The extent of fascism in Bulgaria is contentious.[1][2] Many authors state that it never became a mass movement, remaining marginal there,[3][4][5] and proved considerably less successful than in the neighboring Balkan states.[6] Bulgaria's fascists were not only weak, divided and lacking clear ideology, but their worldview differed significantly from that of Italian Fascism and German Nazism.[7] Thus a consensus has been reached between Bulgarian and international experts that Bulgaria's agrarian society and its monarchic system were the barriers before the fascist practices and establishment of fascist regime in the country, while Bulgaria's political system preserved a relative pluralism.[8][9][10] An alternative opinion is that some Bulgarian organizations with considerable membership, activity, and social presence had fully developed fascist ideology by the late 1930s, but they neither came to power, nor participated in the government of the country.[11] In fact, fascist organizations did not take power within the framework of the royal dictatorships, but discourses close to fascism can be found in then Bulgarian governing elite.[12]
Although the Bulgarian marxist historiography labelled the period 1935–1944, as "monarcho-fascism", the 1990s saw the end of the dispute with the marxist ideological dogmas, and in 1993 came the end of the theory that Bulgarian fascism is an unquestionable fact.[13] Since then the label "fascism" has been openly challenged by Bulgarian scholars, but this led partially, to an untrue radical belief that fascism never existed in Bulgaria.[14][15] Regardless of the debates about whether or not there was fascism in Bulgaria, no historian denies the existence of political movements and organizations with ideologies sympathetic to Nazism and fascism.[16] What the local fascists were lacking, was enough totalitarian drive, as well as the figure of a führer, without whom they could not contest the authoritarian regime of Tsar Boris. Boris anyway succeeded to preserve the bourgeoissocial order,[17] but feared the use of these organizations by Germany, and tried to exert a strong control on them.[18]
History
Development
Members of Jewish labour battalion in Bulgaria (1941). All Jewish males who were Bulgarian citizens between the ages of 20 and 46 were conscripted in the Construction corps. Nevertheless, the deportation to extermination camps of nearly all about 48,000 Bulgarian Jews was prevented. The Jews from the occupied Greek and Yugoslav territories (the "Newly liberated lands") had a much worse fate. In this way about 80% of the Jews in then Bulgarian territories survived, while the rest were deported for Nazis' extermination.[19]
The Bulgarian marxist historiography labelled the period 1935–1944, as monarcho-fascism and demonized the then rightist movements, due to the authoritarian regime Boris III introduced in 1935, and Bulgaria's accession to the Axis powers during WWII.[20] The personal regime of the Tsar was a mixture of authoritarian, conservative and fascist ideas.[21] While in the West it was considered a "royal dictatorship," in marxist history it is described as "monarcho-fascism". In fact fascists in interwar Bulgaria were split into several small movements as the National Social Movement, the Union of Bulgarian National Legions and the Ratniks. They were unable to become prominent political forces in the country.[22] Bulgarian fascist movements faced problems differentiating their goals from other elements of the far right political authoritarian movements. The temporal power of conservative authoritarian rivals who were in control of the government from 1934 to 1944, contributed to the weakness of these fascist groups.[23] The National Social Movement (NSM) founded by Aleksandar Tsankov as a genuinely fascist group was taking inspiration from the NSDAP and rose by the early to mid 1930s. The second fascist movement, the Union of Bulgarian National Legions, was started by general Hristo Lukov and later became an ally of the NSM, though being more ideologically radical. The third fascist movement, the Union of the Ratniks, was founded by Professor Asen Kantardzhiev. It was also closer to the German Nazis than to Italian Fascism.
