HISTORICAL SETTING
The history of Bulgaria is marked by four interrelated motifs or themes.
The first motif is that of regional rivalry coupled with irredentism.
The second is Bulgaria's strategic significance for the leading powers
of Europe and the varying relationships with those powers. The third
theme is Bulgaria's constant conflict between loyalty to, and alliances
with, the East--particularly Russia and the Soviet Union--on the one
hand and to the West--particularly Italy and Germany--on the other. The
fourth major theme in Bulgarian history is the influence exerted by
Russia (and the Soviet Union) on the internal and external affairs of
Bulgaria. This influence was intermittent from the late nineteenth
century until World War II but was constant after that war.
From its earliest history Bulgaria was in continual conflict with its
Balkan neighbors. The area that eventually became Bulgaria was the
object of regional disputes as early as the fourth century B.C. Later,
when that area was taken over by the Slavs in the sixth century A.D. and
the Bulgars in the seventh, a state evolved that proceeded to encroach
on the territory of the mighty Byzantine Empire itself. Despite
successful raids and conquests during the periods of the First Bulgarian
Kingdom and the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, Bulgaria was eventually
reduced to subject status by the Byzantines and later by the Ottoman
Turks. During Turkish rule the country was not only under constant
attack by neighbors but was also utilized by the Turks as a base for
Turkish expansion. When Bulgaria was finally liberated from the Turks by
the Russians, irredentism and regional rivalry became the prime focus of
its foreign policy. Macedonia, a much-valued land throughout Bulgarian
history, became the major object of Bulgaria's irredentist campaigns,
although eventually most of the land reverted to Serbia and was later
incorporated into Yugoslavia. Macedonia, in addition to Thrace, which
was valued because it provided access to the sea, was the primary motive
for Bulgaria's role not only in the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 but
also in the two world wars.
Bulgaria was not only struggling for power throughout its history; it
was also a pawn in the power struggles of the so-called great powers.
Before the Christian era the area was conquered first by Greece and
later by Rome and was influenced strongly by both of these early
cultures. Later, when the Slavs and Bulgars succeeded in forming a
united state, the country was still besieged by both Byzantium and
Rome. Although the Romans eventually lost their hold over Bulgaria, the
Byzantine Empire took both political and religious control of the
country for two centuries. When Bulgaria managed to reassert its
autonomy in the time of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, independence was
short lived, and the country again fell under alien control, this time
to the Ottoman Turks. The Turks dominated Bulgaria for five centuries,
until liberation by the Russians temporarily gave the country full
sovereignty. Before each of the two world wars of the twentieth century,
Bulgaria was actively courted by both sides as a potentially strategic
ally. Realizing Bulgaria's territorial aspirations, Germany played upon
Bulgarian irredentism in order to gain its collaboration in the wars,
and both times Bulgaria emerged on the losing side. When World War II
ended for Bulgaria in 1944, it fell under Soviet influence, where it has
remained ever since.
EARLY HISTORY
The history of the country that became modern Bulgaria can be traced
back many hundreds of years before the time of Christ, predating by
fifteen or more centuries the arrival of the people known as Bulgars,
from whom the country ultimately took its name. The earliest people to
have a viable political organization in the area were the Thracians,
whose loosely organized tribes occupied and controlled much of the
Balkan Peninsula. Later, when their society began to disintegrate, the
Thracians fell under Greek influence and joined forces with Athens to
overrun neighboring Macedonia. In the fourth century B.C., however,
Philip of Macedon, competing with the Greeks in a power struggle over
Thrace, conquered Thrace and made the Thracians a subject people.
This invasion was followed in the second century B.C. by a Roman
invasion of Macedonia and a subsequent conquest of Thrace. By the first
century A.D. the Romans totally dominated the area. Despite their strict
and unpopular military control over the population, under their tutelage
cities grew, roads were constructed, and mining and farming were
developed.
In the third century A.D. a series of mass migrations into the Balkans
began; these migrations lasted for several centuries (see ch. 3). The
Goths came in four separate waves during the third century. In the
fourth century the Huns swept across the country, razing cities and
villages. They were followed in the fourth and fifth centuries by the
Visigoths and Ostrogoths who, like the Huns, continued to ravage the
country. These invasions culminated in the eventual conquest and
settlement by the relatively civilized Slavs in the sixth century.
In A.D. 330 the Emperor Constantine established what was to be
considered a second Rome and named it Constantinople. In this period the
Roman Empire in the Balkans was split into two parts: in the east,
Thrace was once again under Greek domination, and the west was
dominated by the Romans. Constantinople was growing in power, and Greek
influence was eroding the political and cultural influence of the
Romans. By the mid-fourth century Rome and Constantinople were actively
struggling for domination over the Balkans.
In the sixth century A.D. the Slavs crossed the Danube River and
occupied much of the Balkan Peninsula. Although the Byzantines built
fortresses to protect themselves, they were unable to hold the Slavs at
bay. Once the Slavs had taken over most of the Balkan Peninsula, they
succeeded in destroying the existing social system, rapidly replacing it
with their own. Soon the entire Thracian population became slavicized.
In the seventh century A.D. the Bulgars in turn began to migrate into
the Balkans. They had come originally from central Asia and were said to
be related to the Huns. They were of the same stock as the Turks and
spoke a language similar to Turkish. Before migrating to the Balkans,
they had lived north of the Black Sea. Their social order was vastly
different from that of the Slavs, although eventually the Slavic system
became dominant. The Bulgars, unlike the Slavs who repudiated the
concept of kingship, were governed autocratically by khans. The Bulgars
were warriors who fought on horseback, and their customs and dress were
Asiatic.
When the Bulgars overran what is now northeastern Bulgaria, they found
Slavic tribes already established and quickly made peace with them in
order to strengthen themselves against the Byzantines. As the Slavs were
far more numerous than the Bulgars, the latter were assimilated, and
within two centuries the Bulgars had been completely slavicized. The
Slavic language and culture were adopted, although the Bulgarian name
and political structure were retained. A Slav-Bulgarian state was formed
with the capital at Pliska.
The First Bulgarian Kingdom lasted from A.D. 679 to A.D. 1018, when it
fell to Byzantium. During this period the social system resembled the
feudal system of Western Europe. The king, or tsar, was the leading
nobleman. As the political situation of the period varied, he was
alternately supported or opposed by the boyars (large landowners). The
great majority of the people were serfs.
During the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. the Bulgarians consolidated
and further reinforced their power. By the ninth century they were so
powerful that they challenged the Byzantine Empire itself. Twice in this
period the Bulgarians controlled areas of Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia,
Romania, and even Russia. In a battle in 811 the Bulgars completely
devastated the Byzantine army that had invaded their country; killed the
Byzantine emperor, Nicephorus; and went on to lay siege to
Constantinople itself. The siege failed, but Bulgaria had established
itself as a power with which to be reckoned.
During the ninth century A.D. Bulgaria once again became the focus of
Greek and Roman cultural and political rivalry. The dispute was finally
terminated when Bulgaria, under King Boris I, accepted Christianity
from Constantinople rather than from Rome. As early as 836 the Byzantine
Empire had sent two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, to convert the Slavs.
When the brothers were in Venice, they argued in favor of church
services and literature in the Slavic language, opposing the Roman
bishops who believed that only Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were suitable
languages for worship. This dialogue further exacerbated the tensions
between Byzantium and Rome. By 870 Boris made Orthodox Christianity the
official religion of the state. At this juncture Bulgaria fell under the
Byzantine sphere of influence, completing--for the moment--its break
with the Roman religion and culture.
The influence of Cyril and Methodius upon the Bulgarian language and
culture is incalculable. They not only carried a new liturgical form to
Bulgaria but also devised a new alphabet known as Cyrillic. This new
alphabet soon replaced Latin and Greek as the only form of writing, and
on its base a new Slavic literature and culture grew up.
When Bulgaria adopted Christianity from Byzantium, it also adopted
Byzantium's territorial ambitions. Under Tsar Simeon (A.D. 893-927), a
period known as the Golden Age, Bulgaria extended its territories from
the Black Sea in the east to the southern Carpathian Mountains in the
north, to the Sava River in the west, and to Macedonia in the southwest.
