HEALTH SYSTEMS IN THE BALKANS AT THE END OF THE 19TH AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY ON THE CASE OF BULGARIA AND SERBIA (COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS)
Études Balkaniques (Sofia), 2023, N 1
Alexandre KOSTOV
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: The article is devoted to the establishing and functioning of the Balkan national health systems in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the example of Bulgaria and Serbia. The comparative analysis shows that in both countries during the period in study serious measures were taken to build a modern health system and the basic indicators derived from statistics show undeniable development in this respect in both countries.
Keywords: Bulgaria, Serbia, Medicine, Healthcare, Modernization
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND THE CITIES IN THE BALKANS: GAS LIGHTING IN OTTOMAN CONSTANTINOPLE UNTIL THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Études Balkaniques (Sofia), 2020, N 2
Alexandre KOSTOV
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: In Constantinople, the first gas lamp was lit in 1856. Until 1914, the Ottoman capital underwent a complex, but gradual process of introducing and distributing gas for public lighting, as part of the “European” modernisation of the city. It provided lighting mainly in the central parts of Pera-Galata, Stamboul, for the Asian Scutari and Kadiköy, and in some of its suburbs. In addition to street lighting, gas was also used in palaces, administrative and business buildings and in private homes. A comparison shows that on the eve of the First World War, Constantinople gave way to other capitals in the region such as Bucharest and Athens with respect to the distribution of public lighting. Unlike the capitals of Greece and Romania, in reality also until 1914, due to its late introduction, electricity was still not a real competition for gas. However, it can be noted that, in Constantinople, as in other cities in Southeast Europe, gas lighting contributed to urban modernisation and social life, as well as to increasing the security of its inhabitants in the dark part of the day.
Keywords: Constantinople, Gas Lighting, Pera-Galata, Gas Industry, Ottoman Modernisation
THE TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN BULGARIA AND GREECE IN THE 1886-1911 PERIOD
Études Balkaniques (Sofia), 2019, N 2
Alexandre KOSTOV
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: The article is dedicated to the development of the trade relations between Bulgaria and Greece seen as part of the intra-regional economic ties prior to World War I. The two states had similar economic development, with pronounced domination of agriculture, but with certain differences as well. A specificity in their bilateral trade relations, compared to other examples from the region, was a factor of distinction between them that caused their particular development. Due to the shortage of domestic grain production Greece became a potential valuable market importing wheat and maize in particular. Before the Balkan Wars Bulgaria was the only Balkan nation that took advantage of this opportunity in view of the priorities in its foreign economic policy. The remarkable development of the Bulgarian exports to Greece and (owing to them) of the general trade, as a whole, between the two countries was even surprising against the backdrop of the issues in the bilateral political relations in the period under review.
Keywords: Bulgaria, Greece, Economic Relations, Foreign Trade, Grain Export
THE TRADE RELATIONS OF CHINA WITH BULGARIA AND ROMANIA IN THE EAST-EUROPEAN CONTEXT (1950-1978)
Etudes balkaniques (Sofia) 2017, N 4
Alexandre KOSTOV
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: The present article is devoted to the development of trade relations of China with two Balkan socialist countries – Bulgaria and Romania during the period 1950-1978, i. e. from the beginning of the bilateral economic relations between these partners to the end of the 1970s, when the serious changes in China’s economic development started. The comparative analysis is complemented by their comparison with China’s relations with the USSR and the Eastern European countries –members of CMEA. This approach aims to show the influence of the various factors, both political and economic, on the bilateral trade relations.
During the 1950s, the Chinese- Bulgarian and Chinese-Romanian trade were developing in a similar way, pre-determined by the similarity of the political and economic views in the three countries. In the beginning of the 1960s, serious differences appeared and during the period until 1978, Romania was gradually recognized not only as the most important economic partner of China among the European CMEA countries, but also as one of the largest trading partners of the enormous country in general. Bulgaria was just the opposite – its trade relations with China underwent extremely negative development and, as a result, it occupied an extremely modest position not only among the eastern European countries, but also in the foreign trade exchange of PRC.
The factors, which determined the two fundamentally different trends, were of political and economic nature. In general, they were determined by the attitude of Sofia and Bucharest to the Soviet Union, not only in relation to its conflict with the PRC. The role of the political factor should not be overestimated. The changes in Beijing’s foreign economic policy during the period under study also had a strong impact on the bilateral relations with Bulgaria and Romania. The same refers to Bucharest, whose foreign economic orientation greatly differed from that of Sofia.
Keywords: China, Bulgaria, Romania, Foreign Trade, CMEA
THE ECONOMIC RELATIONS BETWEEN BULGARIA AND ITALY (1945-1953)
Etudes balkaniques (Sofia) 2016, N 4
Alexandre KOSTOV
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: The economic relations between Bulgaria and Italy since the end of the 19th century have been marked by periods of boom and stagnation. They have been influenced both by factors relevant to the internal development of the two countries and, to a large extent, by the situation in the Balkans and in Europe as a whole. Along these lines a period of indisputable interest is that between 1945 and 1953, which was characterized by post-war recovery, by economic and political transformations in both countries and on the Old Continent during the transition to the Cold War and its initial period.
This article seeks to trace the development of the trade and financial relations between Bulgaria and Italy in the period under consideration. It relies on materials from the Central State Archives (CSA) in Sofia, as well as on published documents and studies of Bulgarian and Italian origin.
Keywords: Bulgaria, Italy, Trade, Agreement, Cold War