1941: Bulgaria

Within the Axis Orbit.

Bulgaria aligned herself fully during 1941 with Germany and the Axis powers, and in the wake of German conquests annexed large areas of former Yugoslav and Greek territory. Bulgaria's adherence to the Axis was long foreshadowed by the pro-Fascist development which Bulgaria had taken under the dictatorship of King Boris III. The democratic institutions of the country had been abolished or transformed, and the prevailing strong liberal sentiment suppressed. The Bulgarian government under Professor Bogdan Filoff, who was premier and minister of education, tried for some time to play an ambiguous role and asserted that it would follow a policy of complete neutrality. In spite of the strong sympathies of many Bulgarians for democracy, and of most Bulgarians, especially the peasants, for Russia, the government succeeded in maintaining a policy which it characterized as purely nationalistic. However, it was apparent by February 1941 that German technicians and military men, albeit in civilian clothes, were entering Bulgaria in great numbers, with the connivance or tacit approval of the government. Colonel William J. Donovan visited Bulgaria by the end of January, but his passage did not influence the pro-German orientation of the government. Britain protested against the increasing Axis tendencies, which continued unabated although the most outspoken Nazi in the government, Ivan Bagrianoff, resigned from his post as minister of agriculture. On Feb. 9, Prime Minister Churchill openly charged Bulgaria with allowing German troops to penetrate the country, but these charges were violently denied. In spite of these denials the suspicion grew that Bulgaria would allow German forces in large numbers to occupy her territory and use it as a strategic base for an attack against the Yugoslav and Greek flanks. An unexpected agreement between Bulgaria and Turkey, in which each pledged friendship and non-aggression, seemed to indicate that Turkey had acquiesced to such a use of Bulgaria. Thus the German hand was freed for an attack.

German Occupation of Bulgaria as Military Base.

The fateful hour came on March 1. Already German technicians had prepared Bulgarian airfields and begun to improve or build strategic roads. As late as Feb. 26 the Bulgarian government issued a denial that German troops, poised at the Rumanian frontier, were entering Bulgaria. On March 1, however, the Bulgarian Premier Bogdan Filoff and Foreign Minister Ivan Popoff flew to Vienna where they signed the Tripartite Pact envisioning a 'New World Order,' concluded in September 1940 by Germany, Japan and Italy. Bulgaria thus became the seventh partner of the Fascist alliance, which had been joined in November 1940 by Hungary, Rumania and Slovakia. By signing, Bulgaria automatically gave Germany the right to occupy Bulgaria militarily. The result was that by the beginning of April, Germany was able to attack Yugoslavia and Greece successfully from Bulgarian territory. With the capitulation of Yugoslavia and Greece, Bulgarian troops marched into some of the territories conquered by the Germans, occupied them, and incorporated considerable parts of Yugoslavia and Greece into the greatly enlarged Bulgarian kingdom. The resistance of the native inhabitants was broken by ruthless persecution and terrorization.

Opposition to Russo-German War.

A similar terror reigned in Bulgaria herself against the liberal and democratic elements on the one hand, and against the many peasants and intellectuals of pro-Russian sympathy, who, after the outbreak of the German-Russian war, opposed the policy of the Bulgarian government even more than they had previously. Court martials and a wave of executions and mass arrests finally quelled organized opposition to the aggressive policy of the Bulgarian government, but disorders and acts of sabotage flared up again and again. At the same time the Soviet Union accused Bulgaria of acting as a base for German and Italian attacks by land, sea and air on Russian Black Sea shores. It is possible that Bulgaria was preparing to join Germany as a full-fledged partner in the Russian war, as Rumania and Hungary had done. But the temper of the people at home did not allow the Bulgarian government to execute this plan, in spite of the violently anti-Russian campaign in the controlled Bulgarian press. The Bulgarian Parliament, called for a special session at the beginning of September, decreed the death penalty for 'crimes against national interests,' so as to insure a closer collaboration with Germany. Bulgarian military preparations were accelerated and all railroad and road traffic in the country was put under German control. Deputies and members of the Peasant and Communist parties were executed or sent to German concentration camps. Nevertheless some Bulgarian liberals escaped, among them Kosta Todoreff and Dr. G. M. Dimitroff, and formed a free Bulgarian movement to fight on the side of the democracies.

Territorial Expansion.

Meanwhile the newly occupied parts of Yugoslavia and Greece were organized into three provinces, so that the number of provinces in Bulgaria was increased to ten. The new provinces are Bitolj, where the former Bulgarian minister to Hungary, Pavlov, became administrator. Skoplje, where Metropolitan Sofroni was appointed first Bulgarian bishop, and Xanti, where the administration was headed by the former minister of commerce Koyusharoff. The former Yugoslav districts of Pirot and Tsaribrod, west of Sofia, were included into the province of Sofia. The construction of new railway lines was planned, not only to connect the new provinces with old Bulgaria, but also to permit faster German troop movements to the Aegean Sea. In September a new railroad line 137 km. in length, was completed in Bulgaria proper from Shumen to Karnabat, crossing the Balkan mountains from north to south and thus connecting the two main lines from Sofia to Varna and Burgas to Plovdiv in such a way that direct communication from Rumania and the Dobruja to the new Bulgarian ports on the Aegean Sea was provided. This new link was of particular importance for German strategy requiring fast movements from the Black to the Aegean Sea or vice versa which would strengthen the German control of the approaches to Turkey. See also GREECE; TURKEY; YUGOSLAVIA.