Exactly twenty five years ago, the status quo established in Europe by the winners in World War II was shattered by an earthquake that registered 9 on the Richter scale. Whether the quake was unexpected or provoked is something for the generations to come to find out. Be as it may, after 44 years of “cold war” and “peaceful coexistence” between East and West on the old continent, the Yalta accords between the USSR, USA and Great Britain on the division of Europe after the victory over fascist Germany had reached their expiry date. Moscow closed up and the “propaganda” defined the disintegration of the USSR and its spheres of influence as a victory for Western democracy and its market economy over totalitarianism and a planned economy.

The start to the changes was given in the late autumn of 1989. That was when each of the Soviet satellite states cut its “umbilical cord” to Moscow, through which cheap oil and gas had flowed, and set about joining the Western values. The winners in the “cold war” handed out a “users’ guide” for the transition, but it was read as the Devil reads the Bible, at least in Bulgaria.

The notorious plenum of the Bulgarian Communist Party Central Committee which ousted Todor Zhivkov, who had stood at the helm of the country for 33 years, took place on 10 November, 1989. For a long time analysts argued whether it was a palace coup or the triumph of the forces of good within the party, or a step that safeguarded the country from civil war… But all this no longer matters. Still, what are the “lights and shadows” after this historical turnabout?

After so many years of whispering about the defects of Zhivkov’s regime, a glass of brandy in hand, Bulgarians could now freely protest and shout in streets and squares, organize civil disobedience campaigns, block off road junctions etc. The Communist Party’s newspaper Rabotnichesko Delo was swept aside by dozens of new and free dailies. Democratic parties were spawned that laid claim to forging Bulgaria’s destiny in parliament.

Many now say that these past twenty five years of transition have not changed Bulgaria in the way honest people had naively believed it would. Today it is clear that just as the Phoenix rises from the ashes, the key figures from the totalitarian system simply donned new apparel and took to riding the wave of economic liberalism. And the American saying about the first million and how you acquired it does not matter became a byword. And the plunder of the country began. Nowadays, businesses in this country are not dominated by educated or enterprising people with a sense of responsibility for the prosperity of society, but by shady characters. According to data published by the press, around 80 percent of the employers in Bulgaria have secondary or a lower level of education.

In 2004, Bulgaria joined NATO and in 2007 – the EU. The face Bulgaria presented to Brussels was a democratic one: free elections, media that criticize the governments, debates in parliament and observance of EU directives. But behind this mask there is a “grey zone” where politics, economy and organized crime are one. The parties are not here to give expression to the interests of given public strata but are an instrument used to redistribute money, including money from the European funds and channel it towards the privileged. Today there is much talk of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, of the mafia’s integration into the powers that be, of widespread corruption. But so what? The real underground bosses are free to roam the streets.

Thanks to this typically Bulgarian model of quasi-democracy dominated by the oligarchy, after 25 years of transition Bulgaria is the poorest country in the EU. Prices in the supermarkets are often higher even than in the advanced countries, though the average monthly salary stands at EUR 400.

The social dimensions of the transition 25 years on offer little optimism. The system of education and the pensioning system are on the verge of collapse. But what is most worrying is the demographic picture. Since 1989 more than a million and a half Bulgarians have emigrated and that includes highly-qualified specialists.

Today, 25 years on, the majority of Bulgarians are again grumbling, brandy in hand, but this time they are also counting their pennies, trying to make ends meet.