It was in this period that Bulgaria reached the peak of its territorial
expansion, penetrating deep into the Byzantine Empire. Macedonia and
Albania became Bulgaria's new frontiers; in 924 Serbia fell under
Bulgarian rule. With these victories Simeon claimed the title tsar of
all the Bulgarians and the Greeks.
With the territorial expansion came a domestic flourishing in the arts
and an increase in trade. The arts and architecture of the period were
significant for their beauty and vitality. Preslav, then the capital
city, became the center of culture. Crafts, such as goldsmithing,
pottery, stonemasonry, and blacksmithing grew, and shops sprang up
everywhere. At the same time literature flourished, and education and
scholarship took on a new importance. Knowledge of Slavic literature
became widespread, and writers treated such varied topics as religion,
grammar, logic, and patriotism.
By the end of the tenth century A.D., however, the First Bulgarian
Kingdom was beginning to decline. Internally, the local population was
weary from continual warring and from the oppression of feudalism. The
boyars continued to struggle against the king and his council for their
own autonomy. Because of the internal weakness of the country,
Bulgaria's neighbors began to encroach on her borders. The Magyars
(Hungarians) attacked from the northwest, seizing territory north of the
Danube River. The Byzantines in 967 formed an alliance with the prince
of Kiev in Russia and, because of this alliance, succeeded in invading
Bulgaria repeatedly.
In the late tenth century there was a brief revival of Bulgarian power
under Samuel, when the Bulgarians succeeded in liberating the
northeastern sector of the country from Byzantine control and captured
southern Macedonia. But the revival was short lived. The Byzantine
emperor, Basil II, was determined to regain his lost land and once again
recaptured the northeastern sector. In 1014 Basil again invaded
Bulgaria; defeated Samuel's army; and, in an act of matchless cruelty,
blinded 14,000 Bulgarian soldiers. From 1018 until 1185 all of Bulgaria
was under Byzantine rule.
The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed a period of extreme
hardship for the country. Byzantine domination was harsh and punitive.
Monetary taxes, which added to the already heavy burdens of the
peasantry, were levied in 1040. Bulgarian feudalism was replaced by
Byzantine feudalism. The Byzantine church itself was a vehicle of
oppression as it was later to become under Turkish rule; the church
owned entire estates and villages and the people who inhabited them.
There were a series of revolts during the eleventh century, but none
were successful in overthrowing Byzantine tyranny. During this period
the first and second crusades made their way through the Balkan
Peninsula, wreaking havoc among the local populations.
The Second Bulgarian Kingdom was established in 1186 and lasted until
1396, when--like the First Bulgarian Kingdom--it was conquered by a
powerful enemy and neighbor. Ironically, history came full circle to
spell defeat for the Bulgarians. In the twelfth century, when the
Byzantine Empire was declining because of internal weakness, the
Bulgarians were able to free themselves from domination. In the
fourteenth century, when Bulgaria itself was weakened by domestic
strife, it was conquered by an enemy whose oppression was greater than
that of the Byzantine Empire: the Ottoman Turks.
At the close of the twelfth century the internal situation in Bulgaria
was deteriorating. Taxes had been increased, and the burden borne by the
peasants became still heavier. The feudal lords openly began to proclaim
their independence from Byzantium, whose empire was by now steadily
declining. Bulgaria was surrounded by its enemies: the Ottoman Turks,
the Magyars, and the Normans. In 1183 the Magyars invaded, penetrating
as far as Sofia. Realizing the vulnerability of the Byzantine Empire,
the Bulgarians rebelled under the leadership of two brothers, Asen and
Peter. The brothers first liberated northeastern Bulgaria and then
proceeded into Thrace, where they were opposed by Isaac Angel, then
emperor of Byzantium. In 1187 a peace treaty was concluded in which
Byzantium conceded autonomy to Bulgaria.
Despite the peace treaty, however, the Bulgarians continued to wage war
against the empire, hoping to regain northern Bulgaria and Macedonia--a
contested territory and bitterly disputed issue throughout Bulgarian
history. In 1201 the empire again concluded a peace treaty with the
Bulgarians, ceding all of northern Bulgaria and a large part of
Macedonia. Eventually, in 1207 Constantinople recognized the complete
independence of Bulgaria, and Bulgarian freedom was firmly established.
This new-found independence, however, did not extend to the Bulgarian
church, which was still under the aegis of the empire. For that reason
Kaloyan, the Bulgarian ruler, negotiated with the Roman pope, Innocent
III, in order to ally the Bulgarian church with the church of Rome. The
motives of Rome and those of Kaloyan were similar: to isolate the
influence of Byzantium from Bulgaria. In 1204 Kaloyan was crowned king
by the papal nuncio in Turnovo. Although this union lasted only briefly,
it served the purpose for which it was designed, and Bulgaria was
effectively cut off from Byzantium.
During the thirteenth century the Holy Roman Empire replaced the
Byzantine Empire on the borders of Bulgaria, and Byzantine aggression
was replaced by that of the Holy Roman Empire. When Rome declared war on
Bulgaria, the Bulgarians invaded Thrace, defeating the crusaders at
Adrianople in 1205. The reestablishment of the Bulgarian patriarchate in
1235 represented the end of the short-lived alliance between the
Bulgarian church and Rome.
Under the reign of Ivan Asen II in the mid-thirteenth century peace was
again restored, and the country once more extended its territories. The
Bulgarians succeeded in capturing eastern Thrace, the Aegean coast,
Albania, and Macedonia. Bulgarian territory at this time was as great as
under the reign of Tsar Simeon; with these conquests Bulgaria became the
largest state in the Balkans. The country was now surrounded by three
seas--the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, and the Adriatic Sea--opening the
country's doors to foreign trade and culture.
Again, as in the time of Simeon, the arts and cultural life of the
country flourished. Monasteries, churches, and fortresses were
constructed. Religious literature and art achieved a high level of
excellence, and secular works became popular. The first chronicle of
Bulgarian history was written, and an interest in history grew among the
people. The first Bulgarian coins were minted at this time. Trade,
particularly with Italy, increased greatly because of Bulgaria's free
access to the sea. Merchants and ambassadors came to Bulgaria from
abroad, lending their influence to Bulgaria's economic and cultural
life.
By the second half of the thirteenth century, however, internal
conditions in the country had deteriorated. The feudal system, which had
been further consolidated during the thirteenth century, had exacerbated
the tensions of the peasants, and hostilities among the boyars
increased. The throne was contested between 1257 and 1277 and was
eventually taken forcibly by Ivailo, known as the swineherd tsar because
of his leadership of a peasant uprising in 1277.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria's neighbors again sensed an opportune time to attack
because of the internal divisions in the country. The Byzantines
conquered several parts of Macedonia and Thrace, and the Hungarians and
Tatars invaded on another front. At one point the Hungarian king
declared himself king of Bulgaria. In 1242 there was a large-scale
Mongol invasion. Tatar raids went on continually between 1241 and 1300.
The country was totally fragmented; each separate area attempted to ally
itself with its former enemies, whether Russian, Hungarian, or Tatar, in
order to prevent widespread damage.
By the fourteenth century the Turks began to envision the conquest of
Bulgaria. Internally the boyars continued to fight among themselves, and
externally the country was threatened alternately by Byzantium and by
Serbia. By the mid-fourteenth century all of Macedonia was under Serbian
control, and the Serbian tsar--much like the Hungarian king before
him--called himself the tsar of the Bulgars. The area of the country
retained by the Bulgars by this time was divided into three parts: the
last Bulgarian tsar maintained his capital at Turnovo in the central
highlands; the so-called Vidin Kingdom, ruled by the tsar's brother,
existed in the far northwest; and a principality of Dobrudzha was
established in the northeast.
At the same time the Ottoman Turks were beginning to advance. Having
seized areas of Asia Minor, they proceeded to raid the Balkans from 1326
to 1352. Under their leader, Murad I, they began to attack Thrace,
Macedonia, and parts of Bulgaria. By 1371 they were attacking
territories in northeastern Thrace. At this point they marched against
Sofia and, despite active resistance, succeeded in capturing it. Despite
an alliance with the Serbs, the Bulgarians were too weak to resist
further; in 1388 the Turks easily won a battle against the Serbs. The
fall of Turnovo was followed by the fall of Vidin and Dobrudzha. By 1396
all of Bulgaria was under Turkish domination.