Fascism became influential in Bulgaria during the 1930s, when parliamentary democracy has failed.[24] In May 1934 Bulgarian coup d'état was carried out by the Zveno military organization, aided by the Bulgarian Army, which abolished political parties altogether. As result the small Bulgarian National Socialist Workers Party disappeared. However, in April 1935, the officers were replaced by Tsar Boris. Since then, the Tsar decided to take power into his own hands, while elections were held in 1939 on a nonpartisan basis. That was some kind of "royal dictatorship" similar to the one implemented by Alexander I of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1931. In 1940, upon Bulgaria getting into the new war on the Axis side, the regime was institutionalized by creating a fascist-type mass youth movement called Brannik. Despite that organisation became numerically large, Bulgaria hadn't developed a corporate economic system essential to fascism nor any adult counterparts like trade unions or militias were created. Anti-Jewish propaganda gradually intensified in Bulgaria which led to the introduction of antisemitic law. Boris III feared the use of these organizations as a means of pressure from Germany and sought to limit their contacts with German officials.[25] Boris died in 1943 and was replaced by a regent council, while it was itself overthrown the next year, making the country now on side with the Allies.[26] In September 1944, the Zveno and the anti-Axis Fatherland Front engineered a new coup d'état. Curiously, while the fascist influence on the Zveno itself is undisputed, the ideology of that organization in its character was not fascist.[27] Thus, fascism proved considerably less successful in Bulgaria than in WWII Romania, Hungary, Croatia or Serbia.[28]
Extreme interpretations in Bulgaria
For the extreme left in Bulgaria today, before the coup on September 9, 1944, there was a fascist regime, and the Bulgarian communist guerillas represented the only struggle for freedom, which culminated in the fall of 1944. The same mythological scheme obeys the extreme right narrative, according to which fascism in Bulgaria was completely unknown then. Since the arrival of the Soviet troops in September 1944, the social strata from the lowlands took advantage and destroyed the nation's elite, thus interrupting the country's historical development.[29]
Interpretations in North Macedonia
Bulgarian policemеn and soldiers deporting Macedonian Jews in 1943. Many of them were recruited Macedonian Slavs, regarded by the authorities as Bulgarians.[30][31][32] Bulgaria insists on the rescue of its Jews, and compares their destiny to the killing of the Jews in Bulgarian-occupied territories.[33]
During the Second World War, the Kingdom of Bulgaria occupied the territory of what is today North Macedonia, then Yugoslav province called Vardar Banovina, where domestic policy of forced Serbianisation was implemented since the Balkan wars.[34] There are evidences, initially the Slavic population greeted Bulgarian army with great enthusiasm,[35] while pro-Bulgarian feelings in it prevailed. Moreover, in the latest stages of the war, almost all of that area was cleansed of German units by the Bulgarian army, by which the local population, calmly accepted the Bulgarian military presence.[36] Bulgaria switched sides in the war in September 1944,[37] but although the Bulgarian army drove the Germans out of this region then, today the Macedonian historiography has played down its role for ethnopolitical reasons.[38] Because of that, the Macedonian historians consider this period "Bulgarian fascist occupation" and have glorified the weak communist resistance there.[39]
This historical narrative was developed in post-WWII Yugoslav Macedonia and became one of the milestones of the nation-building process there, which is based till today on a deeply anti-Bulgarian stance.[40] The Macedonian communist authorities did a lot to equate the terms Bulgarian and Bulgarophile with "fascist occupier".[41] After the Fall of communism, Macedonian historiography did not significantly revise its communist past, because the very Macedonian nation was a result of the communist policies.[42] The last leader of the pro-BulgarianInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Ivan Mihailov, and its activity during the interwar period, including the failed attempt to establish a pro-German Macedonian puppet-state in 1944, are also regarded as "fascist". Per the Holocaust the Macedonian historians have built a narrative of the common suffering and powerlessness of the locals to confront "Bulgarian fascists" in the context of a ruthless occupation. Although filled with 'sympathy' for the Jews, the Macedonians were powerless to prevent their deportation.[43] Paradoxically, in North Macedonia, which declared independence in 1991, the issue of war reparations payment by Bulgaria has been raised, although this case was settled in 1947 between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.[44]
