Dictatorship And Information – Martin K Dimitrov

Hostile radio stations were jammed and the voices of Bulgarian journalists who worked for them were silenced.192 Nevertheless, it was impossible to eliminate the vectors that enabled this ideological subversion, and the Helsinki Accords exacerbated this problem. 5.5.1 The Helsinki Effect The literature documents how the Helsinki Accords of 1975 constrained the use of repression during demonstrations and encouraged the rise of informal NGOs in the Soviet Union.193 In fact, the Helsinki Accords had an effect throughout the Eastern Bloc.194 In Bulgaria, the regime needed to reckon with problematic youth, who were spreading political rumors about the death of Soviet leaders.195 Even more concerning, there were reports of neofascist organizations in the capital,196 in addition to a documented attempt to organize a youth demon- stration in Sofia.197 State Security registered political jokes about shortages;198 rumors about impending leadership changes;199 and the circulation of death announcements with negative political content.200 Despite these reports, discon- tent seemed manageable.

In Bulgaria, in its internal reports State Security expressed concerns about the constraints imposed by the Helsinki Accords, which promoted the free exchange of people, information, and ideas; needless to say, these principles directly chal- lenged the secret police.201 There were several types of effects. One was that the Ministry of the Interior received a large number of freedom-​of-​movement requests to allow relatives of defectors to travel to the West.202 The second con- sequence was increased pressure on Bulgaria from Western diplomats.

State 192 The most famous case was the poisoned-​tip umbrella assassination in 1978 of journalist Georgi Markov, who worked for the BBC, Radio Free Europe, and Deutsche Welle (see Khristo Khristov, Ubiite “Skitnik”: Bulgarskata i britanskata durzhavna politika po sluchaia Georgi Markov [Sofia: Ciela, 2006]).

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Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Dimitrov, Martin K., 1975- author. Title: Dictatorship and information : authoritarian regime resilience in communist Europe and China / Martin K. Dimitrov. Description: First Edition. | New York : Oxford University Press, [2023] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022030798 (print) | LCCN 2022030799 (ebook) | ISBN 9780197672938 (Paperback) | ISBN 9780197672921 (Hardback) | ISBN 9780197672952 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Authoritarianism—Case studies. | National security—Bulgaria. | National security—China. | Intelligence service—Bulgaria. | Intelligence service—China. Classification: LCC JC480 .D56 2023 (print) | LCC JC480 (ebook) | DDC 320.53—dc23/eng/20220811 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030798 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030799 DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197672921.001.0001 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Paperback printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America For Bradin Contents List of Figures and Maps  ix List of Tables  xi Acknowledgments  xiii List of Abbreviations  xvii PART I.

THEORY AND METHOD 1. Introduction: Solving the Dictator’s Dilemma  5 2. Studying Government Perceptions of Popular Discontent in Autocracies  31 PART II. PARALLEL ORIGINS OF COMMUNIST INFORMATION STATES 3. Monitoring and Counteracting Dissent in Bulgaria, 1944–​1958  75 4. Monitoring and Counteracting Dissent in China, 1949–​1958  117 PART III. DIVERGENT EVOLUTION OF COMMUNIST INFORMATION STATES 5. Bread and Circuses: Consumption and Stability in Bulgaria, 1959–​1988  161 6. Continuity and Change: Information Gathering in China, 1959–​1988  224 PART IV.

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