TURKISH RULE
The Second Bulgarian Kingdom, like the first, had ended in total defeat,
and the darkest period in Bulgarian history began with the Turkish
conquest. Only the priests of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church--despite its
takeover by the Greeks--were able to preserve Bulgarian national
literature and culture to some degree. The Bulgarians once again were
subjected to foreign domination, only this time foreign rule lasted for
five centuries. Historians agree that Turkish rule was a death blow to
the creative forces that had been responsible for the development of the
country to that time. With Turkish domination the normal economic,
political, and social life of Bulgaria ground to a halt.
The Ottoman Turks were at a far lower stage of social development than
either the Byzantine Empire, which preceded them in their occupation of
the Balkans, or the Balkan states themselves. The Turks lived an almost
nomadic life in primitive communal systems that were headed by tribal
chiefs. When the Turks occupied Bulgaria, they replaced the established
feudal system with their own more rudimentary and conservative
feudalism. Many boyars were executed or rendered powerless if they
failed to convert to Islam. The peasants were more completely under the
feudal yoke than they had ever been under Byzantine rule. The Turks
imposed heavy taxes and hard labor on the people of the conquered
country, whom they considered cattle. Young boys were taken from their
homes, proclaimed Muslims, and conscripted into the army.
The Turks ruled Bulgaria by means of a sharply delineated administrative
system. Bulgaria as an entity did not exist for the Turks; the entire
Balkan Peninsula was known as Rumili (Rumelia) and was ruled for the
sultan by a _beylerbey_ (governor general) whose headquarters was
located in Sofia. Rumili was divided into _vilayetlar_ (sing.,
_vilayet_), which were further subdivided into _sanjaklar_ (sing.,
_sanjak_), each in turn ruled by lesser officials. Bulgaria itself was
divided into five _sanjaklar_: Kyustendil, Nikopol, Silistra, Sofia, and
Vidin. Although all land was considered to be the property of the
sultan, on the local level the land was distributed to feudal lords and
was tilled by non-Muslim serfs.
A second vehicle for both administration and oppression that the Turks
employed--in addition to the land administrators--was the Greek Orthodox
Church. By 1394, before the final conquest, the See of Turnovo had been
subordinated to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, where it remained
until 1870. Greek bishops replaced Bulgarians, as Greek liturgy replaced
the Slavic. The patriarchate, in turn, was totally subordinate to the
sultan. The Greek clergy destroyed Bulgarian books and banned Slavic
liturgy. The Bulgarian language and all Slavic literature were
forbidden. Greek became the language in all schools.
The hellenization of the Bulgarian church was used by the Turks as a
means to negate the nationalism of the people and thus dominate them.
The Turks attempted to some extent to convert the Bulgarians to Islam in
order to assimilate them more fully. Although many Bulgarians fled to
the mountains with the coming of the Turks, others stayed on and
accepted the Muslim faith, often for purely opportunistic purposes.
Those who did were generally placed in strategically significant
positions; frequently, as a reward for their conversion, they paid no
taxes to the state. The Bulgarian converts to Islam were called Pomaks
(see ch. 4).
The plight of the peasants grew worse. Agricultural production dropped
as their exploitation continued. Although landowners were not persecuted
to the same degree as the peasantry, they were frequently displaced from
the land. Turkish cattle breeders entered the country to settle on their
lands. Lands were also taken to reward army commanders, provincial
governors, and knights in the service of the sultan. Still other lands
were given to immigrant Turkish peasants. The only food that was not
subject to requisition by the conquerors was pork, which was not allowed
in the Muslim diet.
As the life of the Bulgarian countryside declined, so too did urban
life. Bulgarians were expelled from most urban centers and replaced by
Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Turks. By the end of the sixteenth century
two-thirds of Sofia's population was Turkish. Trade was virtually halted
for a time, and, when resumed, it also was dominated by Greeks,
Armenians, and Jews rather than Bulgarians. The towns themselves were in
a state of deterioration. The crafts had declined, economic life was
stagnant, and the Black Sea was closed to all foreign ships.
As life within Bulgaria declined, the Turks began to perceive the
country as a springboard for further aggression against other
territories. Although Bulgarian hopes rose briefly when it appeared that
the Turks might be destroyed by their enemies, such hopes eventually
were dashed when the Turks emerged victorious throughout a period of two
centuries of conquest and aggression.
In the early years of Turkish domination, the Turks waged continuous war
with Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, and what remained of
the Byzantine Empire. Bulgarian hopes of liberation were fueled by the
Turkish defeat at the Battle of Ankara in 1402, when the Turkish army
was defeated by the Tatars. Resistance was eventually crushed, however,
and the Turks began to renew their conquests after capturing Salonica in
1430. In the Battle of Varna the Turks succeeded in capturing
Constantinople itself.
After the defeat of Constantinople the Turks overran Serbia, Wallachia,
Bosnia, and Albania. Their conquests expanded to include Mesopotamia,
Syria, Arabia, and North Africa. In the sixteenth century Turkish
conquests continued under Suleiman the Magnificent, who succeeded in
capturing Serbia and Hungary in 1526. This triumphant expansion of the
Turkish state caused Bulgarian dreams to be destroyed, although sporadic
struggling within the country continued intermittently.
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the first seeds of real
resistance to Turkish rule were planted in Bulgaria. On the foreign
front the Turks were constantly besieged by the Austrians and the
Russians. By 1683 the Austrian army succeeded in liberating Hungary and
Transylvania; they also were able to penetrate areas of Bulgaria and
Macedonia. These victories over the Turks again sparked Bulgarian hopes.
During the same period the internal situation in Bulgaria continued to
signal the eventual decline of Turkish power and the rise of a Bulgarian
national spirit. Because of the increase in corruption and oppression by
the Turks, the Bulgarians began to rebel openly. In the 1590s, the
1680s, and the 1730s significant local uprisings took place. Although
these rebellions were not successful, they gave rise to the _haiduk_
(forest outlaw) movement, which continued to carry out acts of rebellion
against the Turkish overlords. The people praised their acts of daring
and wrote folk songs detailing their adventures and exploits. In
addition to the revolutionaries the _chorbadzhi_ (squires), who were on
the whole a progressive force, were able to gain some concessions from
the Turks.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this latent nationalism grew
swiftly under the influence of outside forces penetrating the country.
The French Revolution--with its democratic ideals--had a widespread and
vital impact on Bulgarian national sentiment. Western concepts and
standards penetrated the country mainly by means of trade, an activity
that Bulgarian traders realized could only be expanded when Turkish rule
was terminated. In addition Bulgarian students studying in foreign
universities as well as Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries
brought back tales of Western life and ideals. At the same time,
currents of Russian revolutionary thought, as well as contact with
Polish refugees from the revolution of 1848, were sweeping Bulgaria. All
these factors coalesced and spurred the rising tide of nationalism
within the country.
During this period of the so-called Bulgarian National Revival, a
cultural rebirth--which also stirred Bulgarian national sentiment--took
place on the national scene. In 1762 Father Paisi, a Macedonian monk,
wrote a treatise called _The Slav-Bulgarian History_ that appealed to
Bulgarians to recognize their national culture and to fight for their
own land and beliefs. Although the book was not published until after
his death, Father Paisi spread his credo by preaching his ideas in small
villages and towns. His message carried weight with many Bulgarians, and
his idealism promoted many to become politically active against their
Turkish oppressors.
The Turks, during this period of growing Bulgarian nationalism,
attempted to recoup their losses by effecting some moderate reforms.
Although most of these acts came too late, they did succeed in enacting
administrative, social, and financial legislation that improved the lot
of the Bulgarians. Native leaders were consulted by their Turkish
overseers, and in one case a Bulgarian governor was appointed.
Provincial assemblies began to meet on a regular basis, and by 1876 it
was determined by the Turks that some degree of self-rule should be
granted the Bulgarians.
The Turks were by this period in an inevitable decline. Although Turkish
rule extended over parts of three continents, the Turks continued to
expand their conquests. Military expenses became a staggering burden.
The Turkish economy was in an unfavorable position, and the Turks were
beginning to lose battles to increasingly well trained European armies.
The original Spartan life-style of the sultans and army officers was
becoming one of luxury and indulgence. All the signals for the fall of
the Turks were in evidence.
