Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

  The Soviet declaration of war on Bulgaria on September 5, 1944 and the coup d'état by the Fatherland Front coalition four days later put the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) in control of critical government ministries. With Soviet backing the BCP gradually eliminated their partners in the coalition, suppressed dissent, and consolidated control over the country. Although the initial Fatherland Front coalition had been broadly representative of political factions in Bulgaria, by the end of the Soviet occupation in 1947 political power was concentrated entirely in the BCP, economic resources had been nationalized, and the opposition had been completely suppressed. In 1945 there were four main opposition parties: the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, the Bulgarian Workers Social Democratic Party (United), the Democratic Party, and the Radical Party (United). Independent intellectuals were part of the opposition as well. The Agrarians and Social Democrats were members of the ruling Fatherland Front coalition at the time of the coup, and some of their leaders were ministers in the government as late as August 1945. However, objections to the communist agenda and the sweeping purges of government the communists conducted through control over the ministry of the interior and the ministry of justice soon led these initial partners to leave their parties, and the government, to organize ... log in or subscribe to read full text