The fall of Communism
The fall of the Soviet Silicon Valley
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During the last years of the Communist regime, Bulgaria produced 40 percent of the computers used across the Soviet Union and was known as the Soviet Silicon Valley. As part of Euranet's Fall of Communism series, Nik Martin went to Bulgaria to track down the legendary Pravetz PC.
The Pravetz was named after the town in which it was produced, also the home town of the country’s Communist leader Todor Zhivkov. The Pravetz company was set up in the 1960s and started producing computers in the 1980s.
The fact that the computers were based on technology stolen from the Western technology was a state secret at the time. Engineers from the factory recount how they would go on "business trips" abroad to get their hands on new software, which was then reverse engineered and even improved back at the Pravetz factory.
But when Communism fell, this meant the factory could no longer sell its computers because its machines violated copyright laws. The factory ended up turning to making plastic buckets and Bulgaria’s position as the East European leader of technology temporarily crumbled.
Yet today, Bulgaria's computer industry is on the up again and it is seeing success in its attempts to position itself as an IT outsourcing competitor to India.
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