As the movement toward national revolution grew up in the mid-nineteenth
century in Bulgaria, an ideological schism separated the movement into
two schools. The "moderates," led by a Bulgarian group in
Constantinople, favored negotiations with the Turks. The "radicals" felt
that such an approach would lead to inevitable failure. Although the
radicals turned to the West--France, Great Britain, Italy, and
Switzerland--for models of revolution and to Russia for practical
assistance in freeing Bulgaria from the Turks, in fact they hoped to
free the country from all foreign domination. Ironically, in light of
Bulgaria's later history, one radical leader wrote, "If Russia comes to
liberate, she will be met with great sympathy, but if she comes to rule,
she will find many enemies."
The leaders of the radicals were Georgi Rakovsky and Vasil Levski.
Rakovsky continued for twenty-five years to organize armed detachments
along the borders of neighboring countries. Levski, for his part,
realized that a social revolution as well as a national revolution was
imperative for the true liberation of the Bulgarian people. He worked
sub rosa in Bulgarian villages and organized a network of committees for
the revolution, known as the Internal Secret Revolutionary Organization.
In 1873 he was captured by the Turks and hanged.
By the early 1870s the seeds of revolution were sown as Bulgarians won
some political victories over their conquerors. In 1870, primarily
because of the activity of the Bulgarian priests, the Bulgarian Orthodox
Church was reestablished. Although the Bulgarian clergy was in large
part responsible for this action, it was probably tolerated by the Turks
because of their anger with the Greeks, who were then embroiled in a
revolt in Crete. In 1872 the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee
was formed in Bucharest; by 1875 this group became active in the
uprisings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, uprisings that were not easily
quelled by the Turks.
As Bulgarian revolutionary sentiments grew, the Bulgarians turned to
Russia to help win freedom from the Turks. Although the motives of the
Russians and the Bulgarians were not identical, both wanted to rid the
Balkans of Turkish oppression. The Russians perceived the Ottoman Empire
as a very dangerous rival that they hoped to annihilate, thus gaining
control of Western European trade. The Bulgarians, although their
motives were also pragmatic, felt a deep sense of kinship with the
Russian people. The Russians, like the Bulgarians, were Slavs. Their
religion was identical. Even their language was similar. Thus, they
sensed a commonality not only of interests but also of cultures.
The precursor to the liberation in 1878 was an unsuccessful uprising in
1876. The Bulgarians, at this point, were ill prepared for war,
politically and strategically. Thousands of Bulgarians were killed in
April of that year. Soon thereafter Turkish reprisals followed. Fifteen
thousand Bulgarians were massacred in Plovdiv alone. The savagery of
these reprisals was so brutal that Western public leaders spoke out in
protest. The governments of the West, however, fearing an increased
Russian penetration in the area, refused to act against the Turks.
Although the revolution of 1876 had met with failure, it had succeeded
in loosening the Turkish grip on the country and in increasing the
feeling of the Russians that the time to attack was imminent. Finally,
after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, the Russians invaded Bulgaria,
liquidating the Turkish army by March 1878. In these battles for
Bulgarian liberation, the Russians lost over 200,000 lives, a sacrifice
the Bulgarians never failed to recognize.
The results of 1878 were mixed, and the outcome of the original peace
treaty was reversed within five months of its signing. Bulgaria became
an autonomous tributary of the Turkish sultan; complete independence was
not established until 1908. The original peace treaty, the Treaty of San
Stefano, signed on March 3, 1878, granted Bulgaria additional
territories, including Thrace and the much-valued Macedonia. This treaty
was reversed, primarily because of Western fear of Russian encroachment,
by the Congress of Berlin; the Treaty of Berlin, signed on July 13,
1878, unlike the Treaty of San Stefano, delimited Bulgarian territories.
The Bulgarians were forced to give Thrace and Macedonia back to the
Turks. Bulgaria itself was carved into two separate entities: the
principality of Bulgaria, including northern Bulgaria and Sofia, and
eastern Rumelia, or southern Bulgaria.
LIBERATION AND ITS AFTERMATH
Although the 1877-78 war freed Bulgaria from Turkish rule, the outcome
of the Congress of Berlin once again denied to Bulgaria the land that it
perceived to be rightfully Bulgarian, thus setting the tone for an
irredentist foreign policy that lasted through World War II. Because the
West, particularly Great Britain, played a significant role in carving
up the Balkans, and Bulgaria in particular, in hopes of curbing Russian
power, many historians speculate that Bulgaria's alliances with Germany
in both World War I and World War II were products of irredentist
sentiment that grew out of the Treaty of Berlin.
Bulgaria moved to recapture its lost territory only seven years after
the Treaty of Berlin. In 1885 it annexed eastern Rumelia--or southern
Bulgaria--by means of a military coup. The British were in favor of the
annexation as it represented an obstacle to Russian ambitions in the
Balkans; the Russians quite naturally were disturbed by the act. This
was the first in a series of Bulgarian moves designed to reestablish
earlier boundaries.
The establishment of a Bulgarian government in 1878 was relatively
easily accomplished, and that government achieved a certain degree of
stability in the aftermath of Turkish rule. The Turnovo Constitution
(1879)--originally drafted by the Russians but rewritten by
Bulgarians--established an essentially advanced and democratic system.
It set up a unicameral parliament, which was to be elected on the basis
of universal suffrage; the parliament was to control the executive. The
monarchy, which lasted from the 1880s until World War II, was
established at this time under a Germany dynasty that was acceptable to
the European powers. Although the first prince was forced to abdicate by
the Russians, his successor established firm and advanced economic and
administrative institutions in the country. Eventually, because of a
crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country was able to declare itself
an independent kingdom in 1908.
One historian has described the postliberation period as the "only
prolonged period of peaceful development" for Bulgaria. After the
liberation, land rose in value. Peasants were able to purchase land from
the Turks, and agricultural production rose markedly. Modern industry
grew up at a relatively rapid pace, although the country remained
primarily agrarian. The state began to take steps in education and
culture. All levels of education were expanded; students of higher
education studied both in Bulgaria and abroad; and illiteracy, which was
overwhelming at the period of liberation, was reduced to 76 percent by
1900 and to 54 percent by 1920. Science and the arts were actively
encouraged, and literature flourished once again.
Financial burdens, however, escalated rapidly between 1886 and 1911. In
1911 the national debt was actually more than three times the size of
the national budget. At the same time, as industry increased, two
antagonistic groups developed: the urban middle class--composed of
merchants and white-collar workers--and the poor, who were generally
laborers or peasants. Working conditions in factories were nearly
intolerable, causing factory workers to interest themselves in the cause
of socialism, while on the farms the peasants began to organize a
movement known as the Bulgarian Agrarian Union (also called the Agrarian
Party), which was designed to offset the growing power of the urban
groups. In 1891 the Social Democratic Party was established; this party
later formed the base of the communist party in Bulgaria.
The Macedonian Issue
By the early twentieth century the country was once again embroiled in
war; the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 impeded economic and social
development in the country. Once again, as in the case of eastern
Rumelia, irredentism was the Bulgarian motive for war. Both eastern
Thrace and Macedonia, the lands ceded to Bulgaria by the Treaty of San
Stefano, were still under Turkish rule. The lands had not only large
Bulgarian populations but also strategic and economic significance.
Macedonia, more than Thrace, was of extreme importance to Bulgaria;
Bulgarians believed the population of Macedonia to be composed almost
exclusively of Bulgarians. The issue of Macedonia was, in fact, a focal
point around which Bulgarian political life revolved after 1878, because
that issue was seen by the Bulgarians as involving the territorial
integrity of their nation.
Between the tenth and fourteenth centuries Macedonia was alternately
occupied by the Bulgarians, the Serbs, and the Turks. At the time of
liberation Macedonia was ceded to the Bulgarians by the Treaty of San
Stefano, only to be returned to the Turks by the Treaty of Berlin. In
1893 the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was
founded. This terrorist organization, with the battle slogan "Liberty or
Death for Macedonia," fought a continual underground war of terrorism
against the Turks. In 1903 there was a major Macedonian uprising in
which two factions participated. Although the predominant faction
favored Bulgarian annexation of Macedonia, another group favored
complete autonomy for Macedonia. In 1908, when King Ferdinand proclaimed
Bulgaria completely independent, memories of the medieval Bulgarian
empire, which included Macedonia, were rekindled.