Today there are revisionist opinions in North Macedonia that question the official historical narrative inherited from the communist era.[45] In a discussion held in Macedonian parliament in 2007, the MP and professor of pathology Vesna Janevska, has stated the conflict between Bulgarian authorities and the local Yugoslav partisans was a fratricidal war or a civil war. According to the speaker of the parliament Ljubiša Georgievski, professor of theater arts, the partisan who fired the bullet, with which symbolically started the so-called Macedonian uprising against Bulgarian fascist occupiers, told him that the Bulgarian policeman he killed, was actually a local resident, his neighbor and friend of his father. This murder weighed on him all his life.[46] In 2020 the then Premier Zoran Zaev claimed that by his order inscriptions with the text "Bulgarian fascist occupier" on some communist era monuments were removed, because that did not correspond with the historical truth.[47] According to the Macedonian researcher Katerina Kolozova, this terminology today is groundless, because significant part of these "occupiers" were practically local collaborators of the Bulgarian authorities. Due to this, she has argued that North Macedonia owes an apology to the Jewish people too. She maintains the descendants of the Yugoslav communist partisans in her country who form the post-Yugoslav elite are the main factor that ignites these anti-Bulgarian sentiments there.[48][49] According to the former Macedonian Prime Minister Lyubcho Georgievski, the "Bulgarian occupiers" were welcomed as liberators from Serbian occupation, which was much longer and more difficult than the Bulgarian one, but in regard to which, the Macedonian society has fallen into a long historical amnesia.[50] According to Dragi Gjorgiev, director of the Institute of National History in North Macedonia, Bulgaria couldn't be defined as a classic fascist state at that time, but rather a pro-fascist one. The terms which might be used in this case are Bulgarian occupation,Bulgarian invasion and Bulgarian annexation.[51]
Bulgarian views
Bulgaria has insisted that North Macedonia should stop using the term "fascist occupation" in reference to the country and should remove all such mentions on the World War II monuments in the country. Bulgaria denies that assertion and claims its army liberated its brethren firstly from Serbian oppression and later from German occupation.[52] It insists also the two countries must "harmonize" historic literature about WWII, "overcoming the hate speech" against Bulgaria.[53] On the Holocaust the Bulgarian historiography claims that the citizens of the "Old lands" of the kingdom, who had rescued the Jews there, lacked the time to mobilize themselves against the deportations from the "Newly liberated lands", where their Slavic fellow citizens were apathic to the fate of the local Jews.[54]
^Constantin Iordachi, Fascism in Southeast Europe: A Comparison between Romania's Legion of the Archangel Michael and Croatia's Ustaša, p. 461, in In: Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Two, Pages: 355–468; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004261914_006.
^Fascist parties and organizations never became a mass movement in Bulgaria, but between 1934 and 1944 the country showed a pronounced sympathy for the Axis. For more see: Cyprian Blamires, (2006). World Fascism: A–K, Volume 1 of World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, Markus Hattstein - Bulgaria, pp. 107–108. ISBN1576079406.
^Despite significant political and economic crises, indigenous fascism remained split into a number of small movements that failed to become prominent political force in the country. The paper argues that Bulgarian fascist movements faced problems differentiating their goals and ideologies from other elements of the far right, highlighting the porous boundaries between the two movements. For more see: Frusetta, J. (2010). Fascism to Complete the National Project? Bulgarian Fascists' Uncertain Views on the Palingenesis of the Nation, East Central Europe, 37 (2–3), pp. 280–302.
^David D. Roberts (2016). Fascist Interactions: Proposals for a New Approach to Fascism and Its Era, 1919–1945. Berghahn Books, p. 252, ISBN9781785331312.
^James Frusetta, Anca Glont, Interwar fascism and the post-1989 radical right: Ideology, opportunism and historical legacy in Bulgaria and Romania, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Volume 42, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 551-571, ISSN 0967-067X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postcomstud.2009.10.001.
