ress, which was held April 20-25, 1971, in
Sofia. This congress also produced a new program for the BKP, made
changes in statutes, elected the Central Committee of the Bulgarian
Communist Party, and adopted "Directives on the Socio-Economic
Development of the People's Republic of Bulgaria during the Sixth
Five-Year Plan (1971-75)."

The draft of the new constitution was presented for nationwide
discussion on March 30, 1971, just three weeks before the opening of the
tenth BKP congress. The congress approved the draft in its entirety on
the opening day of session. The constitution was approved through a
popular referendum on May 16 and was proclaimed law two days later by
the National Assembly. General elections under the new law took place on
June 27, 1971.

The structure and functioning of the different organs of state power as
outlined in the Dimitrov Constitution remained essentially the same
except that the State Council became a more powerful governmental body
than the Presidium of the National Assembly that it replaced and, in
effect, overshadowed the Council of Ministers in authority. The new
document continues to define Bulgaria as a people's republic but also
refers to its socialist character and to its membership in the
international community of socialist states. Two new features are the
declaration of principles in the preamble and the sanction given to the
leadership of the BKP, aided by the Bulgarian Agrarian Union (also
called the Agrarian Party) within a united Fatherland Front (see ch. 9).

The Constitution of 1971 reflects the new changes in the sociopolitical
and socioeconomic development of the country as viewed by the communist
leadership. The first chapter consists of twelve articles that briefly
define the political philosophy upon which the constitution is based and
the direction in which the party expects the country to move under the
new charter. Simply stated, the philosophy avows that Bulgaria is "a
socialist state of the working people of town and country, headed by the
working class," and "the guiding force in society and the state is the
Bulgarian Communist Party." The direction of movement expected by the
country's leadership is evidenced by the assertion that "the socialist
state shall promote the evolution of the socialist society into a
communist society." This chapter also affirms the Marxist-Leninist
principles that underlie the functioning of the state and the society.

The new