On March 25th, Cvetkovich’s Government annexed Yugoslavia into the Trilateral Pact which is what Bulgaria had wanted to happen. Two days later, General Simovich carried out a coup d’etat in Belgrade. Hitler undertook immediate action. As early as the evening of March 27th, he signed Directive 25 for the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Bulgaria and Hungary were to be drawn into the military action by means of territorial concessions. Ambassador Draganov in Berlin was summoned on the same day to a meeting with Hitler and von Ribbentrop. The latter stated that the new situation brought forward the issue of Macedonia. On April 6th, the Wermacht advanced on Yugoslavia and Greece and eliminated their armies in a matter of days. The armies of Bulgaria’s two neighbors had not had any military limitations imposed upon them after the First World War and, in spite of this, they were crushed quickly and uncompromisingly by the German military machine. What would have happened to Bulgaria had the rulers in Sofia eventually decided to render military resistance to the German army? On April 19th, Germany gave a green light to Sofia, and the Bulgarian army entered the newly liberated territories. The White Sea region was given to Bulgaria as compensation for its entry into the Trilateral Pact. The issue of Vardar, Macedonia was suddenly solved primarily because of Serbia’s relationship with Germany. Had Yugoslavia remained loyal to Germany, this painful issue for Bulgaria would not have been solved in such a way. Germany had no intention of satisfying Bulgaria at the expense of Yugoslavia, but after the latter betrayed the Trilateral Pact, Berlin decided to punish severely Bulgaria’s western neighbor. Continuous friction with the Italians started in Macedonia. Italy wanted more of the territory of Macedonia to annex to the territory of Albania. On June 22nd Hitler made a gross blunder when he attacked the USSR without having dealt with England. In „The History of Bulgaria“, volume three, published in 1964, Stalin, who had made unilateral decisions on all important state and military issues, is blamed for the advance of the Wermacht and the lack of readiness on the part of the Red Army. Germany believed that the war against the USSR would end quickly. Yet, German plans proved wrong. The blitzkrieg failed and at the beginning of December, the invincible Wermacht was defeated near Moscow. In the early morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese air force attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor. On December 8th, the USA declared war on Japan. England joined after that. On December 11th, Germany accused the USA of having broken its neutrality, and in this way war was declared. Berlin was supported by Rome. With the Japanese declaration of war on the USA, Germany demanded that the member countries of the Trilateral Pact enter the war on the side of Japan. On December 12th, the Bulgarian Government made the disastrous decision to declare war on the USA and England. According to Bulgaria’s rulers, this was a „symbolic war“. The next day, the majority in the National Assembly approved the decision of the Government. At the end of 1941, Germany wanted Bulgaria to send three military divisions to occupy Moravia. The Government agreed to that, thinking that in this way it could evade larger obligations. Berlin did not want to resolve Bulgaria’s territorial issues since it was more convenient for them to keep Bulgaria at bay in order to submit more easily to German demands. The political map of „The Danube Area“ was published in Germany, which referred to April 1942. On this map, the territories of Macedonia and Thrace, annexed to Bulgaria, were given only for the Bulgarian Government to administer; the borders were marked as temporary. In April 1942, the Tsar made changes in the Government. The indecisive Foreign Minister Popov was removed from the Government and the other essential change was to replace the Minister of Defense General Teodosi Daskalov with General Nikola Mihov. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was taken over by Filov who also kept his post as Prime Minister. These changes were made after the Tsar visited Hitler. It is not certain whether Hitler suggested the changes in the Government. It is possible that the Tsar wanted to present the changes as such, made under German influence. Bulgaria managed to save its Jewish population, but only, it should be noted, those Jews living within the old boundaries of the country. The Jewish population from the newly annexed territories were subjected to extermination. Perhaps the most important role in the salvation of the Jews within the old boundaries of the country was played in March 1943 by the Vice Chairman of Parliament, Dimitar Peshev, who wrote a letter of protest. This letter was signed by more than 40 members of Parliament. Peshev hardly ever acted without the knowledge of the palace. However, despite the Government’s censure of the letter and the refusal of some parliamentarians to sign the letter, this was successful in saving the lives of more than 8000 Bulgarian Jews, unlike their fellow-Jews from the newly annexed territories who were taken by Bulgarian trains to the Danube River where they were handed over to the Germans. The colossal Battle for Stalingrad ended between the end of January and the beginning of February 1943. The