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Government structure (WIP)
A rare image of Special Establishment No. 56, taken shortly after
the Revolution of 2014. Much of the vegetation has since been removed.
The Bulgar Rouge state has neither a capital city nor urban areas; it has no central bank, currency or regional administrations, and lacks unified healthcare or educational systems. Its population is almost uniformly distributed across the nation's territory in agricultural communes that are, for the most part, self-sustaining and self-regulating within the narrow boundaries of Bulgar Rouge ideology. The ruling Bulgar Rouge movement, formally known as the Leftist Agrarian Revolutionary Party (Левичарска земеделска революционна партия, ЛЗРП), formulates policy following guiding ideological principles that may have varying interpretations. Every Bulgarian is a Party member and participates in some form of political process, although for the most part these are communal politics with no relation to national policymaking. All known nationally representative institutions, like the People's Representative Assembly, are widely believed to be either non-existent, or rubber stamp bodies at best.
Foreign observers have described the government of the Bulgar Rouge as having "unparalleled levels of control" with boundless power over its subjects. According to one political analyst, the Bulgarian government "deploys ideological zeal, surveillance, militarism, controlled scarcity and profound secrecy in such an elaborate manner that Draconian top-down control is not even necessary. Within the realm of the Bulgar Rouge, a perverse system of checks and balances creates a totalitarianism that perpetuates itself on every level, with the willing participation of every political subject".
The first six years following the August 16 Revolution were known as "The Special Period" where important work on establishing revolutionary governance was to be carried out. During this period, the Bulgarian state was known as the Democratic Republic of Bulgar Rouge, with a simple constitution which defined it as a "Democratic Socialist state of the peasants". A symbolic legislative body, the unicameral Bulgarian People's Representative Assembly, consisted of 160 representatives of the peasantry, 30 representatives of the working people and 50 Bulgar Rouge revolutionaries. The People's Representative Assembly gathered only once, on 28 September 2014, to elect the State Presidium, which held both the top judiciary and executive functions in the country. The identities of Bulgar Rouge leaders remain unknown; they are simply referred to as "brothers" with a specific number in virtually all known state documents, directives, and public orders.
Since then, this body seems to have been disbanded. It is debatable whether there remains a standing cabinet or no. All but three ministries of the Republic of Bulgaria were disbanded. The surviving ministries - those of the Interior, of Defence and of Foreign Affairs, were re-organised into People's Committees. They are headed by people's commissars, or narkoms (from naroden komisar). The People's Committees answered directly to the State Presidium during the Special Period, but it is not known if this continues to be the case. Scarce intelligence suggests that the People's Committees have been absorbed into Party hierarchy.
The People's Committee of Domestic Affairs (PCDA) was apparently tasked with maintaining internal order, including the organisation of labour and quotas at agricultural communes, thus having a significant economic role along with its security functions. Its secret police service, the State Security Department (SSD), is known to have been subordinated to the PCDA. The People's Committee of Defence (PCD) was responsible for all matters related to the military, including the arms industry and military intelligence. The PCD was rather unique as it was also responsible for the administrative structure of the country, inheriting some functions of the defunct Ministry of Regional Development. The General Staff was subodinated to the PCD. The People's Committee of Foreign Affairs (PCFA) formally represented the country in international dealings and disputes. Its primary task was to promote the Bulgar Rouge as a legitimate government in the United Nations. It cooperated tightly with the PCDA on matters relating to foreign intelligence.
After several years of simply calling itself "Bulgar Rouge movement", in 2018 the political entity was renamed to "Leftist Agrarian Revolutionary Party", but its previous name continues to be in widespread usage. The Special Period ended with the formalisation of party structures, though intricate details of Party organisation remain elusive.
Communes were initially headed by a representative council the size of which amounted to 20% of the commune's population. Half of the representatives were peasants, elected by commune members every two years; the other half were designated political commissars handling organisational matters. These were locally elected for a period of six years, or assigned by the Party.
Since the end of the Special Period and the replacement of citizenship with Party membership, this electoral process has changed dramatically. According to defector testimonies, a commune can now only elect political commissars who translate ideological principles and Party directives to a communal level. Peasants may abstain from voting for a commissar, which results in a "technical appointment" by the Party. Evidence suggests that this is seldom the case, as appointed commissars were universally harsh and orthodox in the implementation of Party policy. Peasants thus prefer to elect their own Party official who would be far more familiar with the commune and its problems, and invoke less oversight by higher Party structures.
During the Special Period, the Constitution postulated a somewhat formal system of democratic centralism. However, there was virtually no meritocracy in Bulgar Rouge rankings. In the first three years, the lack of an educational system doomed the majority to illiteracy and kept it tightly in a microcosm of repetitive daily activities on the field. Eventually the Party elite began granting engineering degrees in agriculture, machine working, mining, energy, oil processing, industrial chemistry and arms manufacturing in order to keep an industrial sector running. These engineering Party cadres formed a technocratic roster with much hands-on experience across the country. Their skills and direct observations of how varying communes are run have given them a privileged position in terms of information. This "first generation" of Party cadres has most certainly become a powerful counterweight to the omnipresent State Security intelligence apparatus.
It remains unknown what the top structure of the Party, if any, consists of. Most analysts assume the People's Representative Assembly and the Presidium have been formally disbanded in order to streamline top-down decision making and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles. People's Representative Assembly members are presumed to have been handpicked by a Standing Committee leadership. Circumstantial evidence increasingly points to the existence of such a committee, but it remains unknown what its size, composition, and functions may be. Foreign intelligence has deduced the following structure of the Bulgarian Party-state:
Every economic, political, social and security element has been absorbed into Party structures. Communes have become largely self-sufficient in food supply and basic manufactures, but have no access to more sophisticated industrial goods. What little decision-making process exists is distributed across various commissions and committees:
The political commissar of every commune is likely to have at least some decision-making power in what is known as the First Economic Committee, which possibly oversees large-scale industrial manufacturing and implementation of general economic directives.
