Political Circle "Zveno"
Политически кръг "Звено"
LeadersKimon Georgiev
Damyan Velchev[1]
Dimo Kazasov
Founded1930; 94 years ago (1930)[2]
Dissolved1949; 75 years ago (1949)
Preceded byMilitary Union [bg][3]
Succeeded byPeople's Union "Zveno"[4]
HeadquartersSofia, Bulgaria
Youth wingYouth Union "Zveno"[5][6]
PublicationsZveno, Izgrev, Brazda [bg][7]
IdeologyTechnocratic oligarchy[8][9]
Anti-parliamentarism[10]
Authoritarian conservatism[11]
Corporate statism[12]
Yugoslav irredentism[13][14]
Political positionRight-wing[15]
Political allianceFatherland Front (from 1943)

Zveno (Bulgarian: Звено, lit. 'link'), Politicheski krag "Zveno", officially Political Circle "Zveno" was a Bulgarian political organization, founded in 1930 by Bulgarian politicians, intellectuals and Bulgarian Army officers. It was associated with a newspaper of that name.

As a palingenetic nationalist movement, Zveno advocated for rationalization of Bulgaria's economic and political institutions under a dictatorship that would be independent from both the Soviet Union and the Axis powers. They strongly opposed the Bulgarian party system, which they saw as dysfunctional, and the terror of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), the Bulgarian Macedonians' liberation movement. Zveno was also closely linked to the so-called Military League, the organization behind a coup in 1923, responsible for killing Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski.

In 1934, pro-Zveno officers like Colonel Damyan Velchev and Colonel Kimon Georgiev seized power. Georgiev became Prime Minister. They dissolved all parties, political organizations and trade unions and openly attacked the IMRO. As a political organization itself, Zveno dissolved itself. The new government introduced a corporatist economy, similar to that of Benito Mussolini's Italy. As a nationalist organization, Zveno changed many of the Ottoman-era Turkish place names of villages and towns in Bulgaria to Bulgarian ones. King Boris III, an opponent of Zveno, orchestrated a coup through a monarchist Zveno member, General Pencho Zlatev, who became Prime Minister (January 1935). In April 1935, he was replaced by a civilian, Andrey Toshev, also a monarchist. After participating in the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1934, Zveno supporters declared their intention to immediately form an alliance with France and to seek the unification of Bulgaria into an Integral Yugoslavia.[16] Zveno supported an Integral Yugoslavia that included Bulgaria as well as Albania within it.[17]

In 1943, Zveno joined the anti-Axis resistance movement, the Fatherland Front. In September 1944, the Fatherland Front engineered a coup d'état. Georgiev became Prime Minister and Velchev Minister of Defense, and they managed to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Soviet Union.

In 1946, Velchev resigned in protest against communist actions, while Georgiev was succeeded by communist leader Georgi Dimitrov, after which Bulgaria became a People's Republic. Georgiev remained in government until 1962, but Zveno was disbanded as an autonomous organization in 1949. Zveno continued to exist within the Fatherland Front but was only a puppet organization by then.

References

  1. ^ Crampton, R. J. (1997). A Concise History of Bulgaria. Cambridge University Press. p. 162. ISBN 9780521567190.
  2. ^ Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007, February 2). Zveno Group. Encyclopedia Britannica. "[...] Founded in 1930, the Zveno Group was led by Col. Kimon Georgiev and was composed primarily of radical civilians, who had become disillusioned with a government hampered by military domination, irresponsible political parties, and uncontrolled terrorist activities. [...]"
  3. ^ Hall, Richard C. (2014). War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia. ABC-CLIO. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-61069-030-0.
  4. ^ Недев, Недю (2007). Три държавни преврата или Кимон Георгиев и неговото време. София: „Сиела“. ISBN 978-954-28-0163-4. pp. 654–656.
  5. ^ (from 3 May 1946)
  6. ^ Недев, Недю (2007). Три държавни преврата или Кимон Георгиев и неговото време. София: „Сиела“. ISBN 978-954-28-0163-4. pp. 654–656.
  7. ^ Иванчев, Димитър (1962). Български периодичен печат 1844 – 1944. Анотиран библиографски указател, том 1 А-М (PDF). София: Български библиографски институт „Елин Пелин“, „Наука и изкуство“. p. 103. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  8. ^ Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007, February 2). Zveno Group. Encyclopedia Britannica. "[...] It imposed strict censorship on newspapers, prohibited trade unions, and reorganized the educational system to stimulate the training of more technicians and scientists and to discourage the formation of a large intelligentsia. [...]"
  9. ^ (2009). THE CIRCLE “ZVENO“ AND ITS IDEOLOGY (Summary) pp. 1–2. ISSN 0323-9748.
  10. ^ Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007, February 2). Zveno Group. Encyclopedia Britannica. "[...] The Zveno government, advised by Velchev, assumed a dictatorial character, dissolved Parliament, and abolished all political parties. [...]"
  11. ^ Недев, Недю (2007). Три държавни преврата или Кимон Георгиев и неговото време. София: „Сиела“. ISBN 978-954-28-0163-4. pp. 198-199.
  12. ^ Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo, eds. (7 September 2011). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. SAGE Publications (published 2011). ISBN 9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020. [...] fascist Italy [...] developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932-1968) and Brazil (1937-1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933-1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe.
  13. ^ Khristo Angelov Khristov. Bulgaria, 1300 years. Sofia, Bulgaria: Sofia Press, 1980. P. 192.
  14. ^ Plamen S. Tsvetkov. A history of the Balkans: a regional overview from a Bulgarian perspective. EM Text, 1993. Pp. 195.
  15. ^ Sygkelos, Yanis (2011). Nationalism from the Left. BRILL. p. 254.
  16. ^ Khristo Angelov Khristov. Bulgaria, 1300 years. Sofia, Bulgaria: Sofia Press, 1980. P. 192.
  17. ^ Plamen S. T︠S︡vetkov. A history of the Balkans: a regional overview from a Bulgarian perspective. EM Text, 1993. P. 195.

External links

Political parties in Bulgaria
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