The Balkan Wars
The tumultuous history of Macedonia set the stage for the two Balkan
wars. In 1912, at the onset of the First Balkan War, Serbia, Bulgaria,
Montenegro, and Greece formed an alliance to drive the Turks from
Europe. Turkey, who was at war with Italy at the time, was weak and
disunited. Macedonia and Thrace were hotbeds of internal disorder. In
October 1912 Turkey declared war on Serbia and Bulgaria, a move that was
countered by a Greek declaration of war on Turkey. In 1913 the
Bulgarians succeeded in capturing Adrianople, and the Greeks captured
Salonica, Crete, and Samos. Eventually, the Turks were badly defeated.
But the question of Macedonia remained. Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria all
laid claim to the land at the end of the first Balkan War. Eventually a
compromise was reached: the northern section went to Serbia and the
eastern section, to Bulgaria.
Despite this compromise, the Serbs and Greeks remained wary of the
Bulgarians. In 1913 the Second Balkan War began, the Greeks,
Montenegrins, Serbs, and Romanians joining forces with their previous
enemy, the Turks, against their former ally, the Bulgarians. This
rivalry had been fostered by both Austria and Russia. Eventually, the
Bulgarians turned to the Russians for arbitration and finally signed a
mutual defense treaty with Russia. When the Romanians crossed into
Bulgaria, the Bulgarians--who were simultaneously fighting in Macedonia
and were therefore weakened by fighting on two fronts--were forced to
surrender. As a result of this loss, when the peace treaty of Bucharest
was signed in August 1913 and Macedonia was partitioned between Greece
and Serbia, Bulgaria managed to retain only a tiny fragment in the
eastern sector.
Macedonia, however, remained an issue for Bulgaria. In World War I
Bulgaria succeeded in invading Macedonia. During the interwar period
Macedonia was divided between Greece, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia,
Yugoslavia retaining the largest portion of the land. In the 1923-34
period Macedonian terrorism plagued the country and wreaked havoc on
Bulgarian political and social life. During World War II the Bulgarians
invaded both Greek Macedonia and Yugoslav Macedonia once again. Although
the Macedonians themselves were divided in their sentiments between
loyalties to Greeks, Yugoslavs, and Bulgarians, the land eventually
reverted to Yugoslavia during World War II. As an issue, however, it
still burns in the minds of the Bulgarians. The Macedonian question has
been aptly referred to as "that eternal Balkan sore spot of rival
nationalism."
WORLD WAR I
As was the case in the Balkan wars, Bulgaria's primary motivation for
engagement in World War I was irredentism. Again the country was
determined to regain the two lands that had escaped her grasp in the
past: Macedonia and Thrace. Although Macedonia was prized for political
and social reasons, Thrace represented a strategically more significant
objective. In order to develop foreign trade, Bulgaria required an
outlet to the sea; Thrace represented that outlet.
The domestic situation in the country before World War I was mixed.
Although Bulgaria's army had been demobilized at the end of the Second
Balkan War (1913) and economic conditions were rapidly improving, the
mood of the monarchy and the middle class was one of vindictiveness and
retaliation against those countries that had stripped Bulgaria of its
territories. The country became divided between those who wanted closer
relations with Russia and the Triple Entente and those who preferred an
alliance with the Central Powers. As the war neared, the struggle
between these camps intensified.
Bulgaria, of all the Balkan states, was the only one to join the Central
Powers, led by Germany and Austria, in World War I. It was deeply ironic
that Bulgaria chose to side with her former enemy and oppressor, Turkey,
and against her former friend and protector, Russia. Again, the issue
for Bulgaria was the Macedonian question. Serbia and Greece, which had
triumphed over Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War, were allied with the
entente powers. Bulgaria chose to fight against these enemies in order
to regain Macedonia. Although the entente powers hoped to woo Bulgaria
to their side, they refused--because of Serb and Greek pressures--to
cede Macedonia to Bulgaria. The Central Powers, on the other hand, who
were already at war with Serbia, were willing to promise Macedonia to
the Bulgarians in exchange for their collaboration.
In the early stages of the war Germany won victories in France and on
the eastern front. Although the government then ruling Bulgaria was
already inclined to join the Central Powers, these early successes made
German promises even more appealing. In August 1915 a secret treaty of
alliance was signed by Bulgaria and Germany, containing a clause that
promised Serbian, Greek, and Romanian territories to the Bulgarians.
Thus the quadripartite alliance was born, composed of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria.
By September 1915 Bulgarian troops were mobilized and began to deploy
along the borders of Greece and Serbia. On October 1, 1915, Bulgaria
declared war on Serbia and, with the assistance of Austrian and German
troops, succeeded in defeating the Serbian army. At the same time the
Bulgarian army began to advance on Macedonia. There the local
population, a proportion of which was openly sympathetic to Bulgarian
aspirations, joined in the fighting on the side of the Bulgarians.
Although the Bulgarian army attempted to drive the entente forces from
southern Macedonia, it met with failure. This defeat was followed by a
period of prolonged trench warfare on the Balkan front. By 1916 Bulgaria
was also at war with Romania and, with the help of German and Austrian
units, managed a victory over the Romanians.
While the war dragged on, the internal political situation was rapidly
deteriorating. The country was in a state of economic chaos, and the
living conditions of laborers and peasants continued to decline. Farm
production dropped quickly, resulting in famine and soaring prices.
These dire conditions gave a strong impetus to the growing antiwar
movement in the country. The movement was headed by the left-wing
Socialists, who attempted to correlate the antiwar movement with
socialist propaganda. The Russian Revolution of 1917 stirred some
elements of the Bulgarian population who, like the Russian people, felt
that their government failed to represent their interests and was
unresponsive to their needs. There were open revolts in the towns and
villages; underground activities were growing within the Bulgarian army
itself.
By 1918 Bulgaria and the Central Powers were defeated, leaving Bulgaria
in a worse position than before the war. Hopes of regaining Thrace and
Macedonia were dashed, and the country was immeasurably weakened by
external fighting and internal division. The people were frustrated and
bitter. Although the war had stimulated Bulgaria's industry--there were
345 industrial enterprises in 1911 and 1,404 in 1924--it had been costly
in other respects. Bulgaria was forced to pay both reparations and
payments for the allied occupation that followed. Taxes rose, and the
value of the currency declined. As a result, King Ferdinand was forced
to abdicate in 1918, shortly before the armistice was signed.
The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine was signed on November 27, 1919, ending
Bulgaria's role in the war and establishing her boundaries. Once more
Bulgaria had entered a war on the losing side, and once more its
irredentist ambitions had resulted in no territorial gains. At the end
of the war Bulgaria lost Thrace to Greece--thus failing in her attempts
to gain access to the sea--and a small area in the Rodopi (or Rhodope
Mountains) and a portion of its western frontier to Yugoslavia. As a
result of these losses, Bulgaria was left with a still greater sense of
frustration and hostility toward its Balkan neighbors.
THE INTERWAR YEARS
The period between the first and second world wars was one of political
unrest and Macedonian terrorism. The country was in an almost untenable
economic situation at the close of the war: prices skyrocketed, people
died of starvation, and strikes were almost continuous. Out of this
situation two extreme political groups grew up. On the extreme Right was
a faction of the IMRO, which at that time demanded the annexation of
Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia. On the Left was the Bulgarian Agrarian
Union, the only party at the time more popular than the Communists.
When Ferdinand was forced to abdicate, he was succeeded by his son,
Boris III. Real political power was, however, in the hands of Alexander
Stambolisky, the leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union. He led the
country as its prime minister from 1919 to 1923. When Stambolisky took
power, the peasants formed 80 percent of the population. Stambolisky and
the Bulgarian Agrarian Union were dedicated to improving the lot of
these people; in his words "to raising the standards both economic and
educational, of the desperately poor and depressed peasant class."
Stambolisky, on behalf of the peasant populism movement, made several
sweeping reforms. He instituted various social reforms, spread
education, and built roads. His strong dislike of the commercial and
professional classes in the cities led him toward the objective of a
peasant republic. When in power he instituted tax and land reforms and
radically altered the legal system. His domestic policies were not
popular with all strata of society; his foreign policies were even less
popular. He favored reconciliation with Yugoslavia over the Macedonian
issue. In 1923 he was overthrown by a group composed of IMRO, military,
and other factions and was beheaded.
