585 million (2010). Broadcast media: Four national terrestrial television stations with 1 state-owned and 3 privately-owned; a vast array of TV stations are available from cable and satellite TV providers; state-owned national radio broadcasts over 3 networks; large number of private radio stations broadcasting, especially in urban areas (2010). Internet hosts:785,546 (2010). Internet users: 3.395 million (2009).

Transportation: Railways: total: 4,151 km (2009).

Highways: total: 40,231 km; paved: 39,587 km (includes 418 km of expressways); unpaved 644 km (2008). Waterways: 470 km (2009).

Ports and terminals: Burgas, Varna.

Airports: 210 (2010).

International disputes: none.

The Thracians lived in what is now known as Bulgaria from about 3500 B.C. They were incorporated into the Roman Empire by the first century A.D. At the decline of the empire, the Goths, Huns, Bulgars, and Avars invaded. The Bulgars, who crossed the Danube from the north in 679, took control of the region. Although the country bears the name of the Bulgars, the Bulgar language and culture died out, replaced by a Slavic language, writing, and religion. In 865, Boris I adopted Orthodox Christianity. The Bulgars twice conquered most of the Balkan peninsula between 893 and 1280. But in 1396 they were invaded by the Ottoman Empire, which made Bulgaria a Turkish province until 1878. Ottoman rule was harsh and inescapable, given Bulgaria's proximity to its oppressor. In 1878, Russia forced Turkey to give Bulgaria its independence after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). But the European powers, fearing Russia's and Bulgaria's dominance in the Balkans, intervened at the Congress of Berlin (1878), limiting Bulgaria's territory and fashioning it into a small principality ruled by Alexander of Battenburg, the nephew of the Russian czar.

Alexander was succeeded in 1887 by Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who declared a kingdom independent of the Ottoman Empire on Oct. 5, 1908. In the First Balkan War (1912–1913), Bulgaria and the other members of the Balkan League fought against Turkey to regain Balkan territory. Angered by the small portion of Macedonia it received after the battle—it considered Macedonia an integral part of Bulgaria—the country instigated the Second Balkan War (June–Aug. 1913) against Turkey as well as its former allies. Bulgaria lost the war and all the territory it had gained in the First Balkan War. Bulgaria joined Germany in World War I in the hope of again gaining Macedonia. After this second failure, Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son in 1918. Boris III squandered Bulgaria's resources and assumed dictatorial powers in 1934–1935. Bulgaria fought on the side of the Nazis in World War II, but after Russia declared war on Bulgaria on Sept. 5, 1944, Bulgaria switched sides. Three days later, on Sept. 9, 1944, a Communist coalition took control of the country and set up a government under Kimon Georgiev.

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Belarus - The Wide Worlds Snaps

Republic of Belarus

President: Alyaksandr Lukashenka (since 1994)

Prime Minister: Mikhail Myasnikovich (since 2010)

Total area: 80,154 sq mi (207,600 sq km)

Population (2012 est.): 9,542,883 (growth rate: &ndaqsh;-0.36%); birth rate: 9.73/1000; infant mortality rate: 6.16/1000; life expectancy: 71.48; density per sq km: 46

Capital and largest city (2009 est.): Mensk (Minsk), 1,837,000

Other large cities: Gomel, 502,200; Mogilyov, 374,000; Vitebsk, 355,800; Grodno, 314,100; Brest, 306,300; Bobruysk, 228,100

Monetary unit: Belorussian ruble

In the 5th century A.D. , Belarus (also known as White Russia) was colonized by east Slavic tribes. Kiev dominated it from the 9th to 12th century. After the destruction of Kiev by the Mongols in the 13th century, the territory was conquered by the dukes of Lithuania, although it retained a degree of autonomy. Belarus became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which merged with Poland in 1569. Following the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, in which Poland was divided among Russia, Prussia, and Austria, Belarus became part of the Russian empire.

Following World War I, Belarus proclaimed itself a republic, only to find itself occupied by the Red Army soon after its March 1918 announcement. The Polish-Soviet War of 1918–1921 was fought to decide the fate of Belarus. West Belarus was ceded to Poland; the larger eastern part formed the Belorussian SSR, and was then joined to the USSR in 1922. In 1939, the Soviet Union took back West Belarus from Poland under the secret protocol of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact and incorporated it into the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Occupied by the Nazis in World War II, Belarus was one of the war's most devastated battlefields.

When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded in 1986, 70% of its radioactive fallout fell on the Belorussian SSR. Cancer and other illnesses have multiplied as a result.

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