Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman civilizations have each left their mark on the Bulgarian lands, but the story of the modern Bulgarian people began with the Slavic migrations into the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries. The name "Bulgaria" comes from the Bulgars, a Turkic people who migrated from the steppe north of the Black Sea, conquered the Slavic tribes and founded the First Bulgarian Kingdom in 681. The Bulgars were absorbed in the larger Slavic population, a process that was facilitated by the adoption of Orthodox Christianity by Boris I in the 9th century. Under Boris's son, Tsar Simeon I, the kingdom reached the height of its power, and its capital, Preslav, was said to rival Constantinople in the vigor of its commercial and intellectual life.
Bulgaria declined under Simeon's successors, and in 1014 the Byzantine
emperor Basil II won a battle over the Bulgarian army after which he
ordered 14,000 prisoners to be blinded. For this Basil II took the title
"Bulgaroktonus," or Bulgar slayer, and Bulgaria was ruled by Byzantium
until 1185. In that year the brothers Ivan and Peter Asen launched a
successful revolt that led to the establishment of the Second Bulgarian
Kingdom with its capital at Turnovo. Under Tsar Ivan Asen II (r. 1218-41)
Bulgaria again dominated most of the Balkans, but by the end of the century
the state was weakened by peasant revolt and attacks from Mongols, Serbs,
and finally succumbed to the invasion of the Ottoman Turks.
During the nearly 500 years of the "Ottoman Yoke," Bulgaria's national
customs and values were preserved in the monasteries and in mountain
villages isolated from Turkish influence. In the 18th century Paissy, a
Bulgarian monk of the Khilendar Monastery on Mt Athos, used medieval texts
to prepare a history of his people, calling on them to remember their past
and former greatness. Paissy's history is regarded as the beginning of the
National Revival that was marked by the rapid expansion of Bulgarian
schools and by the achievement of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox
Exarchate in 1870. Six years later Bulgarian revolutionaries launched the
April Uprising, whose brutal suppression created outrage in Europe and
helped to provoke the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The war ended with the
Treaty of San Stefano that created a large Bulgarian state, whose borders
were based on those of the Exarchate.
The Western Powers, however, feared
that Bulgaria would be a satellite of Russia and insisted on a revision of
the treaty. At the Congress of Berlin in 1879 only the part of the country
between the Balkan range and the Danube was allowed to become an autonomous
principality. The lands south of the Balkan Range were given the name
"Eastern Rumelia" under a Christian governor appointed by the Porte. And
Macedonia was returned entirely to Ottoman administration. A convention
held in Turnovo adopted a constitution for the new state and chose
Alexander Battenberg as its first prince.
During World War II, Boris was a reluctant ally of Germany. Bulgaria
declared "symbolic war" on Great Britain and the United States, but did not
send its forces into combat and declined to deport its Jewish population to
the death camps in Poland. In September 1944 the Soviet Union suddenly
declared war on Bulgaria and quickly occupied it. In conjunction with the
Soviet invasion, a Communist-led coalition, called the Fatherland Front,
seized power in Sofia. Under Georgi Dimitrov the Communists consolidated
their power, and by the end of 1947 completely eliminated their opponents.
by Luben Boyanov
The Late Bulgarian Renessaince
by John Bell
The New Bulgarian History
In 1885, when the Bulgarians of Eastern Rumelia declared their union with
the north, Serbia attacked. Prince Alexander led the Bulgarian forces to
victory, but abdicated because he had lost the good will of
Russia. Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was elected to the throne in 1887.
In 1908, Ferdinand took the title of Tsar, and his desire to regain all the
lands of the San Stefano Treaty led to the formation of an alliance with
Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. In the First Balkan War (1912) the allies
forced Turkey to relinquish its remaining Balkan territories. However, they
fell out among themselves and fought the Second Balkan War (1913), which
Bulgaria lost. Bulgaria was also on the losing side in World War I, and had
to give up territory to Serbia and Greece. Ferdinand was forced to
abdicate, and the throne passed to his son Boris III. The government was
then in the hands of Alexander Stamboliski, leader of the Bulgarian
Agrarian National Union, who launched a dramatic series of reforms before
he was overthrown and murdered in 1923. Gradually, Tsar Boris III with the
support of the army established his personal control over the country.
