Talk:Construction Corps (Bulgaria)

}

Ministry of Construction

Dear B.Velikov I see the edits you've made, but do you also see that the Library of Congress Country Studies refer to a "Ministry of Construction, Architecture, and Public Services" at [Construction Troops] ? Buckshot06 (talk) 21:38, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

• The Library of Congress is so unreliable as a source, that I do not use it as a reference at all. I did not put it right. The "ministry of construction" in its various iterations, that we had during the Communist period was not in charge of executing construction ptojects, but in fact was in charge of construction REGULATIONS. Today this role is fulfilled by the Directorate for National Construction Control (Дирекцията за национален строителен контрол (ДНСК)) of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. In the state owned Bulgarian economy the Ministry of People's Defence was the owner of the companies of the military industrial complex, the Ministry of transport was the owner of the civil aviation, state railroads, various regional bus and truck DAPs (comes from State Automobile Park), the Ministry of People's Health was the owner of pharmaceutical and sanitary equipment companies, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Supply owned the state-owned co-operative farms (ТКЗС), the Ministry of Light Industry was in charge of textile and other light manufacture companies. There were other ministries, which purpose was self-explainatory from their names - Ministry of Electronics and Electrical Equipment, Ministry of Heavy Machinery, Ministry of Metalurgy etc. The state-owned companies, that the Ministry of Construction (or the Ministry of Construction and Architecture, or of Construction and Road-Building, or of Construction and Construction Materials, or of Construction and Forestry, or of Construction and Municipal Administration (the official wording was actually селищното устройство, which means settlement organization, as in the heavily centralised Socialist state we did not have autonomous local governing bodies as such) owned, were not construction companies, but companies producing building MATERIALS. Even in the short period of 1957-59 the ministry was called exactly that - Ministry of Construction and Construction Materials. Never, ever, ever, EVER (I cannot stress this hard enough) in their entire 80 years of existence were the Construction Troops outside of military control. Even in the initial period between 1920 and 1934 they were called Labour Conscription (Трудова повинност) and for deception purposes overtly put under the Ministry of Public Buildings, Roads and Public Utilities (Министерство на обществените сгради, пътищата и благоустройството), while covertly it was still administered by the military. The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine has put harsh restrictions on the Bulgarian military (total manpower of military and paramilitary services was not to exceed 33 000 men, air force and navy were forbiden, military formations higher than divisions were forbiden etc.), so the military has implemented measures to circumvent them as much as possible. Army commands were formed in complete secrecy in 1928, the construction troops weren't officially called troops and were officially under a civilian ministry, an embrionic air force existed in the form of "Aviation Section" under the Ministry of Transport, Post and Telegraph. In 1934 or 1935 (I am not entire,y sure by heart. I don't have my textbooks with me ATM) the Bulgarian government discontinued these secret measures in defiance of the Neuilly Treaty. An air force was officially reinstated as His Majesty's Air Troops, the Labour Conscription service was officially transfered to the War Ministry etc. As I said, the Construction Troops were ALWAYS part of the military and during the Socialist period they were not only the entire time, but the entire time OFFICIALLY part of the Ministry of People's Defence.B.Velikov (talk) 23:41, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

I've got no problem with you saying the Library of Congress incorrectly attributed control to the Ministry of Construction; my question was whether the Ministry of Construction existed. Specific who-controlled who I might expect them to get wrong, during the Cold War; to invent a ministry seemed beyond the sloppiness levels I might expect of them. What was the latest title the MoC had? Can you direct me to a source for its' changing titles? Buckshot06 (talk) 08:52, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Did a ministry called a "Ministry of Construction" exist? Yes. Was it a "ministry of construction"? No. Its tasks were building and territory regulation CONTROL and in different periods building materials SUPPLY, not the actual process of building construction or contracting. This is the Bulgarian language article about the modern ministry and its previous forms: https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE_%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%B8_%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%83%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%91%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F#%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%B6%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5_(1962_%E2%80%93_1968). All you will find in it is the official name in the various time periods. The closest thing connected to construction under the Ministry of Construction from the Socialist time period were the "project bureaus" (singular: проектантско бюро). The Bulgarian socialist economy between 1944 and 1989 (and about 6~7 years after '89 due to the ongoing economic reforms) was state-owned and state-controlled. Architects did not own private businesses. They did not work independently, but were instead appointed in these project bureaus. I think there was one for each territorial district and some were directly under the ministry for nation-wide projects of high importance (the National Palace of Culture, the Buzludzha monument etc.). Other than the projects of high importance, let's say the Pazardzik city council (which is like a city municipality, but remember that the state was centralised, so no self-governing municipalities existed as such) decided that it needed a new youth culture center in the city. So it gives the assignment to the Pazardzhik Project Bureau of the Ministry of Construction. The bureau handles the documentation, the research for the building, designs the building and returns a complete project to the city council, which then applies with it before the state economy planning commitee [[1]], that the project be included in the next Five Year Plan (colloqually called петилетка, we loved to copy the Russians). If the project was needed urgently and couldn't wait, it was given over to the central project bureaus and eventually received higher priority. Here is the kicker. Once the project was green light-ed, it was transfered to the Construction Troops and completely detached from the project bureau's control. The CT became project leader. They received finance from the state for it, they decided what materials to use, they could make adjustments in the building plans. When the building was finished it was inspected by a state commission, which checked if the Ministry of Construction's building regulations were followed, but the commission itself did not report to the Ministry of Construction. I am pretty sure such commissions were under the jurisdiction if the State Control Commitee, which was also a very powerful institution directly under the state leadership ([[2]]).This complete separation between the project phase and the building phase made the subordonation of the project bureaus and the Construction Troops unnecessary and kept the CT completely under MPD control.B.Velikov (talk) 09:46, 7 December 2020 (UTC)