^In the late 1980s per Bulgarian Marxist historiography if 1920s were increasingly viewed as form a fascist political base, the mid-1930s would still be associated with fascism and its manifestation in Bulgaria. While this categorization was not accepted by Western historians, it was only after the political changes in 1989 that the label "fascism" was openly challenged by Bulgarian scholars and instead, the term "authoritarian regimes" was adopted to denote the country's increasing political centralization in the mid-1920s and, especially, from the mid-1930s. Currently, a consensus has been reached between Bulgarian and international experts who have recognized that Bulgaria's agrarian social structure as well as her monarchic rule were the major barriers towards the infiltration of fascist practices and establishment of fascism in the country...Despite the military coup of 19 May 1934, it is acknowledged that Bulgaria's political system preserved a relative pluralism in its leading (governmental) sector up to the very eve of the communist takeover (1944). For more see: Svetla Baloutzova (2011). Demography and Nation: Social Legislation and Population Policy in Bulgaria, Central European University Press, p. 97, ISBN6155211922.
^The Western authorities on fascism categorically deny that a fascist regime ever existed in Bulgaria. For more see: Roumen Daskalov (2011) Debating the Past: Modern Bulgarian History: from Stambolov to Zhivkov, Central European University Press, p. 170, ISBN6155053006.
^In my opinion, Bulgaria cannot be defined as a classic fascist country, as can be said about then fascist Italy or Nazi Germany. We may treat Bulgaria as a pro-Nazi, pro-fascist country, but Bulgaria is not a fascist country at that time, says the Macedonian co-chairman of the joint Macedono-Bulgarian commission for historical and educational issues Dragi Gjorgiev. For more see: Фросина Димеска, интервjу со Драги Ѓоргиев - Имало бугарска окупација или инвазија, но не фашистичка. Радио Слободна Европа / Радио Слобода. 06.02.2022.
^John R. Lampe; Constantine Iordachi (10 September 2020). Battling Over the Balkans. Central European University Press. pp. 193–196. ISBN9789633863268. Taking into account the specifics of fascism in its Italian prototype and its other European expressions, and its development under Bulgarian conditions, we may give the following definition of the phenomenon in Bulgaria: • Ideas and political programs similar to and identical with the fascist prototype spread in Bulgarian context. Organizations with several hundred to several dozens of thousands membership were founded. • Fascism in the form of a single political organization (but also as ideology) has not been in power and has not participated in the government of the country.[...] Three major stages may be discerned in terms of ideas, ideology, propaganda, and organization in the development of fascism in the Bulgarian context: • early fascism (proto-fascism), in the first half of the 1920s, a period of active initial acquaintance with, respectively, propaganda of Italian Fascism, and of formation of the first organizational nuclei of fascist activity; • an increasing interest in the phenomenon and of the rapid development of some organizations; a period coincident both with the world economic crisis and the rise of National Socialism in Germany, namely, the period of the second half of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, until the coup of 1934; and • a fully developed fascist ideology of organizations with considerable membership, activity, and presence, in the second half of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s. For more see: Nikolai Poppetrov, Fashizmut v Bulgaria: razvitie i proyavi, translated by Rossitsa Gradeva. [Fascism in Bulgaria. Development and Activities] (Sofia: IK Kama, 2008), pp.7–9; 69–72.
^Stefan Rohdewald, Mobilization and Sacralization of the Nation through Religious Remembrance (1918–1944). In: Sacralizing the Nation through Remembrance of Medieval Religious Figures in Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia. pp. 487–841; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004516311_005
^Elenkov, Ivan & Koleva, Daniela. (2012). Historiography in Bulgaria After the Fall of Communism: Did "The Change" Happen?. HISTOREIN. 4. 10.12681/historein.87.