During the Communist era, Bulgaria acquired the reputation of being the
most loyal ally of the Soviet Union, imitating Soviet collectivization and
industrialization policies. The removal from office of longtime leader
Todor Zhivkov on 10 November 1989 began the current era of political and
economic transition.
Bulgaria And World War II
Basically, the person who was taking the major decisions
but not all !!! during the years around 1940 was King Boris III.
Both points are important as there are some controvercies and also
some propaganda. While it is true, that almost all general
decisions were masterminded by Boris III, it is also true that
the cabinet and the Prime Minister had some freedom to act and
did not consult the King on so many of their actions.
The entire story should be started back in the years 1932-35 when
it turned out that it is only Germany who is buying the agricultural
production of Bulgaria and in return was providing some high quality
industrial goods on low prices, from Bulgaria. In several years time
(Boris tried to convince Britain and France to allow more BG trade with
them, to get more of their products on the BG market on competitive prices,
but neither country gave a damn on that matter), Bulgaria was conducting
something like 65% (o even more) of its export and import with
Germany. The country became almost totaly dependent on Germany.
The overall situation was not bad for Bulgaria, as gave a good
market for BGs production and in return, the German tools/machines
were very well regarded for their quality and reliability in Bulgaria.
When WWII started, Bulgaria declared to stay neutral. Relations
with all major powers were good. It happened that there was a chance
to recover the purely Bulgarian land of Southern Dobruja, which was
lost to Romania after the Second Balkan war and then again - after
WWI. Russia, England, Germany were pressing Rumania but at the end
it was under German pressure that Romania returned the land. So - apart
from the huge economic dependance, a feeling of help and concern
was received from the German action. Still Boris was determined to keep BG
out of the war. There are numerous documents showing that Boris didn't like
and even despised Hitler and he was also rather scared what will next decide
to do the decorator from Austria. After some time, with the opening of
the war in Greece, Hitler got determined to get his troops there. The
German troops have
moved in Romania (if I'm not wrong about the time) and at some time Bulgaria
given 2 choices - to get on the side of the Germans, or to be crossed as
enemy by the Vermaht. There was absolute no support from England or France
(as far as I remember, Boris tried to get some help from there) and the
internal situation (no anti-German feelings, huge economic dependency) was
not helping at all. It was clear, that if Boris has refused to join
the Germans, a pro-German pupet regime would have been installed
in days, after the German army enters Bulgaria (BG had no army
after WWI !!! but even if they had, I doubt what could BG army on
its own, without British or French, or US help stand against the
Germans) and full colaboration of that pupet regime would have
started.
Boris chose the other option. He put a lot of conditions to the
joining of the Axis - like no BG soldiers for Germany, no interference
of Germany in BG gov, etc, etc, then he appointed a Germanophille
(or maybe it was earlier he appointed him) Prime Minister - Filov
and he binded towards the pressure from Hitler. The memoirs of his
Chief of Staff show how much upset he was for that decision. Still
he was in some control of the situation, and for the next years, he managed
to influence few major events, despite the oposite pressure from
Germany and his own government - namely to help saving the
Bulgarian Jews being sent to camps in Poland, to give soldiers to
the German army, and to declare war on the USSR. Bulgaria was
a unique country, where German and Russian missions (diplomatic)
were together during the war.
Of course, the King was not able to avoid many of the stupid things
his pro-German PM did, but he couldn't do anything else, in order to
play the game of cat and mouse with Hitler. And the game was to
avoid doing anything Hitler wanted, and still to pretend being
a true ally to him. Boris was extremely angry that Filov's gov
declared war to Britain and the US but he was unable to avoid this.
In 1943, after a stormy meeting with Hitler, when Boris refused
again to give troops and to deport the Jews (under various
explanations), Boris died from mysterious death. There are
speculations whetgher he was poisoned and by whom, but from
what Iv'e read, it seems that he just couldn't stand that pressure
any more and had a heart attack.
