A Reader's Guide to Bulgaria
Sidebar on: Bulgarian History
The First Bulgarian Kingdom
Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman civilizations have each left their mark on
the Bulgarian lands, but the story of the modern Bulgarian people began with
the Slavic migrations into the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries.
The name "Bulgaria" comes from the Bulgars, a Turkic people who migrated
from the steppe north of the Black Sea, conquered the Slavic tribes and founded
the First Bulgarian Kingdom in 681. The Bulgars were absorbed in the
larger Slavic population, a process that was facilitated by the adoption of
Orthodox Christianity by Boris I in the 9th century. Under Boris's son,
Tsar Simeon I, the kingdom reached the height of its power, and its
capital, Preslav, was said to rival Constantinople in the vigor of its
commercial and intellectual life.
Bulgaria declined under Simeon's successors, and in 1014 the Byzantine emperor
Basil II won a battle over the Bulgarian army after which he ordered 14,000
prisoners to be blinded. For this Basil II took the title "Bulgaroktonus," or
Bulgar slayer, and Bulgaria was ruled by Byzantium until 1185. In that year
the brothers Ivan and Peter Asen launched a successful revolt that led
to the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom with its capital at
Turnovo. Under Tsar Ivan Asen II (r. 1218-41) Bulgaria again
dominated most of the Balkans, but by the end of the century the state was
weakened by peasant revolt and attacks from Mongols, Serbs, and finally
succumbed to the invasion of the Ottoman Turks.
The Rila Monastery
During the
nearly 500 years of the "Ottoman Yoke," Bulgaria's national customs and values
were preserved in the monasteries and in mountain villages isolated from
Turkish influence. In the 18th century Paissy, a Bulgarian monk of the
Khilendar Monastery on Mt Athos, used medieval texts to prepare a history of
his people, calling on them to remember their past and former greatness.
Paissy's history is regarded as the beginning of the National Revival
that was marked by the rapid expansion of Bulgarian schools and by the
achievement of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Exarchate in 1870.
Six years later Bulgarian revolutionaries launched the April Uprising,
whose brutal suppression created outrage in Europe and helped to provoke
the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The war ended with the Treaty of
San Stefano that created a large Bulgarian state, whose borders were based
on those of the Exarchate. The Western Powers, however, feared that Bulgaria
would be a satellite of Russia and insisted on a revision of the treaty. At
the Congress of Berlin in 1879 only the part of the country between the
Balkan range and the Danube was allowed to become an autonomous principality.
The lands south of the Balkan Range were given the name "Eastern Rumelia" under
a Christian governor appointed by the Porte. And Macedonia was returned
entirely to Ottoman administration. A convention held in Turnovo adopted a
constitution for the new state and chose Alexander Battenberg as its
first prince.
The borders of San Stefano (1878)
In 1885, when the Bulgarians of Eastern Rumelia declared their union with the
north, Serbia attacked. Prince Alexander led the Bulgarian forces to victory,
but abdicated because he had lost the good will of Russia. Ferdinand of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was elected to the throne in 1887. In 1908, Ferdinand
took the title of Tsar, and his desire to regain all the lands of the San
Stefano Treaty led to the formation of an alliance with Serbia, Montenegro, and
Greece. In the First Balkan War (1912) the allies forced Turkey to
relinquish its remaining Balkan territories. However, they fell out among
themselves and fought the Second Balkan War (1913), which Bulgaria lost.
Bulgaria was also on the losing side in World War I, and had to give up
territory to Serbia and Greece. Ferdinand was forced to abdicate, and the
throne passed to his son Boris III. The government was then in the
hands of Alexander Stamboliski, leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian
National Union, who launched a dramatic series of reforms before he was
overthrown and murdered in 1923. Gradually, Tsar Boris III with the support of
the army established his personal control over the country.
The Troyan Monastery, north-central Bulgaria
During World War II, Boris was a reluctant ally of Germany. Bulgaria declared
"symbolic war" on Great Britain and the United States, but did not send its
forces into combat and declined to deport its Jewish population to the death
camps in Poland. In September 1944 the Soviet Union suddenly declared war on
Bulgaria and quickly occupied it. In conjunction with the Soviet invasion, a
Communist-led coalition, called the Fatherland Front, seized power in
Sofia. Under Georgi Dimitrov the Communists consolidated their power,
and by the end of 1947 completely eliminated their opponents.
During the Communist era, Bulgaria acquired the reputation of being the most
loyal ally of the Soviet Union, imitating Soviet collectivization and
industrialization policies. The removal from office of longtime leader
Todor Zhivkov on 10 November 1989 began the current era of political and
economic transition.
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