^Vassil Girginov; Peter Bankov (25 February 2014). Superman Supreme Fascist Body as Political Icon - Global Fascism. p. 83. ISBN9781135296940. With the end of the Communist era in 1989, a radical view emerged suggesting that Fascism never existed in Bulgaria. This is not true. Although, Bulgaria's variant of Fascism was not as total as elsewhere, inspection of the country's history provides persuasive evidence of the domination of the Fascist ideological doctrine, the efforts of various government administrations and institutions to ensure its acceptance in society and their aspiration to create an 'Aryan' manhood.
^"History must be known, because if we don't know it - we won't know the future either. Now it's becoming especially relevant, because historical knowledge has recently turned out to be extremely important. And the categorical opinion of historical science is that there was no fascist regime in Bulgaria" said the historian Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov. For more see: Проф. Овчаров: Трябва да използваме внимателно термина фашизъм. Факти.бг, 02.02.2022.
^Wien, M. (2008). The Bulgarian monarchy: A politically motivated revision of a historical image in a post-socialist transitional society. In D. Brett, C. Jarvis & I. Marin (Eds.), Four empires and an enlargement: States, societies and individuals: Transfiguring perspectives and images of Central and Eastern Europe (pp. 79–86).
^Fascist parties and organizations never became a mass movement in Bulgaria, but between 1934 and 1944 the country showed a pronounced sympathy for the Axis. For more see: Cyprian Blamires, Paul Jackson as ed. (2006) World Fascism: A-K, Volume I, A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, p. 108, ISBN1576079406.
^Frusetta, J. Interwar fascism and the post-1989 radical right: Ideology, opportunism and historical legacy in Bulgaria and Romania, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Volume 42, Issue 4, 2009, pp. 551–571, ISSN 0967-067X.
^Frusetta, J. (2010). Fascism to Complete the National Project? Bulgarian Fascists' Uncertain Views on the Palingenesis of the Nation, East Central Europe, 37 (2–3), pp. 280–302.
^Raymond Detrez, Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria (2014). Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 197, ISBN1442241802.
^Поппетров, Николай. (2008) Фашизмът в България. Развитие и прояви. "Кама", pp. 97–98, ISBN978-954-9890-92-1.
^Cyprian Blamires, (2006). World Fascism: A–K, Volume 1 of World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, pp. 107–108. ISBN1576079406.
^Исторически преглед 65 (2009) 1-2, 112. ISSN 0323-9748. Valentina Zadgorska. The circle "Zveno" and its ideology. (Summary).
^David D. Roberts (2016). Fascist Interactions: Proposals for a New Approach to Fascism and Its Era, 1919–1945. Berghahn Books, p. 252, ISBN9781785331312.
^Димитър Атанасов, България преди 9 септември 1944: имало ли е фашизъм и съпротива? Дойче веле, 21.02.2022.
^In July 1942 a law of citizenship was passed, by which all (Slavic) inhabitants were held to have acquired Bulgarian nationality on the occupation, except, theoretically, those who chose to opt for their former nationality. If they chose the latter, they had to emigrate. Many Serbs in fact fled to Serbia. For more see: Macedonia. Its Place in Balkan Power Politics. Reprint. (Greenwood Press, 1980.) p. 72.
^The question as to whether a Macedonian nation actually existed in the 1940s when the Communist Party of Yugoslavia decided to recognize one is difficult to answer. Some observers argue that even at this time it was doubtful whether the Slavs of Macedonia considered themselves to be a nationality separate from the Bulgarians (Palmer and King 1971: 199-200). For more see: Loring M. Danforth (1997) The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Princeton University Press, ISBN0691043566.
^Димитров, Пл. Рекрутиране и функциониране на българската администрация в Скопска и Битолска област 1941–1944. Във: Втората световна война и Балканите, Военно издателство, София, Сборник доклади и научни съобщения, изнесени на международна конференция в София, 20-21 юни 2001; 2002, стр. 188–203.