The murder of Stambolisky was followed by a communist attempt to foment
revolution in the country. The leaders were Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil
Kalarov, later leading figures in the Bulgarian communist state. The
country was in a state of civil war, which was subsequently crushed by
the right-wing political factions of the country. Thousands of
Bulgarians were killed, and Dimitrov and Kalarov were exiled. In 1925
the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary) was officially
outlawed. Although Boris continued as monarch, the country was ruled by
coalition governments and military dictatorships for a decade following
Stambolisky's death.
From 1923 until the putsch of 1934 IMRO terrorism dominated the country.
Bulgaria's position toward Macedonia was clear and unequivocal: it
sought to annex Macedonia completely as it considered the land to be
Bulgarian and the people to be Bulgarians. In the Bulgarian sector of
Macedonia the Macedonians were given a high degree of latitude, some
Macedonians even holding high offices in Bulgaria. In the Yugoslavian
sectors of Macedonia, however, most Macedonians felt oppressed and
restricted. As a result of this mixed status and treatment, there was a
certain ambivalence in Macedonian sentiment, the IMRO terrorists
favoring complete independence and self-rule. Among Macedonian patriots,
two predominant factions grew up. The federalists favored an autonomous
Macedonia--which could, if necessary, be allied with Yugoslavia and
Bulgaria--and the Supremists sought to incorporate Macedonia within
Bulgaria, with aspirations of dominating the entire Balkan area. The
results of these divergent opinions were expressed in acts of violence
and terrorism that wreaked havoc in Bulgaria and eventually culminated
in federalist collaboration with the Ustashi--a group of Croat
separatists--and the murder of King Alexander of Yugoslavia.
Macedonian terrorism was virtually ended by the putsch of 1934. The
government, the People's Bloc, which was a coalition of four parties
including the Bulgarian Agrarian Union was overthrown by the so-called
Zveno--or link--group. The Zveno group was headed by Kimon Georgiev and
was aided by the League of Reserve Officers. As soon as it seized power,
Zveno suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament. The king was
left with only nominal powers. Although the group did succeed for the
most part in ridding the country of Macedonian terrorism, its rule was
overtly authoritarian. By 1935 the king, with the aid of the military,
had regained his power and replaced the Zveno group with a more moderate
government.
With the reestablishment of the monarchy, a royal dictatorship took
power and ruled over Bulgaria until 1943, when Boris died. There were at
this time no forces left to oppose the king, political parties were
negligible, and only a shadow parliament existed. Ironically, the
military, which had aided the Zveno in the overthrow of the king, now
was an instrument of his control.
Foreign relations under Boris III before World War II were leading the
country again inevitably into a war that would bring it to total defeat.
In 1934, despite the suppression of IMRO by the newly formed government,
Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey, as in the Second Balkan War,
were once again wary of Bulgaria's irredentist ambitions. In that year
the four powers signed the Balkan Pact, from which Bulgaria naturally
was excluded, in order to prevent Bulgarian encroachment in the area.
Although Bulgaria and Yugoslavia later established a rapprochement in
1937, the potential of a Bulgarian annexation of Macedonia was still
considered a threat by its neighbors.
During the 1930s, while Bulgaria was viewed with suspicion by its
neighbors, it began to form new friendships with Germany and Italy.
Boris had married the daughter of King Victor Emanuel of Italy, a
country that had already become fascist, thus strengthening ties with
that country. At the same time, Bulgaria began to solidify its ties with
Germany, principally by means of trade. A new-founded prosperity was
based almost exclusively on German trade, an arrangement that eventually
weakened the country. Within a short period German agents were pouring
into the country. Thus, Bulgaria was on one side alienated from its
neighbors and on the other being drawn into the nazi-fascist camp.
WORLD WAR II
Bulgaria's motives for entering World War II were once again based on
irredentism, coupled with almost total economic dependence on Germany.
Once more it hoped to regain the lands of Thrace and Macedonia, which
were lost after the Treaty of San Stefano was reversed by the Congress
of Berlin. The lesson of the two subsequent Balkan wars and World War I
had fallen on deaf ears. Bulgaria was still estranged from its Balkan
neighbors and once more was being courted by the former ally of World
War I, Germany. Germany, again realizing Bulgaria's territorial
aspirations, hoped to bribe the Bulgarian leadership with southern
Dobrudzha, which was eventually ceded to Bulgaria in 1940.
In December 1941 Bulgaria placed herself squarely on the German side by
declaring war on Great Britain and the United States and joining the
Rome-Berlin Axis. This alignment, which derived primarily from
Bulgaria's irredentist policy, was given further force by dislike of the
British, who were held to blame by the Bulgarians for the loss of
Macedonia to Yugoslavia and Greece.
Despite the declaration of war against Great Britain and the United
States, Bulgaria refused throughout World War II to declare war on the
Soviet Union. The Russians, unlike the British and Americans, were
popular with the Bulgarian people. They were still remembered for their
assistance to the Bulgarians in the past and were viewed by the people
as their liberators from Turkish rule. Not only did Bulgaria refuse to
declare war on its former liberator, but it also refused to make its
army available to Adolf Hitler for his eastern campaign. When Germany
declared war on Russia, Bulgaria continued to retain neutrality toward,
and to maintain diplomatic relations with, the Soviet Union.
In the early stages of the war, before Bulgaria had declared war on the
Allies, it had already begun to regain some of the land lost during the
Balkan wars and World War I. Southern Dobrudzha, which had been ceded to
Romania in 1913, reverted to Bulgaria by August 1940. In the spring of
1941, supporting Germany against Yugoslavia and Greece, Bulgaria
regained Macedonia and part of Greek Thrace. When Bulgaria was rewarded
with these lands by the Nazis, Bulgarians perceived their gains as a
"historical national unification." By 1941 Yugoslavia was overrun, and
some of its territories were taken by Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
Italy received Montenegro, Hungary took part of northern Yugoslavia, and
Bulgaria gained, in addition to the much-prized Macedonia, the frontiers
of southeastern Serbia. The Bulgarians at this point were once again
approaching the frontiers that had been established by the Treaty of San
Stefano.
Internally, the country was in relatively good condition during the
early stages of the war. The economy, based primarily on active trade
with the Germans, was booming. The Bulgarian people perceived the
fighting as essentially a "paper war" and were generally apathetic
regarding their role in the war. There was little suffering within
Bulgarian boundaries and little expression of hatred toward Bulgaria's
ostensible enemies. Despite Bulgaria's alliance with the Nazis and
Fascists, within the country Jews were for the most part protected
rather than persecuted.
By 1943, however, the war began to change for the Bulgarians. Slowly the
Allies began to turn back German power. At this time Bulgaria was hit
frequently by British and United States air raids. Because of Bulgaria's
strategic significance and its declaration of war, albeit symbolic,
against Great Britain and the United States, Sofia and other major
Bulgarian cities became targets for American and British bombers. Sofia
was reduced to little more than rubble at one point, and over 30,000
casualties were suffered by the Bulgarians.
In 1943 Boris died and was succeeded by his six-year-old son, Simeon. In
fact, however, a three-man regency retained power, with Ivan Bagrianov
as premier. The regency was less actively pro-Axis in orientation than
was the late king; with its coming to power, thousands of political
prisoners were released from jail, and all persecution of Jews was
terminated.
By 1944, when Germany and its allies were clearly losing the war, the
Bulgarian leaders sought to reverse the earlier decision of the king and
to seek peace with the Allies as well as with the Greek and Yugoslav
governments-in-exile. Despite sub rosa attempts to release itself from
agreements with the Axis, Bulgaria was unable to extricate itself from
the alliance. On August 22, 1944, the Bulgarian government publicly
announced that it was ready for a peace agreement with the Allies.
The war was ended for Bulgaria when, on September 4, 1944, the Soviets,
after taking over Romania, entered Bulgaria. The exact sequence of
events has been interpreted differently by various historians. There are,
however, two major interpretations. One suggests that, once the Soviets
had occupied Romania and declared war on Bulgaria, Bulgaria--under a
hastily formed anti-Axis coalition government--immediately quit the pact
with the Axis and declared war on its former ally, Germany. The other
interpretation posits the theory that, on August 26, the Bulgarian
government had declared itself neutral, thus withdrawing from the war.