It is also documented, that earlier in 1943, Boris was preparing
a pro-British/American government but if/how/when he would have
broken with Hitler and joined the other camp is a mere speculation
and mystery, which will be never solved as the death of the King
ruined all plans he had or might have had.
| Principality of Bulgaria | 62,776.8 |
| Eastern Roumelia | 35,208.3 |
| All | 97,985.1 |
Carigrad Treaty (1886)
| Ceded to Turkey | 1,639.6 |
| All | 96,345.5 |
Bukurest treaty (1914)
| Ceded to Roumania | 7,695.8 |
| Obtained from Turkey | 23,187.2 |
| All | 111,836.9 |
Agreement with Turkey (1915)
| Obtained from Turkey | 2,587.6 |
| All | 114,424.5 |
Treaty of Neuille (1919)
| Ceded to Yugoslavia | 2,566.3 |
| Ceded to Greece | 8,712.0 |
| All | 103,146.2 |
The population of the principality in 1881 was 2,852,600, in 1906 a little over 4 million, and in 1939 6,272,900. It is to be noted that the population increase due to the increase in territory was minimal - the total external increase in population from the 1913-1919 period was a mere 4,810 people. Much more significant was the population increase with the Krajova aggreement (1940) of almost 300,000 people but this is outside the current survey.
It is interesting to compare the change in population over
1878-1939 with the change over 1944-1994. This is left as a homework
exercise for the reader.
Luben Boyanov, last updated: 06/1995
Ferdinand I (Maximilian-Karl-Leopold-Maria) of Coburg-Gotha, Tsar
(King) of the Bulgarians was born in Vienna on February 26, 1861. He was
the third son and the youngest child of five of prince Augustus
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Princess Clementine of Orleans, daughter of Louis
Philippe, the "Citizen King" of the French.
Aged 26 and a retired lieutenant of the Austrian Army, he was
elected Prince of Bulgaria by the Great National Assembly in Turnovo on
July 7th, 1887, after the abdication of Prince Alexander Battenberg.
Upon his arrival in Sofia, he worked with the great Prime Minister
of the day, Stefan Stambolov and his government; secretly supported by
Austria and England, he managed to counter the opposition of Russia, which
had been trying to prevent the Great Powers from recognizing him. His
marriage to a Catholic, Mary Louise, daughter of Robert, Duke of Parma, in
1893, increased Russia's hostility. However, after the death of Tsar
Alexander III and the murder of Stefan Stambolov in 1895, relations with
St. Petersburg improved. Prince Ferdinand won the support of the new
Russian Tsar, Nicholas I, by baptizing Boris, heir to the Bulgarian throne,
in the Eastern Orthodox faith in 1896. Following the baptism, Ferdinand
was officially recognized by Russia, and the other Powers. The Pope, Leo
XIII, vehemently disapproving, promptly excommunicated the Prince. Some
years later, Pope Pius X reinstalled him to the faith.
Having stabilized Bulgaria's position, Ferdinand and his government
pursued active domestic and foreign policies. During the late summer of
1908, taking advantage of the difficulties besetting the Ottoman Empire, he
declared Bulgaria's independence and proclaimed himself Tsar of the
Bulgarians on October 6th. During the following year, this too was
recognized by the Powers.
Prompted by the mood of his nation to liberate and unite Bulgarians
still living under Ottoman rule, he exploited Turkey's problems (war with
Italy since 1911), and entered into a secret treaty with Serbia in March
1912, followed by similar accords with Montenegro and Greece. He assumed
supreme command of the Bulgarian army when the First Balkan War started.
The spectacular successes of the victorious Bulgarian army kindled great
ambitions in him and he supported his government to seek the full
unification of the Bulgarian people.