Soviet counter-offensive which began on November 19, 1942, led to the encirclement of a large number German troops. The success of the Red Army led to the capture of more than 91,000 Germans. The Battle for Stalingrad was in actual fact the turning point of the war. From this point on, the Wermacht started slowly but surely losing its positions and retreating. Bulgarian Prime Minister Filov defined the lost battle more as a psychological defeat, not attaching to it any special military importance. By the end of 1942, both the Romanians and the Hungarians began thinking of making a separate peace with the Allies. They suggested that Italy take part in this action as well, but Mussolini refused to do it. Chano, who felt disposed to this idea, was removed from the post of Foreign Minister together with the remaining „defeatist“ ministers. The landing of British and American troops on the island of Sicily began on July 10th, and on July 25th, Victor Emanuel replaced Mussolini with Pietro Badoglio. The unconditional surrender of Italy was signed in September. Hitler decided to help his ally. Mussolini was freed by the Germans, and on September 23rd, he took his place at the head of the newly created Italian Social Republic situated in northern and central Italy.
On September 27th, Germany demanded that its satellites acknowledge the newly-created republic. The Bulgarian Government acknowledged the republic, but at the same time it did not break its relations with the royal government. On the morning of August 14th, Tsar Boris flew to Germany and returned on the afternoon of August 15th. This was the third time the Tsar had visited Hitler in that year. The same evening, Filov had an audience with the Tsar, who was not pleased with his visit to Germany. Several days after his return from his meeting with Hitler, the Tsar fell ill. Specialists were called from Berlin and Vienna, but the Tsar’s health deteriorated, and he died on the afternoon of August 28th. At first the Tsar’s illness was kept secret, and only on August 26th was an official communiqué issued, saying that the Tsar was ill. The death of the Tsar and especially the fact that it followed a meeting with Hitler has given rise to different opinions among historians and others. Yet, there is no proof for any of the speculation. Some claim that prior to falling into a coma, the Tsar said that he had fought with Hitler to protect Bulgaria. Others speculate that the Tsar was poisoned — but who did it? Some say he was poisoned by the Germans, others by the English and yet others by the Russian. Where there are no clear facts, the fantasies of some writers are unleashed and they manage to arrange the puzzle in ways that are logical to them. Yet, it is a fact that the death of the Tsar did not change the attitude of Bulgaria toward Germany. Could the Tsar have been eliminated by the Germans for wanting to break away from the German ship which was sinking slowly but surely? This is hardly possible because Germany was still too strong and the Tsar too careful to risk subjecting the country to German occupation. At that moment in the USSR, they would have hardly thought of eliminating the Bulgarian Tsar whose death would not have changed the situation in any way. The same can be said about England as well. It was necessary to reconstruct the leadership of the country after the death of the Tsar. The child Simeon could not govern the country alone, and according to the Constitution, a Regency Council had to be elected. Filov, who became the most powerful man in the country after the death of the Tsar, Prince Kiril and General Mihov were elected to be regents. Constituted in this way, the regency violated two points of the Constitution. First, the regents should have been elected by a Great National Assembly and not by an ordinary National Assembly as was the case. Second, Prince Kiril did not have the right to be a regent because he was a member of the royal family and had not held any of the posts named in the Constitution which were a requisite to being named a regent. The Minister of Finance at that time, Dobri Bozhilov, became Prime Minister. This state of affairs did not assume any changes in the foreign policy of the country, but it should be mentioned that there were no extreme Germanophiles in the Government who could have brought the country even closer to Germany which was losing the war slowly but surely. A new danger threatened Bulgaria in the autumn of 1943. The Allies began devastating bombings which terrorized the country because peaceful communities and civilian sites were being targeted. The most massive bombardment was the one that took place on January 10, 1944. A number of diplomatic notes were delivered to the Bulgarian Government by Moscow in April and May 1944. The USSR asserted that Bulgarian airports and sea ports were being used by the German army. These allegations were rejected by the Government. After that the USSR asked for the restoration of the Soviet Consulate in Varna and for the opening of Consular offices in Burgas and Ruse, but the Government set a pre-condition of developing economic relations between the USSR and Bulgaria. In actual fact, the Soviet diplomatic notes in April and May 1944 led to the fall of the Bozhilov Government. The new cabinet was headed by Ivan Bagryanov, who thought he could communicate equally well with Moscow and Berlin. On June 6th, the