At this time it ordered German troops on its soil to disarm. When Soviet
troops arrived in Bulgaria, they found this so-called neutrality
unacceptable and insisted on a Bulgarian declaration of war against
Germany. This declaration was promptly carried out on the eve of the day
that it was requested.
When the Soviets occupied the country in September 1944, the government
of the so-called Fatherland Front (Otechestven Front) seized power from
the existing government within five days of the occupation. On September
9, 1944, the Fatherland Front--under the leadership of Georgiev--officially
took control of the country on what was then termed an interim basis. On
October 28, 1944, an armistice was signed between Bulgaria and the Soviet
Union, which stated that all territories gained by Bulgaria since 1941
would be surrendered. Only southern Dobrudzha, taken from Romania in 1940,
was to be retained. The agreement also established the Allied Control
Commission in Sofia under direct Soviet control.
The results of the war for Bulgaria were mixed. In terms of financial
burdens Bulgaria's position was relatively favorable compared with that
of other countries on the losing side. In terms of territorial losses,
which resulted in a legacy of bitterness and continued irredentism, its
position was poor. As Bulgaria had suffered over 30,000 casualties in
the war, the Allies imposed relatively light peace terms. The Soviet
Union extracted no reparations from Bulgaria, despite the fact that
reparations were demanded from Germany, Hungary, and Romania. Yugoslavia
also canceled Bulgaria's debts. Overall war damages to the country
itself were generally moderate.
In terms of losses, however, Bulgaria not only lost most of the
territories it had regained at the beginning of the war but also
ultimately lost its constitutional monarchy and became a Soviet
satellite. Although it was allowed to retain southern Dobrudzha, all the
territories that were of significance to Bulgaria's sense of nationhood
were gone. Macedonia reverted to Yugoslavia, and Thrace to Greece. The
Treaty of Paris, signed in February 1947, confirmed Bulgaria's pre-1941
boundaries. Not only had Bulgaria lost these prized territories, but her
sovereignty as a nation was severely curtailed by the Soviet military
occupation. Both the armistice agreement of September 1944 and the
British-Soviet agreement of October of that year recognized Soviet
dominance in the country. Although this power over the country was not
expected by the Western powers to endure indefinitely, this illusion was
dispelled as Bulgaria soon succumbed completely to Soviet influence.
THE COMMUNIST STATE
Growth of the Communist Party
In 1891 the Social Democratic Party was founded; the Communist party was
eventually an offshoot of this movement. By 1903 the Social Democrats
had begun to split into what were known as the "broad" and "narrow"
factions. The broad faction retained the ideology of social democracy,
but the narrow faction became the Bulgarian counterpart of the Russian
Bolsheviks; its leader was Dimiter Blagoev, the so-called father of
Bulgarian communism. In 1919 the narrow faction split off from the
Second Socialist International and assumed the name Bulgarian Communist
Party (BKP). Although the party had great prestige abroad, it failed to
enjoy domestic popularity. The most popular party at the time--and that
favored by the peasant class, which was predominant in this
still-agrarian society--was the Bulgarian Agrarian Union. The BKP, on
the other hand, was composed almost exclusively of intellectuals and
students and held little appeal for the working and peasant classes.
In 1923 there was an unsuccessful attempt by the Communists to bring the
country to revolution. When this uprising was quelled, the Communists
turned to terrorism in order to gain their goals, and in 1925 a plot to
assassinate King Boris was formulated. Once again the Communists met
with failure, as the king not only lived but grew more powerful. In the
last half of the 1920s the party faded from the scene, but by the early
1930s it was again revived and grew in popularity.
During the late 1930s the party went underground as the king increased
his power. In 1939 the Communists reappeared and merged with the
left-wing Workers Party; in the 1939 elections the party doubled its
representation and took on an air of greater respectability. In 1941,
while the war was under way, the Communists realized that Bulgaria was
falling into the German camp. Although they were powerless to stop this
alliance, their activity in evoking pro-Soviet sentiment was successful
to the extent that--coupled with the basically favorable sentiments of
the Bulgarian people toward the Russians--it prevented the monarchy from
declaring war against the Soviet Union.
Once the Germans began to invade the Soviet Union itself, the Bulgarian
Communists committed themselves to a policy of armed resistance, known
as the partisan movement. Historians dispute the extent of partisan
activity; some state that it did not become active until the Soviet
victory at Stalingrad in 1943, and others claim that the movement was
active from the onset of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
In 1942, on the initiative of Dimitrov, the Fatherland Front was
established. The organization was essentially a coalition, composed of
members of the Workers Party, the Bulgarian Agrarian Union, the Social
Democratic Party and the BKP. Its purpose was to overthrow Boris and rid
the country of the Germans, simultaneously forming a new government that
could more adequately meet the needs of the workers and the peasants.
In 1943 the National Committee of the Fatherland Front was formed, and
this committee became the vehicle for the communist takeover in 1944. In
the same year the so-called National Liberation Army, composed of
partisans and certain units of the Bulgarian army who had joined forces
with them, was established. In the fall of 1944 there were approximately
18,000 people in the National Liberation Army, augmented by some 200,000
people who sheltered and assisted them.
Before 1944, however, the Communists were still not widely popular. The
apathy of a large portion of the population was due primarily to the
fact that the country had remained relatively untouched by the war; but,
as the country was not actually at war with the Soviet Union, little
rationale was provided to the Soviet-backed Communists in their attempts
to enlist the support of the partisans. The Bulgarian army and police
were active in hunting down the known Communists. All of these factors
precluded the possibility of the country becoming totally committed to
either the communist cause or armed resistance. By 1944, however, when
Soviet troops entered Romania, activity became widespread within
Bulgaria. In August 1944 Romania completely capitulated. By early
September the Soviet Union declared war on the Bulgarian government, an
act more symbolic than real, as Soviet armies met no Bulgarian
resistance. On September 9, 1944, the Fatherland Front was installed,
and the Communists were firmly entrenched in the country.
Development Since World War II
At the time of the Fatherland Front takeover in Bulgaria the Soviets,
with the assistance of the partisans and units of the National
Liberation Army, occupied many Bulgarian towns and cities. It is said
that they were received by the people with gifts of bread and salt, a
traditional Bulgarian gift of welcome (see ch. 7). At the same time, on
the political front, the Soviets and their Bulgarian collaborators took
over the key ministries in the capital city and arrested members of the
government.
The Fatherland Front--a coalition composed at that time of Communists,
members of the left wing of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union, members of the
left wing of the Social Democratic Party, and the Zveno group--was led
by Georgiev as the new premier. Dimitrov and Kalarov returned from
Moscow, where they had been in exile since 1925, to assist the new
government in its takeover. The Communists proceeded to rid the
coalition of certain opposing elements within its ranks. Nikolai Petkov
of the Peasant Union and Kosta Lulchev of the Social Democratic Party
were temporarily retired from the coalition. Large-scale purges were
initiated against German collaborators and sympathizers; many thousands
were either executed or imprisoned by the Communists.
When plans for elections were made in 1945, both Great Britain and the
United States made a strong bid for the holding of popular elections.
Their hopes were temporarily defeated when, on November 18, 1945,
communist-controlled elections were held. The Fatherland Front won a
decided victory, eventually resulting in Georgiev's formal installation
as premier. His tenure in office was brief, and he was quickly succeeded
by Dimitrov. At this point Great Britain and the United States
protested, insisting that the Communists broaden their governmental
base. Thus, although the two leading figures of the BKP, Dimitrov and
Kalarov, were installed eventually as premier and president,
respectively, Petkov and Lulchev were allowed to take over control of
the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice, two vital
organs of the government.
By 1946, however, the Communists had whittled down all opposition. In
July 1946 control over the army had been transferred from noncommunist
members of the ostensible coalition government to exclusively communist
control. At this time 2,000 so-called reactionary army officers were
dismissed. A plebiscite held in September abolished the monarchy,
declared Bulgaria a republic, and gave all power to Dimitrov as premier.
He officially took the title on November 4, 1946, and held it until his
death in 1949. When Dimitrov took power, any opposition that remained
was quickly eliminated. Once the United States had ratified the
Bulgarian Peace Treaty--a moment for which the Communists waited
anxiously in order to rid themselves of all Western control over
Bulgarian affairs of state--Petkov was summarily arrested and executed.
