A Reader's Guide to Bulgaria
History and Politics
The Medieval and Ottoman Periods
Two volumes by John V. A. Fine, Jr, The Early Medieval
Balkans (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983) and The
Late Medieval Balkans (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987)
provide an extensive treatment of the medieval Bulgarian Empires and of the
Turkish conquest. Both of these volumes have recently been rereleased in
paperback editions. Sir Steven Runciman's A History of the First
Bulgarian Empire (London: Oxford University Press, 1930) is an early
work by the scholar who became the doyen of Byzantine specialists.
The role of the Orthodox Church in the preservation of Bulgarian customs and
in the origins of the national revival is the subject of Dennis P. Hupchick's
The Bulgarians in the Seventeenth Century: Slavic Orthodox
Society (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1993). And an
excellent survey of the national revival itself is presented by Asen Nikoloff
in The Bulgarian Resurgence (Cleveland: published by the author,
1987). Another good survey is The Bulgarian National Revival
Period (Sofia: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1977) by Nikolai
Genchev, now the Rector of Sofia University. Thomas Meininger's, The
Formation of a
The Roman Theater in Plovdiv
Nationalist Bulgarian Intelligentsia, 1835-1878 (New York:
Garland, 1987), published in the series "Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations,"
emphasizes the role of Hellenism as an inspiration and model for the Bulgarian
revival.
Independence through World War II
Old Plovdiv, the National Revival Style
The best introduction to Bulgaria from its liberation through the Communist
period is Richard J. Crampton, A Short History of Modern Bulgaria
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1987). Crampton has also written
Bulgaria 1878-1918: A History (New York: East European
Monographs, 1983) which supplements the story of political and diplomatic
events with analyses of social and economic developments. There are a number
of specialized works in English that deal with specific aspects of Bulgaria's
development. In The Establish-ment of Constitutional Government in
Bulgaria (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1943), Cyril E. Black
describes the making of the Turnovo Constitution and the struggle to preserve
it during the reign of the country's first prince. Duncan Perry's Stefan
Stambolov and the Emergence of Modern Bulgaria, 1870-1895 (Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 1993) examines the life of Bulgaria's "strongman" from
his youth in the struggle for independence through his preservation of
Bulgaria's independence in the crisis that followed the abdication of Prince
Alexander. Bulgaria's last two tsars are the subjects of entertaining and
informative biographies: Stephen Constant, Foxy Ferdinand, 1861-1948:
Tsar of Bulgaria (London: Sidgwich & Johnson, 1979), and Stephane
Groueff, Crown of Thorns: The Reign of King Boris III of Bulgaria,
1918-1943 (Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1987). Both are quite
sympathetic to their subjects and to the principle of monarchical government.
Publication of the latter in Bulgaria has provided much of the inspiration for
the growth of a movement to restore the dynasty.
Queen Giovanna, Boris III, Metropolitan Stefan, 1940.
The most original and interesting political development in twentieth-century
Bulgaria was the rise of the Agrarian movement as the principal opponent of
ultranationalism and royal pretensions. The ideas and program of its most
prominent leader are examined in John D. Bell, Peasants in Power:
Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union,
1899-1923 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977). The BANU also
led the opposition to the communization of Bulgaria after 1944, a subject that
is the focus of Charles Moser, Dimitrov of Bulgaria (Ottawa, IL:
Caroline House, 1979), the biography of Dr. G. M. Dimitrov.
Research on Bulgaria in the Second World War provided cover for Marshall Lee
Miller, whose primary assignment in Sofia was to gather information on
Bulgaria's military for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The public result of
his work Bulgaria During the Second World War (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1975) concentrates on the diplomacy of the war, the
resistance movement, and the defeat and occupation. A considerable literature
has developed over the question of how Bulgaria's Jews survived the war, much
of it devoted to assigning credit to particular individuals or forces, i.e.
Tsar Boris, the Communist Party. The most scholarly and objective treatment of
the question is found in Frederick Chary, The Bulgarian Jews and the
Final Solution (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972).
The Communist Period
Todor Zhivkov, Party leader, 1954-1989
The early history of Bulgarian Communism is described by Joseph Rothschild in
The Communist Party of Bulgaria: Origins and Development,
1883-1936 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959). Rothschild's
student, Nissan Oren continued the story in Bulgarian Communism: The Road
to Power, 1934-1944 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971). Both
books provide detailed background on the question of how an influential
Communist party emerged in an overwhelmingly agrarian country. Oren's book
also deals with the personalities and early careers of several figures who
remained powerful for decades after World War II. Oren has also written
Revolution Administered: Agrarianism and Communism in Bulgaria
(Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973), which interprets
twentieth-century Bulgaria as shaped by the forces of Stamboliski's
Agrarianism, the royalist nationalism of Boris III, and Communism. In
Bulgaria under Communist Rule (London: Pall Mall Press, 1970)
covers the period from 1953 to 1968 and is the product of research in the
extensive facilities of Radio Free Europe in Munich. John D. Bell's The
Bulgarian Communist Party from Blagoev to Zhivkov (Stanford: Hoover
Institution Press, 1987) builds on these works and benefits from the
liberalization in Bulgarian scholarship in the late 1970s, which made much new
information available.
Removing the red star from Sofia's Party House.
Michael M. Boll, a former Foreign Service officer, examined the Communist
takeover of Bulgaria from the viewpoint of Washington in Cold War in the
Balkans: American Foreign Policy and the Emergence of Communist Bulgaria,
1943-1947 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1984). Cyril
Black, who was an eyewitness to the events, describes "The View from Bulgaria,"
in Thomas Hammond, ed. Witnesses to the Origins of the Cold War
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982). A fruit of the warm
relationship that developed between Todor Zhivkov and British press lord Robert
Maxwell is Todor Zhivkov: Statesman and Builder of New Bulgaria
(New York: Pergamon, 1985), which includes a biographical sketch, selections
from Zhivkov's speeches on significant issues, and a conversation between
Maxwell and the Bulgarian leader. An official biography, Todor Zhivkov:
A Biographical Sketch (Sofia: Sofia Press, 1981) has been disseminated
around the world in several languages and remains a profound source of
embarrassment to those Bulgarian historians who took part in its preparation.
A profound sense of daily life in Zhivkov's Bulgaria can be gained from the
essays of Georgi Markov that were originally broadcast by the Bulgarian Service
of the BBC. Unfortunately, only a rather pedestrian English translation is
available in the volume The Truth that Killed (New York: Ticknor
& Fields, 1984). Markov's assassination in London by a poison pellet shot
from an umbrella attracted wide attention. This and other examples of
Bulgarian/Soviet espionage are the subject of Vladimir Kostov, The
Bulgarian Umbrella: The Soviet Direction and Operation of the Bulgarian Secret
Service in Europe (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988). Kostov, a
defector from Bulgaria's State Security was himself nearly killed in a similar
assassination attempt.
Events since 1989
The best source of analysis for events in Bulgaria after Todor Zhivkov was
removed from office are the research reports of Radio Free
Europe. The journal Current History has published two
articles devoted primarily to political developments: John D. Bell,
"'Post-Communist' Bulgaria," (December, 1990), and Luan Troxel, "Bulgaria:
Stable Ground in the Balkans?" (November, 1993). A sampling of feeling in
Bulgaria in the last years of the Zhivkov regime and immediately following his
fall can be found in Philip Ward, Bulgarian Voices: Letting the People
Speak (New York: Oleander Press, 1992).
Related Sidebars
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