Corecom

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Corecom or Korekom ( Bulgarian Кореком , made up and abbreviation from the French words co mptoir de re preséntation com merciale ) was a chain of shops during the communist period in Bulgaria (1944 to 1989), which existed from 1960 to the 1990s, in which payments were made in freely convertible currency. The goods were often sold more expensive than in Western Europe. For most Bulgarians, they were inaccessible because the local currency, lev, was not accepted. Apart from diplomats and wealthy tourists as well as visitors with hard currency, it was the privilege of a limited group of people, including the Bulgarian nomenklatura - a small elite group of the general population - to shop at Corecom. Few people have been approved to travel abroad or work in the West accordingly.

The shops had the same principle as the GDR - Intershops , the Czechoslovak Tuzex - or the Polish Pewex stores. Corecom also accepted other western currencies such as US dollars and foreign exchange certificates similar to the East German forum checks and the Chinese foreign exchange certificate . These retail stores also regularly sold imported liquor and tobacco products (such as Scottish whiskey or Marlboro ), consumer electronics (such as VCRs and cameras ), cosmetics, clothing, magazines, toys, and even groceries and sweets such as surprise eggs . There were also some domestic Bulgarian products on offer that were actually only intended for export, were hardly or not at all available in Bulgarian trade or that were only sold via long waiting lists by registration.

The greater variety and quality of Western consumer goods, which were inaccessible to the majority of the Bulgarian population, showed the limited possibilities of the socialist planned economy in Bulgaria and at the same time stood in contrast to the hypocritical anti-Western rhetoric propagated by the Bulgarian Communist Party .

See also

literature

  • Ulf Brunnbauer : The socialist way of life: ideology, society, family and politics in Bulgaria (1944-1989) (=  to the customer of Southeast Europe ). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna, ISBN 978-3-205-77577-5 , p. 768 , col. 287–289 ( Google Books [accessed December 27, 2013]).

Individual evidence

  1. Jonathan R. Zatlin. The Currency of Socialism: Money and Political Culture in East Germany, p. 245. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-86956-0
  2. ^ Everyday Life in Eastern Europe. at the Center for History and New Media
  3. Milla Mineva: Made in USA: The national as advertising repertoire. In: Eurozine . November 13, 2008, archived from the original on March 29, 2009 ; accessed on January 21, 2020 .