Ролята на национализма за началото на прехода в балканските социалистически страни
The Role of Nationalisms for the Beginning of the Transition in the Balkan Socialist Countries

Summary/Abstract: During the whole history of the Eastern Block the policy of the socialist countries towards the ethnic minorities was theoretically based on the ideas of internationalism. But in fact the situation was different. From the end of 1950s, when the ruling Communist parties have faced social and economic difficulties, they have turned out to the well known on the Balkans ethnic nationalism. The nationalism in the Balkan socialist countries became extremely strong in the 1980s, when the general crisis (economical, political, social, and ideological) of the European system of state socialism began. In these difficult years all the Balkan socialist countries: pro-soviet Bulgaria, independent in her foreign relations Romania, looking for the third path between East and West Yugoslavia or totally isolated Albania, became nationalistic. In Bulgaria from the end of 1984 has began the so called `revival process` – the names of Turks have been changed to Christian ones; in Romania – the `systematization` of villages was directed against the Hungarian population; in Yugoslavia the main problem was Albanians’ separatism, but Albania tried to protect the Albanians in Yugoslavia. All these nationalisms were not able to save the regimes, on the contrary – they ruined the political system and after that the regimes quickly collapsed.

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