General  information:

Bulgaria (Bulgarian: България), is situated on the Balkan peninsula in the south-eastern part of Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the Danube River), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east.

The earliest records we have about the existence of ancient civilization that lived on these lands, date as far back as the 5th century B.C. The oldest gold treasure in the world was found in the vicinity of the city of Varna. The archaeological excavations that took place here, revealed new facts and evidence for the existence of an older civilization – the Thracian. Thracians had great influence on the Greek culture, to which among other they gave the myth for Dionysius and Orpheus.

The creation of the Bulgarian state in 7th century is a inception for Bulgarian national identity. All Bulgarian political entities that subsequently emerged preserved the traditions (in ethnic name, language and alphabet) of the First Bulgarian Empire (681-1018), which at times covered almost the whole Balkan peninsula and spread its alphabet, literature and culture among the Slavic and other people of Eastern Europe. Centuries later, with the decline of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396), Bulgarian kingdoms came under The Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 led to the re-establishment of a Bulgarian state as a constitutional monarchy in 1878, with the Treaty of San Stefano marking the birth of the Third Bulgarian State. In 1908, with social strife brewing at the core of the Ottoman Empire, the Alexander Malinov government and Knyaz Ferdinand of Bulgaria formally proclaimed the full sovereignty of the Bulgarian state at the ancient capital of Veliko Tarnovo. Since then the Bulgarian monarch accepts the title "Tsar". From 1879 onwards official capital of Bulgaria becomes Sofia. After World War II, in 1945 Bulgaria became a communist state and part of the Eastern Block. Todor Zhivkov dominated Bulgaria politically for 33 years (from 1956 to 1989). In 1990, after the Mild Revolution of 1989, the Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power and Bulgaria undertook a relatively gentle transition to democracy and became part of the free world.