BULGARIA AT THE CROSS ROADS

Evening Star, Issue 23818, 24 February 1941, Page 11

BULGARIA AT THE CROSS ROADS

COUNTRY WITH STOREY HISTORY THE MACEDONIAN BANDS WHERE KING BORIS STANDS [Written by F.M., for the ‘Evening Star,’] - Sixtv-three years ago the Bulgarians were Tiberated* from 500 years of Turkish rule. During this .short time of freedom this hard-working and poor peasant nation has had to fight in five wars, and to-day the whole world wonders if it will have to fight in a sixth. This nation of six million . people has lived through the darkest and most glorious hours of history. Through the splendour of a hig ancient empire, through 500 years of foreign yoke, through wars and civil wars, it has preserved its language, its culture, and its sense of unity. Bulgarian history is one of the most thrilling stories one can read.

Before the fifteenth century the Bulgarian Empire was one of the biggest countries in Europe. The Bnlgars, a Turanian race akin to the Avars and Huns, settled between the month of the Danube and the ARgean Sea, and built up a country that could well compete with the Byzantine Empire. But the rich Bojars, as the feudal lords were called, quarrelled among themselves. and made a successful invasion of the Turks possible. The Turks, who ruled there COO years, soon found out the best way to suppress the Bulgarian nation was to exterminate its language and culture. For hundreds of years there was no written language, and the language was spoken only among the peasants in remote villages in the Balkan mountains. But the Turks could not suppress the Christian faith, and the language was resurrected In- the monks of the Greek Orthodox Church. : In the middle of the nineteenth century a monk from the monastery on Mount Atlios wrote and printed a Bulgarian grammar. The son of a peasant, he went among the peasants and taught them to read and to write in the Bulgarian language. A new wave of patriotism wont through the nation, of which one result was a church revolution. The Bulgarians belonged to the GreekOrthodox Church. The Greek Church favoured the use of the Greek language. and would make' no concession on the question. So the Bnlgars founded the Orthodox Bulgarian Church, to which the majority of the nation to-day belongs. INDEPENDENCE RECOVERED. The Turkish Empire began to shake. When the Sorbs fought for their independence the Bnlgars were not ready. An uprising was suppressed by such bloody methods that Gladstone called on the conscience of the whole Christian world not to tolerate those methods. When Russia declared war against Turkey a Bulgarian legion fought on the side of Russia. After Russia won the war, Bulgaria received her independence, but was still under a kind of vassalage to Turkey. The Congress of Berlin fixed the new borders of Bulgaria, and in 1878 a Gorman prince, Alexander of Batten-berg,-a relative of the Russian Tsar, took over the regency.

Alexander found a different country from what he l had been used to deal with. Eighty-one per cent, of the population were Bulgnrs and 11 per cent. Turks; 88 per cent, of the country is agricultural, ■34 per cent, forests, and 27 per cent, hilly and unproductive; 80 per cent, of tile population are engaged in agriculture and side linos. The tortile soil is very rich, hut the peasants are very poor, and the methods of cultivation are very primitive. The peasant ploughs the soil with a hand plough. In the time of Alexander the main product of the country was wheat, but after the World War the soil was used for growing tobacco, and Bulgaria is to-day one of the greatest tobacco producers. Another important product is oil from roses used for cosmetic purposes. The foreign trade consists mainly of an exchange of agricultural products for manufactured goods. This country gave itself in 1878 one of the most democratic Constitutions in Europe, and had a parliament (Sobranje) of 227 members.

THE BALKAN WARS. Alexander reigned first with .Russian help, but growing tendencies m Bulgaria favoured complete independence fr6m all foreign rule. Alexander was in favour of these tendencies, and was therefore forced by Russia to abdicate. Ferdinand of Saxe Ooburg-Gotha. a near relative of Prinef Albert, the husband (,i Queen Victoria, took over the Regentship. Though he was at first Russopliile, Ferdinand later followed the same policy as his predecessor, Alexander, but with more success. He, too. wanted an absolutely independent Bulgarin, and in the first Balkan war against Turkey in 3912 Bulgaria took a large portion of land from Turkey and shook off her vassalage. Ferdinand proclaimed himself Tsar of Bulgaria, but in the Second Balkan "War in 19Ri, when the country fought against her former allies, Greece and Serbia, a large part of this territory was lost again. Russia gave it to Serbia, and consequent!v Bulgaria broke her friendship with Russia, in spite of the fact that it was Russia she had to thank for her independence. THE MACEDONIAN BANDS. The Second Balkan War brought into existence a question which is not settled even to-day, and which brings many troubles to the Balkans, and especially to Bulgaria. It is the Macedoniau question. The Macedonians are a poolpeasant people with a great history and great ambitions, in the Balkan wars Macedonia was divided between Bulgaria. Serbia, and Greece. Since that time the Macedonians have been lighting for the union of their country. Wanting to be under Bulgarian rule, their fight R supported by Bulgaria, and the J.M.I’.U. (International Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation) is a powerful factor inside Bulgaria. During the last years the Governments of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece liked to designate the Macedonians as a nation of murderers and robbers, but this is not so. The Macedonians do not hesitate to use every moans to reach their goal.. They are prepared to make friends with anybody who promise them the union of their country. Germany, of course, is using the Macedonians as her tool. The Macedonians do not like the Gormans at all. but they are siding with them because Germany is the only Rower to promise fbpm help. .To advertise theiv cause in the world. Hu Macedonians do not reject political assassination. King Alexander was shot bv them. Maim- Panitza was shot in the Opera House in Vienna by a Macedonian woe-an. In 10.'!'.' the Miieedon:an- fought a street tvqie in Sofia under flu- windows of [he Royal

Palace, the King looking on. The Macedonian youtli are educated by the Macedonian movement to undertake ail sacrifices for the resurrection of their country. All three Governments tried to suppress the .Macedonian movement by the bloodiest means, with mass execution, extermination of whole villages. and mass imprisonment, but so far they have not succeeded, and it., ■seems that there will be no peace in the Balkans as long as this question is unsettled.

