Story thread · 2 reports / 1 sources

September 9, 1944: Military Coup Redirects Bulgaria's Twentieth Century

bta.bg · 5dShare

On the night of September 8-9, 1944, a small, well-coordinated operation in Sofia overthrew the government of Konstantin Muraviev and installed a coalition led by the communist-dominated Fatherland Front. Within hours, Bulgaria's role in the Second World War changed from that of a reluctant Axis partner to that of a Soviet-backed co-belligerent against Germany. What began as a narrowly executed putsch by a few hundred officers, soldiers and partisan fighters became, over the following eighteen months, the foundation of more than four decades of communist rule. On September 5, 1944, the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria, despite the two countries never having been formally at war and despite the Muraviev government's efforts to secure neutrality. The presence of Soviet troops on the Danube created the conditions for a rapid political upheaval. That same day, the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers' Party and the general staff of the People's Liberation Insurgent Army began pl

First report: Observances: September 9 — bta.bg, 6d