1942: Bulgaria

Pro-Fascist Policy.

Under the influence of the pro-Fascist policy, started (in spite of the opposition of a large part of the population) by King Boris III with his coup d'état of May 19, 1934, Bulgaria has become more and more an active partner of the Axis. As a formal sign of her attachment, she signed the German-Japanese-Italian alliance, the so-called Three-Power-Pact, on Mar. 1, 1941. On Nov. 25, 1941, came the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact directed against the Soviet Union in spite of the fact that a large part of the population is, for traditional and racial reasons, most friendly to Russia, and sympathy with Communism is widespread among the peasantry who form the bulk of the population. The Fascist policy of the King found a certain support with the people because it promised to bring to Bulgaria the fulfilment of her expansionist dreams. As a result of her adherence to the Axis, Bulgaria occupied and annexed large parts of Greece and Yugoslavia after these two countries had been defeated by Germany in April 1941. As in World War I Bulgaria again staked her future on a German victory and expected the creation of a Great Bulgaria which would include, in addition to Bulgaria proper, the newly annexed Greek territories of Macedonia and western Thrace, and the Yugoslavian territory of southern Serbia.

But these annexionist desires and their execution in the wake of German conquest, without any active participation of the Bulgarian army in the war, and the brutal treatment meted out by the Bulgarian occupation forces to Greeks and Serbs alike, has aroused new bitterness against the Bulgarians among the Balkan peoples. Bulgaria is now vitally interested in a German victory, but large circles of the Bulgarians, outside the court, begin to be afraid that Bulgaria may have again backed the wrong horse. The splendid resistance of the Russian armies to German invasion, the unexpected necessity for the German armies to fight two hard winter campaigns on the icy steppes of Russia, the unexpected strength of Great Britain in the Near East which led to the defeat of Marshal Rommel's army, the landing of an American force in Africa, the growing strength of Turkey, and the increasingly apparent fatal weakness of Fascist Italy — all these factors have contributed to a growing feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty in Bulgaria. Yet the Government under Bogdan Filoff, Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs, continued its policy of Fascism without any let-up.

Relations with Soviet Russia.

Germany tried to exercise a strong pressure on Bulgaria to join actively in the war against the Soviet Union and to send Bulgarian troops to the Eastern front where Rumanian, Hungarian, Finnish and Italian armies were fighting side by side with the German army. But the Bulgarian cabinet could not comply with this request. Popular opposition was too strong. So far Bulgaria had made large territorial gains without any real fighting on the part of her army, and any participation in the war against Russia would have involved the loss of many lives and much suffering under the hard conditions of the Russian front. Also, the sympathy for Russia was too deeply ingrained in the Bulgarian mind to allow any compliance with the German request. On the other hand, the Government made a continuous effort to stamp out within the country all Communist agitation which seemed to continue with great strength. There were reported rumors that Russian parachutists had been dropped over Bulgaria and were helping to organize resistance to the Axis and sabotage in the country. The Bulgarian government executed many Bulgarians for alleged sympathy with the Soviet Union and with the democracies. Among those executed was General Vladimir Zaimoff, a former Bulgarian Minister of Interior, who was well known as an opponent of the King's pro-German policy and as an exponent of close collaboration with Yugoslavia. He had led an unsuccessful military uprising in May 1935. He was executed on June 1, 1942. Innumerable other Bulgarians were sentenced to death or long terms of imprisonment during the year.

Internal Policy.

In her internal policy Bulgaria followed a strictly Fascist line. In his declaration on Apr. 12, Premier Filoff promised that strong measures would be taken to liquidate whatever remained in Bulgaria of democratic and liberal ideas and of their representatives. The persecution against the Jews was growing steadily in intensity and was carried to the same length as in National Socialist Germany. All their property was confiscated; they were confined to ghettos, forced to wear a yellow star on their garments, and kept in a permanent state of undernourishment and overwork so that their complete extermination could be expected within a measurable time. The government did everything to strengthen the antidemocratic feeling in the country and to cut the ties which in the past have linked Bulgaria with the Anglo-Saxon world. All rotary clubs and Y. M. C. A. organizations throughout the country were suppressed and their property liquidated. The American college in Sofia was closed and the Americans expelled on Sept. 12. Scarcity of food and industrial goods made itself felt more and more. Concentration camps were filled to capacity with political prisoners.

The Bulgarian army was growing and was estimated to have a strength of 400,000 men. But it lacked modern equipment which the Germans reserved for themselves. An agreement was reached with Italy for the construction of a new motor highway from Durazzo, a port in Italian Albania, to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. As a result of the Bulgarian occupation of southern Serbia, Bulgaria has now become a neighbor of Italy through a common frontier with Albania. The Bulgarian government decided to proclaim Apr. 12, the day of the occupation of Macedonia and Thrace, as a national holy day to be known as 'day of the unification of Bulgaria.' This new national holy day was celebrated for the first time in 1942 and was used for a great government demonstration of Bulgaria's solidarity with Germany, Italy and Japan.