Ju the Balkans political assassination is used by nearly all parties. Most of tlie leading Balkan politicians have been assassinated. [Most political prisoners do not leave their prisons alive. THE WORLD WAR AND AFTERWARDS. In the World War Bulgaria sided with Germany, because Germany promised if she was victorious to return the lost parts of Macedonia to Bulgaria. The peasant leader Stainboliski fought against this policy, and asked that Bulgaria should side with the Allies. He was imprisoned, but bad to be released when the war went against Bulgaria, and led an army against Sofia, asking for the abdication ol Ferdinand. Ferdinand abdicated, and his soi\ Boris was proclaimed Tsar of Bulgaria. Ferdinand went hack to Germany and lives still in Coburg.

Tito Peace Treaty of Nenilly took a big territory away from Bulgaria. Yugoslavia received a larger part of Macedonia, Greece received Bulgaria’s only outlet to the rEgcau Sea, and Rumania received the country at the mouth of the Danube, the Dobrudja. Bulgaria never agreed to this cession of territory, and has claims against all her neighbours except Turkey. Hungary and Bulgaria arc the two revisionist countries in Europe, who proclaimed that tbjy would never give up their claims to frontier revision. The reparations which Bulgaria had to pay wore paid by her regularly.

Stainboliski introduced a kind of peasant dictatorship. His party, which was the strongest party and had the support of the Communists, worked out a programme of South Slav unity under peasant, leadership. Stainboliski dissolved all parties except his own and introduced reforms which have not been withdrawn by any of the succeeding governments. He divided the big estates of the Government, church, and large landowners among the small peasants. Consequently the land is owned by small peasants. To make it possible for them to cultivate the land by modern methods peasant collectives have been founded. Peasants of a village own the machines for their fields in common. They bring their products to the peasant co-operatives, where they are sold and the profit is divided. A big system of peasant credit eo-oper.i-tives has been built up. The railways, coal mines, and most important hanks went over to State ownership. Bulgaria was the first country to introduce a one-year compulsory labour service for men and women. Stainboliski found out that it was impossible for the country to remain in ■political isolation. A Balkan treaty between Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Greece was signed, directed against the revisionistic ambitions of Bulgaria. Stainboliski tried to improve relations with Yugoslavia. The main obstacle to improving these relations was the Macedonians, and so ho tried to suppress the Macedonian movement, but this for Stainboliski was a fatal policy.

Tlio Macedonians, together with reactionary army officers and deprived landowners, made in 11)23 a coup d’etat. Staniboliski was shot, his followers murdered and imprisoned. A Government under the leadership of Czankov ruled by the most horrible methods of repression and terror. An era of civil disturbances followed, with continuous terror, bomb plots and murders, culminating in the great bomb explosion in the Cathedral of Sofia in 1925. Dimitrof, who is known by the Reichstag fire trial in Germany and who to-day is secretary of the Communistic International in Moscow, was the head of au uprising in 1923. In 192(1 the Czankov Government had to abdicate. A democratic Government restored order, a Parliament, earlier dissolved by Stamboliski, was elected again, and the Macedonian organisation was dispersed. Relations with Yugoslavia improved, and Bulgaria obtained a loan from the League of Nations, which was used to settle the refugees from territories ceded to her neighbours. But the Macedonian organisation became active again. In 1933 a coup d’etat carried out by officers and the Pascist Party overthrew the democratic Government and forced the King to dissolve Parliament and parties. But the Macedonians, who supported this coup d’etat, were suppressed and their leaders shot.

This Fascist regime, however, did- not last long. The King, who had so far kept in the background, seized power himself in 19,‘35, and sent the leaders of the coup d’etat to prison. Parliament was elected again, but parties were not allowed. The last parliamentary election in 1940 returned 140 Government suppporters against 20 Opposition deputies. In 19138 rearmament was taken up, military conscription introduced, and a non-aggression pact with Yugoslavia concluded. KING BORIS. • King Boris holds a special position in Bulgaria’s political life. His manner of life is very simple, and lie has won the lovo ami appreciation of all citizens. Ho married an Italian princess, and a few years ago a Crown Prince was born who was named Simon. There was great joy throughout the country. By a Royal decree all school children received extra marks in the schools, so that in that year no child failed. King Boris’s main concern was to achieve the revisionist aims of his country without a. war. But the world situation did not allow him to accomplish his aim. In giving up its democratic institutions the country had to follow the path of Fascism, and Fascism means aggression and the suppression of small nations. Bulgaria made the same mistakes as most of the Furouean States. 'Pile unwillingness to help one another in ease of aggression, (he giving up of the ideals of collective security, did not keep any nation out of the war. but if made it possible for Germany to swallow up one small State after another. It looks as if Bulgaria will bo the next helping.