A Planning, Industry & Supply Commission has been mentioned at least once in open documents. It is possible that, despite the communal and agricultural nature of the economy, elements of a planned economy direct the construction and maintenance of roads, power grids, vehicles and general modernisation of industry. Food, material and equipment shortages in communes or regions may be addressed by this body, although the redistribution process is almost certainly kept under close political oversight.
A Welfare Commission has also been mentioned, and may be responsible for healthcare policies. It is not known whether either of these commissions are under First Economic Committee supervision, or are separate bodies.
The Ideological Purity and Propaganda Commission is, by all available accounts, an exceptionally powerful Party structure. It is likely to ensure the relevance of ideological tenets to global political realities; convert intangible principles into tangible political objectives; engineer, produce and disseminate propaganda; and possibly many other political functions.
The Political Oversight & Intelligence Bureau is known to be an enforcement arm of the Ideological Commission and explicitly designed to balance out the State Security Department, though nothing is known beyond this.
The State Security Department is an extensive, feared and sophisticated intelligence agency monitoring hostile activities both at home and abroad. It has at least one operative in every commune, but given the ultra-paranoid nature of the Bulgar Rouge, there are likely several recruits working independently of each other and monitoring the other's activities. It has been assumed that the pervasive internal secrecy of Bulgar Rouge political institutions is meant to keep State Security operatives in the dark with regards to Commission and Committee functions, and thus keep the SSD in check. Armed units of the SSD are part of National People's Liberation Army (NPLA) structures.
The National People's Liberation Army (NPLA) draws its troops from virtually every commune. Its massive size for the country's scale - an estimated 1,300,000 reserve and standing troops - possibly make it the largest Party structure.
The Second Economic Committee is the foreign trade branch of the Bulgar Rouge. It is responsible for both exporting First Economic Committee industrial goods for hard currency, and exchanging hard currency for new technology to be deployed across the Bulgarian state until complete industrial self-sufficiency is attained. It is known to have an impressive trade network across the globe, and is a cluster of SSD activity.
There are some indications that a Foreign Department handles some external affairs, but there is no independent confirmation of this.
The Party Standing Committee likely consists of the top "brothers" and wields enormous power primarily through its complete information landscape of the Party-state's inner workings - a luxury not afforded to any of the other Party institutions, who are largely in the dark about the processes occurring within their own political entity.
Some analysists have assumed that two major factions exist within the Party. The Domestic Affairs faction seeks to establish more control over internal processes, while the Foreign Affairs Faction may be focused on attaining power through overseas operations, particularly through the Second Economic Committee.
The State Presidium, the People's Committees and the HQ of Bulgar Rouge are all located on the premises of the former National Palace of Culture (NDK) at the centre of Sofia. Most of the details around this sprawling complex have been presented by an Army defector, one of the few who managed to escape from the country. According to him, the complex has been nicknamed "the Headquarters of Death" by the locals, while its official name is "Special establishment no. 56". The amount of security assets deployed by the government there speaks of its extreme paranoia.
Access to it is strictly forbidden to all but those working in the Committees or higher members of Party and military elites. Satellite imagery reveals that all but two buildings in a 5-kilometre radius around NDK have been bulldozed so as to eliminate any chances for someone to approach without being noticed. The two high-rise buildings next to NDK host military garrisons of 3,000 soldiers each, along with dozens of machine gun and sniper nests, anti-aircraft batteries and some barbed wire and anti-tank fortifications. These two bases are not meant to operate simultaneously - if the complex comes under attack, one of the bases will target the other one to ensure no defections or deliberate collapse of defences will occur. The subterranean passages have either been bombed and collapsed completely, or rigged with explosive traps and machine gun nests. A tank detachment is on constant patrol in the outer perimeter of the complex. The number of snipers, machine gun nests and recoilless rifles is estimated at no less than 90. The complex has its own power generation and water purification units, as well as a nuclear bunker at its deepest subterranean level.
Unlike their namesake, the Khmer Rouge, the Bulgar Rouge party are not officially a communist party. The movement endorses a diverse set of ideas belonging to various communist, socialist and nationalist ideologies. The Bulgar Rouge are considered both by themselves and by foreign analysts to be a Maoist party with nationalist traits. They promote a "mass line" in government policies, which means that, at least in theory, the needs and desires of the broad masses are taken into account by state economic and social planners. In practice, the masses are economically, politically, socially, culturally and intellectually controlled by the Party and its organs of power. Unlike Soviet-style and other self-declared communist states, however, the Party is omnipresent and every single Bulgarian is a member.
There are no individuals in the normal sense of the word. One of the central myths in Bulgar Rouge ideology concerns the 7th century khan Kubrat, who advised his generals to retain their unity after his death by demonstrating how sticks can easily be broken in two separately, but not when in a bundle. The Bulgar Rouge have propelled this obscure legend to a cornerstone of their nationalist collectivism, and have used it to justify their ban on all kinds of individual activities. A stylised bundle of sticks similar to fasces is often featured in propaganda posters.
This policy has created a society where people are seldom solitary, not even while sleeping. Collectivism has expanded the smallest social unit from a family to a commune with a population varying from 50 to 6,000 people. This has made it easy for the Party to carry out mass construction campaigns, as it always has readily available units capable of taking part.