The second Balkan War started on June 16th, 1913 and ended with the
crushing defeat of Bulgaria and the Treaty of Bucharest. The betrayal of
Bulgaria by her ex-allies Serbia, Montenegro and Greece influenced Tsar
Ferdinand to accept his government's policy decision to side with the
Central Powers during World War I, which Bulgaria entered in 1915. The war
ended in defeat for Bulgaria and Ferdinand abdicated on October 3rd, 1918
in favour of his son Boris III. He left the country on the same day and
settled in Germany where he died on September 10th, 1948.
King Ferdinand was known as a skillful diplomat and strong and
gifted Head of State. His reign left a significant and lasting impact on
the political, cultural and social life of Bulgaria. The progress of the
fledgling Bulgarian State to a level where it was regarded as the strongest
and most advanced Balkan country, was due in no small measure, to its first
Tsar of modern times and his innovative spirit, which guided it into the
Twentieth Century.
Roumi Radenska, last updated: 07/31/94
'Pomaks' is the name of a large group of people who live
mainly in Rhodopi mountains (southern Bulgaria, close to the
border with Greece). They have muslim names and speak very
ancient bulgarian language (bulgarian belongs to the group of
slavic languages). Their ancestors were slavic christian people
who accepted muslim religion. This fact took place in 16th and
17th centuries. There were several ways to become muslim that
time, when Bulgaria like all Balkan peninsula, was part of the
Ottoman empire. But most common paths to islamiztion were:
1. Through marriages. This way was valid for a number of
bulgarian women.
2. Voluntary islamization. Main reason for that was escaping a
lot of taxes.
3. Forced islamization. The largest number of 'pomaks' became
muslims that way. There are well known several ottoman actions
for islamiztion of bulgarians living in Rhodopi mountain during
17th century. Here is coming the question: why ottomans forced
the people living in that region only to accept the muslim faith?
One of the explanations is: Rhodopi mountains were a huge hunting
field for the sultan, his family and large number of his people.
They needed to be served during their stay there (some times for
months). According to their believes they have to be served only
by muslims. That's why ottomans forced the large amount of
bulgarian population in Rhodops to accept the islam.
How we know about that fact? Ottoman empire had excellent
organized tax system. All taxpayers were registered in books,
their land or other property described in order to determine the
taxes. Naming the taxpayers ottomans used identification on first
name of the person and the name of his father. For example:
Khasan, son of Ivan. Khasan is muslim name, but Ivan is slavonic,
christian name. This is the way we know that 'pomaks' used to be
slavic christian people before they became muslims. A lot of
books from all 500 years of ottoman rule over Bulgaria containing
data about taxes and taxpayers are saved in archives in Sofia,
Burgas, Istanbul.
'Pomaks' were pretty isolated from the rest of the bulgarian
society for centuries. They saved that old bulgarian language and
some old customs which took place before 17th century. About 20
years ago, in the beginning of 1970s, the ethnography professor
Ivan Koev from Sofia University lead a student expedition to
pomak region called 'Chech'. They did research on language,
crafts and customs in that area. I visited the village of
Sarnitza entirely populated by pomaks in 1983. My impressions of
that visit are still fresh. All the houses were new two stories
brick buildings. Many families had cars. A lot of children were
playing in the yards dressed with snow white shirts. It was such
a peaceful picture and all the past seemed to be forgotten.
remark by Jultia Vassileva
I visited the same village, Sarnitza, in 1979. My impressions were
similar to those described above. The welfare of the people was by
no means smaller than in any Bulgarian village. In addition, the people
were very hospitable and invited us from the street for a cup of coffee
at home, to show us their home woven carpets, aprons, blankets which
every girl has to bring into the marriage as a gift to her husband. In
this way we visited at least 5 houses. However, after some time at
every visit the talk came to the point that "they don't let us wear our
shalvare" (long trousers which moslem women wear traditionally). And
then they showed us how they managed to escape this prohibition -
by wearing short shalvare (down to the knee) under their skirts, so that
they could not be seen. Something which also amazed us was that nearly
all women were dressed in school uniforms (at that time all school
chidren had to wear a dark-blue & white - collar robe on top of the
other clothes). We thaught it was used by the pomak-women instead
of "feredzhe" (a black long cloth covering the whole body and dressing
of a moslem
woman), which was obviously forbidden to wear. One woman showed
us a lamb (or goat)-fur in a closet and said: "This is our Kurban, they
don't allow us to prey, we have to hide it and we are not allowed to
celebrate the Ramazan".
