he publishers, art
galleries, theater companies, and other outlets for creative expression,
all of which are run by the state in conformity with the guidelines on
cultural policy. Because a creative artist must communicate his ideas to
an audience in order to achieve fulfillment, he tends to adapt his ideas
and principles to what is acceptable to the available outlets for his
work. Thus, self-censorship has replaced direct government control for
the most part.

From a material standpoint, the life of a creative artist in
contemporary Bulgaria is far more secure than that of his counterpart in
a capitalist country. Creative expression is seen as a social function;
therefore, society owes the creative artist an assured livelihood. This
is provided either through regular salaries from publishing houses,
academies of music or art, or other agencies that employ artists or
through stipends paid to creative artists who do not have a regular
salary to depend on. Free or low-cost room and board are also available
to creative artists and their families at special artists' colonies or
retreats operated by professional unions in the creative arts and by
government agencies for the promotion of the arts and sciences. Under
this system, however, the artist is under constant pressure to produce
in order to justify his salary or stipend.

In order to qualify for any of the material advantages, in fact, in
order to function as a professional artist or scholar, an individual
must be a member of the appropriate professional union. The unions are,
for the most part, an arm of the BKP and another instrument for
enforcing cultural policy (see ch. 9). Only the Writers' Union has
demonstrated a certain degree of independence based on the recognized
power of the written word. As recently as December 1972 the union again
resisted integration into the Committee on Art and Culture, a
supradepartmental government agency having a wide range of authority in
the cultural sphere. The Writers' Union is the only professional union
in the arts that has not been integrated into the committee.

The principal aim of cultural policy since 1944 has been to popularize
the arts and sciences by making them accessible to all segments of the
population and to utilize those mediums for the promotion of communist
values. Popularization of the arts has been accomplished by greatly
expanding the facilities that present the arts to the public and by
supporting these