Читать книгу Walking in Bulgaria's National Parks. Pirin, Rila and Central Balkans National Parks онлайн

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The Soviet era

At the beginning of September 1944, the Soviet Union declared war on and invaded Bulgaria, allowing the communist-backed Bulgarian resistance organisation known as the Fatherland Front to assume power on 9 September. An armistice with the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States quickly followed, and two years later, in September 1946, following a rigged referendum, Bulgaria became a people’s republic, forcing the former royal family into exile.

Rila Monastery (Walk 5)

For the next four decades Bulgaria quietly functioned as a loyal Soviet-backed satellite state. However, by the late 1980s, with Gorbachev’s perestroika in full swing, the Bulgarian Communist Party was in disarray, enfeebled and unsure of its next move. With the outbreak of demonstrations in November 1989, the Communist Party had an internal shake-up, which saw the end of Todor Zhivkov’s 27-year reign. However, seeing the way the political wind was now blowing throughout Eastern Europe, the Bulgarian Communist Party cleverly decided to give up power without a fight, and instead remodelled itself as the Bulgarian Socialist Party to contest the country’s first free elections for almost 60 years. These were held in June 1990, and in their new guise the former communists did indeed find themselves immediately elected back into power.