This did not surprise us at that time: though
we (in Sofia) had not heart of any official prohibition of practicing Islam
(the other way around, the Constitution from 1971 declared a freedom of
choosing and practicing any Religion), we all knew that open practicing of
any religion, whether Christianity or Islam, or Judaism, was not tolerated
by the authorities. So we also didn't dare to celebrate
Christmas or Easter (the greatest Orthodox church holiday) openly, but
only secretly, at home, warning the children not to tell at school.
Neither Christmas nor Easter were official holidays, which was in some
sense logical since by Constitution Christianity was considered equal
to any other form of Religion. So if Christian holidays were announced as
official, then all Islam and Jewish holidays should be as well.
The atheistic education and policy of the Communist Goverment was
equally severe to Christians and Moslems and Jewish at that time.
It seems that the (re-)Bulgarization of Pomaks and Turks was planned
at that time, since in 1981 a campain for exchanging the passports of
the Bulgarian population started. The exchange followed a certain
age- and geographical scheme. In the beginning the passports of the
citizens of Sofia and the other bigger towns were exchanged. 3 years
later a loud propaganda started to bring back the turk minority and
the pomaks "to their Bulgarian roots" .
Pompous films were shown based on historical novels describing
the forced Islamization of Bulgarians in the 17 century. Reportages were
showing the "spontaneous" will of the moslem population to change their
names and showing people holding happily their new passport with new
Bulgarian names. This action seemed to be met with approval by the Bulgarian
population in the regions populated by Turks. The people in Sofia and the
other major cities seemed to take it as another crazy initiative of
the communists, preceeding the Party Congress in 1986. Afterwards
we heard rumors about some "events" in the Rhodopes and in the regions
populated with moslems and heart that there have been reports in the
Western Press about "severe injuries of human rights", about beatings and
killings, about fights between the population and the militia. At that time
the theme became sinister and dangerous to talk about. Here and there only
some comunist was telling a story "from personal experience" (there was a
bunch of such stories obviously coined in the Bulgarian KGB) about a Pomak
family (s)he knows personally who, when pulling down the old- grandfather's
house to extend the new house (built in the Communist times, of course),
found an icon of St. George hidden between the stones of the wall. This
sounded too much in the spirit of the propaganda films to be believed, but
no one dared to show disbelief; such stories were jsut ignored or met
with polite smile. It was unspoken, but clear, that the
"turk question" was of highest political importance for the Party and any
different oppinion is dangerously unwelcome. So the theme was a kind of a
public "tabu" until the mass immigration of Bulgarian moslems to Turkey
started in 1989 with the Perestojka-line decision of the Communist Party to
issue passports for travelling abroad.
John Bell
The "Macedonian Question" is actually a complex of questions, both
historical and current. Geographically, the term "Macedonia" has designated
different parts of the Balkans, a fact that often contributes to
contemporary confusion and controversy. Since the Balkan Wars, which
established today's political boundaries, the region of Macedonia is
generally understood to include the territory of the former Yugoslav
republic of Macedonia, the northern Greek province of the same name, and
the Pirin region of Bulgaria, whose provincial capital is Blagoevgrad.
The ethnic and linguistic identity of the Macedonians has a long and
controversial history. Until the late nineteenth century, to nearly all
investigators the term "Macedonia" designated a geographic area only; its
population was considered primarily Bulgarian along with an admixture of
Greeks, Serbs, and other nationalities. Many figures prominent in
Bulgaria's national awakening and in its later cultural, political, and
economic life were born in Macedonia and gave no evidence during their
lives of considering themselves anything but Bulgarian. Macedonians were
also active in the creation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870, and the
population voted overwhelmingly to join it. When Macedonia was restored to
Ottoman control by the Treaty of Berlin, Macedonian notables protested
their separation from their "co-nationals."