situation for Germany became even more unstable. England and the USA finally opened a second front against the Wermacht in France. At the end of July, the new Government agreed to restore the Soviet Consulate in Varna, whose consular district included Varna, Ruse and Burgas. If this Government had the goal of preparing for a change in Bulgarian foreign policy and extricating itself from a pact with the losing camp, its actions were too indecisive. On the other hand, the possibilities for this were slight since there were still German troops in Bulgaria. Yet the Government made a decision and in August sent to Turkey the former Chairman of the 24th National Assembly, Stoycho Moshanov, who was to contact the Allies and learn under what conditions Bulgaria could exit the war. The development of subsequent events went lightening fast. Romania capitulated on August 23rd and the Red Army landed on the Danube. On August 26th, the Government declared neutrality in the war between Germany and the USSR and announced that it was in contact with the countries with which Bulgaria was in a state of war. The regents prepare themselves to form a new Government which was to be formed from among the opposition. The leader of the Agrarian Union, Konstantin Muraviev, became Prime Minister and had to form a cabinet of a national coalition, i.e. all opposition entities had to enter the Government. But the Communists refused to enter Muraviev’s Government. On September 2nd, Muraviev presented the new Government to the regents. The USSR declared war on Bulgaria on September 5th. With this act, Moscow found a way for the Red Army to invade Bulgaria. The same day, the Government broke its relations with Germany and decided to seek a truce with the Soviet Union. The Government decided to declare war on Germany, but for military reasons the decision did not take effect until September 8th. Domestic protests took place on September 6th, 7th and 8th. Jails were broken into and political prisoners were set free. Workers went on strike. A miners’ strike in Pernik began on September 7th and escalated. The Bulgarian Communists overthrew Muraviev’s Government on the night of September 9th and replaced it with a Government of the Fatherland Front. Kimon Georgiev from Zveno became Prime Minister. One can find different explanations in the Bulgarian historic literature as to how the Fatherland Front came to power. In the so-called Marxist historiography, these events were defined as a people’s uprising and a revolution, while in the historiography after 1989, we encounter the word ‘coup’ as well. No matter how one calls the event on September 9, 1944 — an uprising, a revolution, a coup, pronunciamento, putsch, or whatever — the fact is that this was a change that determined the history of Bulgaria for four and a half decades. On September 9th, an historic, social and economic order was replaced by a radically different one. This change became possible not because it was imposed by the Bulgarian Communists, but because the Great Powers had agreed that Bulgaria would be within the Soviet sphere of influence. The new Government was composed in violation of the Constitution and the new regency appointed by the Government of the Fatherland Front was also in violation of the Constitution although hardly anyone was interested at that time. The Bulgarian army was incorporated into the structure of the Third Ukrainian Front, and an agreement was signed between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria on October 5th in Krayova which declared that the Bulgarian troops operating inside Yugoslavia were there to help expel the Germans and were not considered invaders. After the USSR declared war on Bulgaria, the issue of signing an armistice acquired a new aspect. Moshanov, who had been in Cairo since the end of August for talks with the British and the Americans, returned to Bulgaria because his mission had ended and Moscow was designated as the new location for holding talks. The armistice between Bulgaria and the Allies was signed in Moscow on October 28, 1944. Bulgarian troops were evacuated from the White Sea region, and Bulgaria entered the war against Germany. This is how the participation of Bulgaria in the so-called Patriotic War began during which many Bulgarians were killed. Yet these victims certainly contributed to a more favorable situation for the country after the end of the war with Germany. Bulgarian foreign policy on the eve of and during the Second World War is an issue of continuing interest to historians. This is undoubtedly one of the most interesting periods in Bulgaria’s new history. The Bulgarian historiography during the first two decades after the war does not make a real evaluation of the situation of the country and the conduct of its rulers. It is later that historical works appear, making a more objective evaluation of Bulgarian foreign policy in the years of the Second World War. Diaries and memoirs of participants in these events were published after the political change that took place in 1989. Unfortunately, there were research works published that pretend to be objective but which were dominated by anti-communist rhetoric. The authors of those works may have thought that in this way they would more quickly find their place in the sun of history. Yet, one is a true historian when one strives to present events objectively to a maximum degree.