Общият съюз на българската индустрия (1944–1947)
The General Union of Bulgarian Industry (1944–1947)

Summary/Abstract: The General Union of Bulgarian Industry (GUBI) was the organization of the most enterprising social stratum which for decades had stimulated the development of a civil society and had most stable positions in it. Established and adapted to function in a socio-economic system based on private ownership and private initiative, in the mid-40s of the 20th c. GUBI faced extremely grave trials. In that period began a radical dislocation of the layers in the social hierarchy, while in the economic life were disseminated and realized new ideas which entered in sharp contradiction both with the priorities of the economic policy pursued until September 9, 1944 and which the main characteristics of the stricture of the economy existing in country. The strata of entrepreneurs were pushed to the periphery of public life and the reorientation of the Fatherland Front to a different socio-economic order led to the formation of a policy directed to restricting and eliminating the private sector in industry.In these circumstances the fundamental problems which the GUBI had to solve were two: how to legitimize its existence and how to effectively protect its members subjected to judicial, administrative and economic pressure. The Union succeeded in preserving its role of representative of the interests of industrialists, especially in the employers - workers relationship but this proved insufficient for the performance of its main functions. The recognition of the importance of GUBI in some fields of socioeconomic life was the consequence not so much of the efforts of leaders of the Union than of the specificity of the political and economic situation in the country which made impossible the liquidation of private ownership in industry at that stage. The real place of the Industrial Union on the economic scene was, however, most unenviable in comparison with the previous period. The attempts of the Union to defend the economic interests of its members came up against the hostile attitude of the central and local authorities towards the industrialists and in the ultimate analysis they were doomed to failure owing to the restrictive and essentially confiscatory policy of the governments of the Fatherland Front. The processes taking place in Bulgaria in those years naturally led to the nationalization of private industry at the end of 1947 and to disbanding the General Union of Bulgarian Industry. The hopes of some leaders of the Union that the Fatherland Front power would be guided in its economic management by such criteria as economic expedience, national interests, etc. proved illusory, and the country's economy, along with everything else, lost also a numerous economic elite, created in the course of decades.

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