^Ragaru, Nadège. "Nationalization through Internationalization. Writing, Remembering, and Commemorating the Holocaust in Macedonia and Bulgaria after 1989" Südosteuropa, vol. 65, no. 2, 2017, pp. 284-315. https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2017-0019
^Crampton, Richard J. (2003). Eastern Europe in the twentieth century–and after. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN9781134712229.
^...indeed, the incoming Bulgarian troops were hailed as liberators from Serb rule. (Miller 1975; Svolopoulos 1987a; Kotzageorgi-Zymari 2002; Crampton 2008, 258–62; Livanios 2008, 102– 27). Evanthis Hatzivassiliou and Dimitrios Triantaphyllou as ed. in NATO's First Enlargement: A Reassessment, Routledge, 2017, ISBN113479844X, p. 51.
^"By the end of November, almost all of Macedonia and Serbia had been liberated and cleansed of German units. The Bulgarian army is largely responsible for achieving this goal. A military contingent of more than 450,000 troops participated in the campaign. Even though the Bulgarian offensive was undertaken with the cooperation of the Yugoslav Liberation Army, as all observers at the time noted, the latter's forces were absolutely insufficient and without Bulgarian participation, defeating the enemy would have been impossible. Another thing noted at the time was the wholly upright behavior of Bulgarian troops in Macedonia and Serbia. After conquering a given territory, the army turned over control to the new administration that was being formed from the ranks of the Yugoslav opposition. In contradiction to preliminary expectations, it was found that on the whole the local population, especially in urban areas, calmly accepted the Bulgarian military presence in the region. This generally positive attitude was connected to the idea of a future federation between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria that was beginning to be promoted." For more, see Ivaylo Znepolski et al., Bulgaria under Communism, Routledge Histories of Central and Eastern Europe, Routledge, 2018, ISBN1351244892.
^Livanios, Dimitris, The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Oxford University Publishing, 2008, ISBN0191528722, pp. 118-141.
^Jozo Tomasevich, War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: occupation and collaboration, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN0-8047-3615-4, pp. 751–752.
^Sabrina P. Ramet (2006) The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918-2005; Indiana University Press, p. 140, ISBN0253346568.
^Paul Reef, Macedonian Monument Culture Beyond 'Skopje 2014'. From the journal Comparative Southeast European Studies. https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2018-0037
^Carl Skutsch as ed., Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities, Routledge, 2013, ISBN1135193886, p. 766.
^Brunnbauer, Ulf. (2005). Pro-Serbians vs. Pro-Bulgarians: Revisionism in Post-Socialist Macedonian Historiography. History Compass. 3. 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00130.x.
^Ragaru, Nadège. "Nationalization through Internationalization. Writing, Remembering, and Commemorating the Holocaust in Macedonia and Bulgaria after 1989" Südosteuropa, vol. 65, no. 2, 2017, pp. 284-315. https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2017-0019
^Вачков, Даниел. Икономиката на комунистическа България (1944 – 1962). в Знеполски, Ивайло (ред.). История на Народна република България: Режимът и обществото. София, "Сиела", 2009. ISBN978-954-28-0588-5. с. 267 – 268.
^Marinov, Tchavdar T. "Historiographical Revisionism and Re-Articulation of Memory in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." (2010).
^Заев: Договорът ще бъде закон, ще преследвам омразата, "Дълбоката държава" е в опозицията. БГНЕС, 25.11.2020.
^Колозова: Практично сите "окупатори" биле наши луѓе, не може Бугарите да депортираат толку Евреи без локална помош. Македонски весник, 25/07/2022.
^Проф. Катерина Колозова: Потомците на партизаните в Македония претендират, че са нация, създадена от "чиста тъкан". Антифашизмът e лицето на техния фашизъм. Faktor.bg, 25 March, 2021.
^Любчо Георгиевски: В националната памет на македонците е останало само "български фашистки окупатор". БНР, 25.09.2021.
^Македонският историк професор Драги Георгиев*: България не е била фашистки окупатор. Труд, 07.02.2022.