His party, the Peasant Union, had been dissolved one month before his
death.
On December 4, 1947, a new constitution was adopted. It was called,
after the premier, the Dimitrov Constitution and was modeled on the
Soviet Constitution of 1936 (see ch. 8). One historian claims that, at
its first drafting, it closely resembled the Turnovo Constitution of the
late 1800s but was later amended to parallel more closely the
constitution of the Soviet Union. The Dimitrov Constitution created the
National Assembly as a legislative body. In fact, however, laws were
proposed by the Council of Ministers and passed pro forma by the
National Assembly. The constitution was approved by the National
Assembly in 1947. It defined collective ownership of production, stated
that the regime held the power to nationalize any and all enterprises,
and declared that private property was subject to restrictions and
expropriation by the state.
By 1948 the small forces that continued to oppose the Communists were
finally eliminated. Many opposition Socialists and their leader,
Lulchev, were arrested, and the Socialist Party was abolished. The only
remaining Socialist party--the Fatherland Front Socialists--was forced
to merge with the Communists in August 1948. Thus, absolute communist
control was achieved within four years of the seizure of power.
Bulgaria underwent a series of rapid changes in the early years as a
communist state. Agricultural collectivization--initiated in 1946--was
begun in the form of cooperative farming. By the end of 1947
nationalization of banks, industry, and mines was well under way.
Nationalization was not a new phenomenon for the country, as railroads,
ports, and mines had been under state control since 1878, but it was
greatly extended by the Communists (see ch. 13; ch. 14).
Religion was viewed by the Communists as a means for manipulating and
indoctrinating the people, much as it had been during the periods of
Byzantine and Turkish rule. Since its founding in the ninth century, the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church had claimed most of the population as members.
The Communists perceived a dual purpose in their cooptation of this
institution. On the one hand, by patronizing the Bulgarian church, they
believed that they would receive support from its members. On the other
hand, they sought to unify the churches by placing the Bulgarian
Orthodox Church under close control of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Therefore, the regime reestablished the Bulgarian patriarchate; the
patriarch, in turn, required all church members to support governmental
policies.
Minority religions were treated as separate entities, although all of
them had to register with the Committee for Religious Affairs, a body
attached to the Council of Ministers. The leadership of all churches was
considered responsible ultimately to the state. The churches became
financially dependent upon the government as all church funds were in
the hands of the bureaucracy. A certain percentage of Muslims--who
constituted the largest minority religion--were expelled from the
country. Those Muslims who remained were organized into small
communities, and their religious leader, the grand mufti, was allowed to
retain his position as long as he remained subservient to the state.
As far as other minority religions were concerned, their churches were,
for the most part, closed, and their leaders were either harassed or
executed. Roman Catholic churches were closed, the church hierarchy was
abolished, and in 1952 forty leading Catholics were tried and sentenced
to death. The Protestants were allowed slightly more latitude. Although
all Protestant schools were immediately closed, five Protestant
denominations were allowed to merge into the United Evangelical Church.
In 1949, however, fifteen Protestant pastors were executed. Some Jews
were allowed to emigrate to Israel in the early period of communist
rule, but in Bulgaria the grand rabbi, like the Moslem grand mufti, was
rendered completely subordinate to the state.
In 1949 Dimitrov died and was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Vulko
Chervenkov, known as the Stalin of Bulgaria, who controlled the
government from 1950 until 1956. His was a one-man rule, patterned
completely on the rule of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. He was both
the premier and the First Secretary for the six years of his rule. There
was an increase in industrial production under Chervenkov. Production
plans, however, appeared to be conceived more in the light of Soviet
five-year plans than with regard to Bulgaria's economic needs.
Agriculture was almost completely collectivized, although production
goals were not achieved, and the standard of living declined appreciably
under Chervenkov's rule.
In foreign policy Bulgaria under Chervenkov continued to follow the
Soviet example. International communism dominated all Bulgaria's foreign
policies. In the early 1950s Bulgaria supported the abortive communist
uprising in Greece. Chervenkov attempted to rid the country of all
Western influence and severed diplomatic relations with the United
States in 1950. After Chervenkov's term relations were reestablished in
1960 and promoted from legation to embassy status in 1966. Again,
following the example of the Soviet Union, which was then on strained
terms with the nationalistic Yugoslavs, Chervenkov purged 100,000
nationalists from the party and executed Traicho Kostov, the deputy
premier, on the grounds that he was a Titoist. Because of Bulgaria's
antisocial behavior in the world community, the country was excluded
from the United Nations until 1955.
Although Stalin died in 1953, Chervenkov retained his office as premier
until 1956 but held only nominal powers. He was ultimately purged in
1962. Chervenkov, in the post-Stalin period, was openly charged with
supporting the personality cult policies of Stalin. After Stalin's death
there was a degree of political relaxation under a policy known as the
New Course. Police terrorism abated, and there was greater freedom of
movement in the society as a whole. Travel abroad was tolerated to a
greater degree, and an increased interest in the welfare of the people
was manifested. The government actively courted the peasants in order to
win them over to its policy of collectivization. The working classes,
office workers, and even artisans were given more latitude by the
government. On the foreign front, following the example of Nikita
Khrushchev, who sought reconciliation with Tito, and despite Bulgaria's
reluctance over the still-fiery Macedonian issue, Bulgaria made some
efforts at reconciliation with Yugoslavia. In order to establish better
relations both with the Yugoslavs and with the Bulgarian nationalists,
Kostov was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.
In 1954 Chervenkov gave up his title as first secretary of the party,
thus setting a new precedent for separation of party and state posts and
dispelling the concept of one-man rule. Although Chervenkov retained his
title as premier temporarily, Todor Zhivkov became the first secretary.
Shortly thereafter, Chervenkov was replaced as premier by Anton Yugov.
As Zhivkov, despite his backing by Khrushchev, was not firmly in control
of the party, his takeover was followed by widespread purges.
Zhivkov's rule, like that of his predecessor, emulated the Soviet model.
Unlike Chervenkov, however, Zhivkov based his government on the
principle of collective leadership. In the early years of his rule he
based his foreign policy on allegiance to the Soviet Union. He strongly
supported the Soviets in their border conflicts with the People's
Republic of China (PRC). Bulgaria, despite basic sentiments concerning
Macedonia, still attempted to renew its friendship with Yugoslavia,
again following the Khrushchev example.
In 1962 Zhivkov purged the party of both Chervenkov and Yugov and made
himself premier as well as first secretary, thus reestablishing the
principle of unity of rule (see ch. 9). At the same time, this move
increased Zhivkov's control over the party. Internal problems continued
to plague the Zhivkov government. There were, in the 1960s, severe
shortages of food, housing, and consumer goods.
Bulgaria's foreign policy under Zhivkov, however, continued on an even,
strongly Soviet, keel. Bulgaria's foreign policy has been assessed by
some observers as "a carbon copy of Moscow's." Bulgaria was, and is,
considered to be the most reliable partner of the Soviet Union in the
Balkans. In contrast, Albania has supported the PRC, Romania has pressed
its case for independence, and Yugoslavia has essentially followed a
nationalistic policy.
Bulgaria's relations with Greece, which had been basically negative for
twenty years, became more positive in 1964 when trade, air traffic,
communications, and tourist agreements were signed. Because of the issue
of Macedonia, relations with Yugoslavia were, for the most part, cool,
although Zhivkov attempted to improve them from time to time. Relations
with the United States remained cool but correct.
In 1965, shortly after Khrushchev's ouster in the Soviet Union, there
was an attempted coup against Zhivkov. The government tried in vain to
silence the story but, when pressed, stated that the conspirators in the
plot were Maoists, alienated by Bulgaria's anti-PRC policies. As the
coup was attempted only five months after Khrushchev's removal from
office, Zhivkov--whose power had been based to a large extent on
Khrushchev's support--was in a highly vulnerable position. For this
reason many attributed the conspiracy to those opposed to Zhivkov's
government itself and particularly those opposed to its subservience to
the Soviet Union. The conspirators included Bulgarian Communists, army
officers, and World War II partisans. The discovery of this plot
resulted in purges, the suicide of one of the leading conspirators, and
the reorganization of the Ministry of the Interior and the transfer of
its security functions to the new Committee of State Security, which
fell directly under Zhivkov's personal control.