HISTORY
Despite a turbulent history, Bulgaria is the oldest surviving state in Europe to have kept its original name (since AD681) and most of the population are descendants of the Bulgar invasion of the south Danube around that time. On two occasions during the Medieval period, the Bulgarians managed to establish empires, which existed in a state of armed conflict with Byzantium. The First Empire is reckoned to have lasted from the time of Kurt (584–642) until John Vladislav’s defeat by the Byzantines in 1018; the second was the result of an opportunist revolt in 1185, led by John and Peter Asen, who managed to take advantage of an internal weakness at Constantinople (this collapsed in 1280). Bulgaria’s territory in Macedonia was then overrun by the Serbs – then the rising power in the Balkans. Their dominance was short-lived, however, as the Ottoman Turks arrived in the 1350s. Within 40 years, the country had been completely absorbed into the Ottoman Empire. Bulgaria was a stable province of the Empire, until the rise of Russia as a major player on the European scene under Catherine the Great in the 18th century; Russian strategy hinged upon its self-proclaimed role as protector of the Orthodox Christian communities within the Ottoman Empire.
In the 19th century, Bulgarian nationalists began to organize, noting the decline of the Ottoman Empire and in expectation of eventual independence. Following an uprising in 1876, Bulgarian volunteer forces, with strong Russian support, defeated the Turks and were able to establish an independent state under the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878. The remaining years of the century were fairly chaotic, as the restored monarchy and newly-formed political parties jostled for position. The most important developments were the emergence of a strong socialist movement and the politicization of the rural population, organized around the Bulgarian Agrarian Union. King Ferdinand was the dominant figure in Bulgarian politics up to World War I, although was discredited thereafter, due to his support for the Germans.
The popular Agrarian leader, Aleksandur Stambolyiski, imprisoned by Ferdinand, formed a reformist government that lasted until 1923, when it was overthrown in a right-wing coup. The government of Alexander Tsankov, which replaced Stambolyiski’s administration, established a royalist-militarist government with King Boris as head of state. The Communists had launched several unsuccessful uprisings but their chance came towards the end of World War II, when – having been relatively unaffected by the fighting – Soviet forces entered the country in 1944. King Boris conveniently died and the Soviet-backed Fatherland Front seized power. The monarchy was abolished and a republic declared. The Front, dominated by the Bulgarian Communist Party, took 70 per cent of the vote in a national plebiscite.
By the end of 1947, the Communist Party had completed its takeover of the country, instituting a Soviet-style constitution and abolishing all opposition parties. Subsequently, Bulgaria’s dominant political figure was Todor Zhivkov, under whose leadership Bulgaria became the staunchest of Moscow’s allies. In 1989, under intense domestic and international pressure, Zhivkov resigned. The first multi-party elections for 44 years were held in June 1990; the ruling Communists had restyled themselves the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), and won an absolute majority in the 400-seat National Assembly. Throughout the first half of the 1990s, Bulgaria was wracked by political instability and labor unrest, as the country was plunged into economic crisis. Five governments held office during the next six years.
The main opposition to the BSP was presented by the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), whose leader, Zhelyu Zhelev, held the presidency between 1990 and his fall as UDF leader in early 1996. His successor, Petar Stoyanov, went on to win the presidency in October 1996; the following April, the UDF also secured control of the National Assembly. A welcome period of political stability followed. But in 2001, Bulgarian politics were turned upside down by the former King Simeon II, who had not only returned to his former realm (to a rapturous welcome after 50 years in exile, in 1996) but set up a political party modestly entitled Simeon The Second National Movement. The ex-monarch evidently struck a chord with the Bulgarian people and, in June 2001, the Movement won a resounding victory at the National Assembly elections. Simeon Koburgotski (derived from his family name of Saxe-Coburg) is now Bulgaria’s premier. The Simeon Movement governs in alliance with the mainly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The old two-party mould that dominated Bulgarian politics throughout the 1990s has been fractured but not completely broken – the BSP’s Georgi Parvanov won the latest presidential election in 2001.
The priorities of the new government are much the same as those of their predecessors. Having successfully avoided significant involvement in the post-Yugoslavian imbroglio – a major worry for successive Bulgarian governments – the government is now concentrating upon a ‘national strategy’ of securing EU and NATO membership. The implementation of measures required to meet the conditions for EU membership are now causing serious difficulties for the government, which, as a result, might not survive its full four-year term. Abroad, the pursuit of NATO membership faces serious opposition from Bulgaria’s traditional ally, Russia.
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