The existence of a Macedonian minority has been disputed over many decades by Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Bulgaria has consistently claimed that Macedonians are ethnically Bulgarians, that their language is a dialect of Bulgarian, and that their land is a part of Bulgaria. Yugoslavia, on the other hand, has given legal recognition to a Macedonian nationality by establishing the People's Republic of Macedonia and by designating the Macedonian language one of the official languages of the federal republic (see ch. 2; ch. 10).
The vast majority of Bulgarians have been born into the Bulgarian Orthodox Church ever since the ninth century, when Boris I adopted Christianity for his people. Until World War II a person had no legal existence without a baptismal certificate from the church. In keeping with Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is an independent national church. It is inseparably linked with Bulgarian nationhood in the minds of most Bulgarians because of the role it played in preserving a national consciousness during the centuries of Turkish rule and in spearheading a national revival in the nineteenth century (see ch. 2).
A tradition of religious freedom and tolerance allowed religious minorities to exist without friction. Even during World War II the Jews in Bulgaria suffered little persecution in comparison with those in other parts of Eastern Europe. No census of religious affiliation has been taken since the Communists took power; however, according to various estimates in 1965 there were about 750,000 Muslims; 26,000 Protestants; 32,000 Roman Catholics; and between 3,000 and 7,000 Jews. The Muslim population included most Turks and some 50,000 Pomaks (Bulgarians who converted to Islam during Turkish rule) living in the rugged Rodopi mountain range.
Religious freedom is guaranteed by the constitution, but churches are subject to strict governmental control. Formal religious education is restricted to the training of priests. Children, however, continue to be instructed in the rudiments of faith and ritual by their families. Despite government efforts to secularize the milestones in the life cycle, a large percentage of Bulgarians continue to regard the priest as an essential officiant at baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Churchgoing and the strict fasts prescribed by the Eastern Orthodox church have not been carefully observed by most Bulgarians since the 1930s; nevertheless, the people often exhibit strong religious feelings tempered by traditional beliefs in the powers of nature, the evil eye, and other forces. A survey conducted by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in the mid-1960s classified 35.5 percent of those surveyed as religious and 64.4 percent as nonreligious. The criteria used to determine whether a person was religious or not was either a verbal expression of religious conviction or regular attendance at church services and regular prayer.