Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
these occupying troops deported 13,000 Greek
and Macedonian Jews to the Nazi death camps,
in order to delay doing the same with their own
Jews, due to public opposition.
On 28 August 1943, one week after meeting
Hitler, Tsar Boris III died. Boris' infant son,
Tsar Simeon II, succeeded him. Allied air raids in winter 1943-44 damaged Sofia and oth-
er towns. A coalition government sought peace, but failed, leading Russia to declare war
and invade. On 9 September 1944 the part-communist resistance coalition, the 'Fatherland
Front', took power. Even before war's end, 'people's courts' saw thousands of 'monarch-
fascist' supporters imprisoned or executed.
tion of first-hand accounts from inmates, guards
and bureaucrats of the communist system's horrors.
Red Bulgaria
The Fatherland Front won November 1945 elections, with communists controlling the
new national assembly. Leader Georgi Dimitrov's Soviet -styled constitution declared the
People's Republic of Bulgaria on 15 September 1946. The royal family were exiled. The
Stalinist regime held show trials for 'traitors', collectivised agriculture and undertook in-
dustrialisation and modernisation programs. Dimitrov's successor, Vâlko Chervenkov,
was dubbed 'Little Stalin' for his unquestioning loyalty.
Dictator Todor Zhivkov's long rule
(1954-89) saw prosperity under Soviet protec-
tion. Bulgaria received cheap oil and electri-
city, plus exporting and contracts with Eastern
Bloc and Non-Aligned Movement states.
However, the secret police became an instru-
ment of Zhivkov's totalitarianism, dealing
ruthlessly with dissidents and diaspora critics. The service was rumoured to have master-
minded the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II by a Turkish gunman.
(However, Bulgaria has always denied this and conflicting theories exist). As the Soviet
bloc weakened in the 1980s, and Bulgaria's economy too, nationalism surged, targeting
Turks, Pomaks and Roma, who were pressured to adopt Bulgarian names. A Turkish ex-
odus ensued, though many returned and prospered later.
See
www.parliament.bg
and
www.government.bg
for English-language information on the workings
of government in Bulgaria.
The Transition to the West
By 1989
perestroika
had reached Bulgaria. On 10 November, an internal Communist
Party coup dismissed Zhivkov, and the party allowed elections, renaming itself the Bul-