After the Balkan and First World Wars, however, Bulgaria received only the
Pirin region, while the bulk of Macedonia was divided between Greece and
Serbia. "Ethnic cleansing" and population transfers largely removed
Slavophones from Greek Macedonia and Greek speakers from the rest of the
territory. This, combined with Serbian efforts to denationalize the
population led to a vast number of refugees resettling in Bulgaria, so that
today approximately a quarter of the Bulgarian population traces its roots
to Macedonia. During the period between the two world wars, the Internal
Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) conducted a campaign of
terrorism against Serbian authorities, often abetted by the Bulgarian
government or by sympathetic Bulgarian citizens.
At the end of World War II, Tito's regime adopted the position that
Macedonians were a distinct nationality and recognized the former "South
Serbia" as the Macedonian Republic, one of the five republics of the
Yugoslav federation, and sought to transfer to it the Pirin region from
Bulgaria. Because Stalin favored this plan, the Bulgarian Communists
carried out a census in 1946 that forced nearly seventy per cent of the
Pirin region's inhabitants to declare themselves to be "Macedonian."
Although Stalin's break with Tito ended the plan of detaching the Pirin
region from Bulgaria, when Khrushchev sought a rapprochement with
Yugoslavia in 1956, Bulgaria again was pressured to find a Macedonian
nationality in the Pirin. This pressure disappeared by the early 1960s, and
in the 1965 census only .5 per cent of the population of Pirin identified
itself as "Macedonian."
In the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, authorities worked to foster a sense of
Macedonian national feeling, creating a literary language, emphasizing
orthographical, lexical, and syntactical differences with Bulgarian, to be
taught in the schools and developing an official history that projected a
separate Macedonian national identity into the past.
Following the break-up of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria welcomed the creation of an
independent Macedonia, and in January 1991 was the first country to extend
it full diplomatic recognition, despite the objections of neighboring
Greece. Bulgarians have been reluctant, however, to acknowledge the
existence of a Macedonian nationality or that the Macedonian language is
anything other than a dialect of Bulgarian, points that the Macedonian
government has insisted on emphasizing.
Some inhabitants of the Pirin region have asserted that they belong to a
separate Macedonian nationality and have created the "United Macedonian
Organization - Ilinden" to promote national consciousness. When the group
was first formed in 1990, Bulgarian authorities subjected its member to
harassment and blocked its attempt to publish a newspaper. Bulgarian courts
refused to register UMO-Ilinden on the grounds that its activities were
"directed against the sovereignty and territorial unity of the country" and
were thus unconstitutional. State Prosecutor Ivan Tatarchev, himself born
in the Pirin, was especially vigorous in using police powers to attempt to
suppress the organization, bringing down the condemnation of international
human rights organizations. Researchers at the American University in
Blagoevgrad, find a strong regional identity, but little sense of belonging
to a separate nationality.
Linguists differ on the criteria used to distinguish a dialect from a
separate language. It is sometimes stated that "a language is a dialect
with an army and navy." When Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov recently
visited Bulgaria, he insisted on bringing an interpreter to his meeting
with Bulgarian President Zhelev; for his part, Zhelev insisted that he
understood everything without need for assistance. The signing of a
protocol on this meeting also had to be abandoned when the Macedonian side
insisted on a statement that it was written in "the Macedonian language."
President Zhelev has called for a solution to the Macedonian Question
through the establishment of open borders between the two states, and
Bulgarian assistance has been vital during the Greek economic blockade. In
a recent speech, Zhelev said that Bulgaria could not wish harm to Macedonia
any more than a mother could wish harm to her children. This was, perhaps,
less reassuring to the Macedonians than Zhelev intended.
For its part, the Macedonian Republic has not been sympathetic toward its
citizens who wish to express a Bulgarian ethnicity. The recently completed
census found only 1,547 Bulgarians in the country, and those for the most
part immigrants from Bulgaria outside the Pirin District.
King Ferdinand I from Coburg-Gotha
The Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks)
Who are the Pomaks ?
The Macedonian Question