In April the cabinet decided to ban all transactions in gold money or bullion except through the intermediary of the Bank of Bulgaria. It also requisitioned all stocks of fodder to meet the needs of the army and also for redistribution to farmers in certain areas where a great shortage of fodder was felt. As in all other countries under Axis control, it was most difficult to get any authentic news about the internal conditions of Bulgaria through the thick veil of censorship. It was clear, however, that in spite of the satisfaction felt concerning the acquisition of large new territories and the new role promised to Bulgaria as the leading nation and strongest power in a German-controlled Balkan peninsula, the Bulgarian people did not feel too happy in their present situation.

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.

1940: Bulgaria

Bulgaria, a kingdom in the Balkans, like all other Balkan countries, found 1940 a year of great stress and trouble. The profound changes brought about in the map of Eastern Europe during the first period of the second world war aroused in many Bulgarians the hope that Bulgaria would be able to recover the territorial losses suffered as the result of her defeats in the Second Balkan war in 1913 and in the first World War and the ensuing peace treaty of Neuilly in 1919. These hopes were partly realized by the acquisition of the southern Dobruja, which Bulgaria had ceded to Rumania in 1913, and had regained by the treaty of Crayova on Sept. 7, 1940. The territory thus gained comprised about 7,600 square kilometers, with a population of about 350,000, most of them Bulgarians. But Bulgaria has further claims, against Yugoslavia for some parts of Macedonia, and above all against Greece for access to the Aegean Sea on the right bank of the Maritza River and to the port of Dedeagach in Western Thrace. These demands had not been fulfilled by the end of 1940, but they helped to produce a state of permanent tension in the Balkans which made itself felt especially after the outbreak of the Italo-Greek war.

While the sympathies of the large majority of the Bulgarian population, especially the peasant masses, were definitely pro-Slav and generally on the side of the Soviet Union and to a certain extent even on the side of the western democracies, King Boris of Bulgaria, himself of German descent and married to an Italian princess, and the court party followed a pro-Axis policy, though trying to preserve as long as possible the advantages of neutrality for Bulgaria. But during 1940 the country came, economically, politically and militarily, under German influence, which became more pronounced with the extension of German domination over neighboring Rumania. The existing jealousies and conflicting territorial claims of the Balkan nations prevented the Balkan Entente Conference which met in Belgrade at the beginning of February from arriving at any closer understanding in spite of the common danger by which all Balkan States were faced. During 1940 Bulgaria preserved her neutrality, although towards the end of the year her situation might be better described as 'non-belligerent.'

The elections for the National Parliament or Sobranye, which were held during the month of January, gave to the government the expected majority, but in view of many signs of popular discontent the Prime Minister, George Kiosscivanoff, resigned on Feb. 15, and Professor Bogdan Philoff, who had been Minister of Education in the former Cabinet, formed a new ministry, most of whose members had also formed part of the preceding Cabinet. Ivan Popoff, Bulgarian Minister to Yugoslavia, was named Foreign Minister. On Feb. 24 the King opened the twenty-fifth Sobranye with a speech in which he declared that Bulgaria's policy remained unchanged. On May 25, the Minister of War introduced a bill calling for compulsory military service for all men between the ages of seventeen and sixty-five, who will serve for periods of from one to three years, depending on the category of service.

Foreign Relations.

The general unrest following the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia led to a further dismemberment of Rumania, in which Bulgaria was able to press successfully her claims for the southern Dobruja. The negotiations which lasted for several weeks ended with the return of a fertile quadrilateral territory, including the important port of Silistra on the Danube and the port of Balchich on the Black Sea. It was also decided to exchange the remaining Rumanian population in the southern Dobruja for the Bulgarian population living in the northern Dobruja. This cession increases the value of the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna and renders the strategic position of the Rumanian port of Constanza more difficult. On Sept. 20 Bulgarian troops under General Popoff began to occupy the southern Dobruja, which was organized as an integral part of the kingdom.

After the successful revision of her frontier with Rumania, Bulgaria started to emphasize her claims to a part of Western Thrace from Greece. For these claims Bulgaria relied more and more upon the Axis. To ingratiate herself with Germany, Bulgaria cut off coal shipments to Greece which were supposed to be destined for the British Mediterranean fleet, and enacted a strong anti-Semitic law, accepted on Oct. 8 which, in addition to the prohibition of free masons, Rotarians and similar organizations, excluded Jews from public service and severely limited their participation in the professions. Important thoroughfares in Sophia were named after Hitler, Ribbentrop, Mussolini, and Ciano. In the middle of October the Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture, Ivan Bagrianoff, visited Rome and was welcomed there as the 'coming strong man of Bulgaria,' and on Nov. 17 King Boris secretly visited Chancellor Hitler in Germany. Both visits were thought to deal with the complete fascization of Bulgaria and with the right of German troops to pass through Bulgaria on their march against Greece and Turkey. In the second half of November it appeared almost certain that Bulgaria would join the 'new order in Europe' and would receive in compensation her full claim to territories along the Aegean Sea, which exceeded by far the territories lost by her in 1919. But towards the end of November it became clear that for the time being at least, perhaps under the pressure of the Soviet Union or under the influence of the Greek victories over Italy, Bulgaria had renounced her intention of joining openly with the Axis powers.

