The Influence of Communism on the Bulgarian Attitude Towards the Russia-Ukraine War

Abstract

Studies have shown that older Bulgarians display an attachment to Russia and nostalgia for the communist era. Younger generations have not lived through communism and therefore are not as emotionally attached to Russia. Prior research analyzes the Bulgarian population's view of the Russia-Ukraine war. However, there is a lack of research on how separate age groups differ in perspective on the conflict. This study aimed to examine the impact of communism on older generations of Bulgarians regarding their view of the Russia-Ukraine war compared to younger generations. It also uncovered additional information on the Bulgarian opinion of the Russia-Ukraine war. To explore this, a survey was conducted with 19 questions on 200 Bulgarian participants from the ages of 18 to 75. Some of the questions included an open-ended aspect for more context into the thought processes of the participants, which were selected using the snowball method. Analysis of the data showed that older generations feel nostalgia towards communism, which explained the differing responses between age groups. Often, older participants viewed Russia more favorably than younger participants. Despite this, some of the questions did not show a significant difference in opinion. The results also showed that Bulgarians feel they should be neutral regarding the war due to the country's small government and military.