The Historiography of Demographic Policies in the Communist Regimes of Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia

The international contest has strongly influenced the historiography of demographic policies in Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. Before 1989, national regimes justified their severe birth control policies as necessary to the productive system and their healthcare. At the time, most Western scholars considered this an expression of an attempt to extend a widespread control over all aspects of society. The peculiarity of the demographic policy of Yugoslavia, which was far more liberal than those of Romania and Bulgaria, was considered proof of the heterodoxy of its regime. The end of Cold War and the dramatic events of the Nineties in the former Yugoslavia fostered the development of a new, domestic historiography, which actively supported the policies of population growth promoted in the region, and particularly in Serbia. On the contrary, with the exception of some anthropological and sociological works, interest has declined for what concerns many of the states of the former Soviet bloc.