1939: Bulgaria

Territorial Claims and Neutrality.

The Balkan kingdom of Bulgaria was seized in 1939 by the general unrest which growing international tension, and, later on, war in Europe and the resurgence of the Soviet Union as a factor in Balkan politics produced. Bulgaria still resents the losses she suffered in the Second Balkan and World War. She claims a thorough-going revision of her frontiers with Rumania by the return of the Dobruja, the fertile stretch of land south of the Danubian delta, and with Greece by regaining a direct outlet to the Aegean Sea. These claims made it impossible for Bulgaria to join the Balkan Entente, although her relations with Yugoslavia and Turkey improved considerably in recent years. In the domestic field the veiled dictatorship established by the king through the coup d'état of May 19, 1934, met with the growing opposition of the people, in whom the democratic traditions are extremely strong. For all these problems the year 1939 did not bring any clear-cut solution, although towards its end the German and the Soviet influences were definitely growing within the country. On April 20, Premier George Kiosseivanoff declared that Bulgaria was following a policy of the strictest neutrality, but stressed at the same time Bulgaria's territorial claims which amount to an area of 7,695 square kilometers from Rumania, 8,712 from Greece, and 2,506 from Yugoslavia. In spite of diplomatic negotiations which seem to have been pursued during the whole year, Bulgaria's territorial claims had not been fulfilled by the end of 1939, a fact which prevented the conclusion of any strong Balkan alliance that would have united the Balkan nations against aggression by any great power. At the time of the outbreak of the European war Bulgaria proclaimed a policy of steadfast neutrality, but the population manifested repeatedly its sympathies for the Soviet Union, to which Bulgaria is bound by a strong pan-Slav sentiment. Bulgaria expected that Soviet Russia's pressure upon Rumania and Bessarabia will make Rumania more inclined to cede Dobruja to Bulgaria.

Internal Affairs.

In October the Cabinet resigned, but was reconstituted under George Kiosseivanoff as prime Minister. The resignation of the cabinet was due to the long-standing distrust between the Government and Parliament. The opposition, under the leadership of Speaker Mouchanoff of the Bulgarian Parliament, had made itself felt also in foreign policy. During the summer, at the same time when the Premier was officially visiting Berlin. Mouchanoff was visiting Paris and London and was received by King George. Although under the present constitution, the Government does not depend upon the confidence of the Chamber, the opposition in the country against the dictatorial regime and against Kiosseivanoff, whose four years of government have not produced any appreciable improvements in the internal situation, became so insistent towards the end of the year that King Boris decided to dissolve Parliament and to hold new elections in January 1940. The Government hopes to be able through pressure to have a Parliament elected which would be less oppositionally minded. Public opinion, however, believes that in this difficult period Bulgaria needs a Parliament of national concentration which would be supported by the confidence of the whole nation. Such a step would imply the revival of the old parties which were dissolved under the existing semi-dictatorial régime. See also BALKAN ENTENTE; GREECE; LITTLE ENTENTE.

1938: Bulgaria

The year 1938 brought with it two important changes in Bulgaria's political life: the restitution of some beginnings of democracy in her internal life, and the abolition of all the restrictive military clauses of the Peace Treaty of Neuilly. On May 22 a new Parliamentary session was opened in Sofia, after the last Parliament had been dissolved in May 1934, as the result of a successful military coup which established an undisguised dictatorial régime. The new Parliament, which counts only 160 members, does not recognize any parties, the deputies are seated according to the provinces which elected them and not according to their political or social convictions. About 100 deputies support the Prime Minister Kiusseivanoff. In his opening speech the Prime Minister stressed the fact that Bulgaria had no desire for any authoritarian government and wished to remain faithful to democratic ideals. In spite of this declaration the situation of the opposition in Parliament has been made most difficult.

More successful was the Government in its foreign policy. On July 31 Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with the Balkan Entente, which is composed of Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Rumania. This Pact of Salonica abolished the restrictions imposed upon Bulgaria's army and armaments by the Peace Treaties. Bulgaria received complete liberty to carry through her rearmament. Bulgaria, which had already promised in her pact with Yugoslavia in 1937 not to apply force for the ratification of her frontiers, now repeated this promise for the benefit of all her neighbors. But the Pact of Salonica did not remove the essential territorial grievances of Bulgaria. She not only desires the rectification of her frontiers with Yugoslavia, and with Rumania where she claims the restitution of the Dobruja, but above all she demands an exit to the Aegean Sea from which she is at present barred by Greece and Turkey. The situation of the Bulgarian minorities in Macedonia and Dobruja leaves much to be desired from the Bulgarian point of view. Thus towards the end of the year numerous demonstrations took place in Bulgaria demanding a rectification of the frontiers.