The Remarkable History of Bulgaria

The geographical location at crossroads, the favourable climate and the diversity of relief are prerequisites for the interweaving of fates and routes of many tribes and peoples throughout the Bulgarian lands. The territory of Bulgaria has been inhabited since the earliest historical ages - the Stone Age and the Stone-Copper Age. Archaeological findings of that time were excavated near Karanovo, in the region of Nova Zagora, near Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Vidin, Sofia, Teteven, Troyan, in the Rhodopes Mountains. During the Bronze Age Thracians settled here. They dealt in field farming and stockbreeding and left evidence of a rich culture (the treasure of Vulchitrun, the Sofia Golden Vessel and others). In the 11th-6th centuries B.C. Thracian state units were established, which flourished between the 6th and 2nd centuries B.C. In the 1st C. B.C. their lands were conquered by the Roman Empire and in the 5th C. were included in Byzantium. During the 5th-6th centuries the Slavs settled on the Balkan Peninsula, soon to be followed by the Proto-Bulgarians. The constant threat in the face of Byzantium was the cause for these settlers to unite. Thus, in 681 the Bulgarian State was established with Khan Asparouh in the lead. Pliska became the first capital city. In the ensuing years the state went thourgh alterating periods of great power and decline.

Under the reign of Khan Tervel (700-718) Bulgaria expanded its territory and became politically powerful and stable. Under Khan Kroum (803-814) Bulgaria bordered in the west the empire of Charlemagne and in the east the Bulgarian warriors reached the walls of Constantinople.

In 864 under Knyaz Boris I Mihail (852-889) the Bulgarian people adopted Christianity as an official religion.

At the end of the 9th C. the students of Constantin-Cyril the Philosopher and his brother Methodius - founders of the Cyrillic alphabet, came to Bulgaria. Here they enjoyed favourable working conditions and shortly undertook large-scale educational and literary activities. Ohrid and Pliska, and later the new capital Veliki Preslav became the centres of the Bulgarian and, generally speaking, the Slavonic culture. The reigh of Tsar Simeon (893-917) was the "Golden age of Bulgarian culture", when the state expanded to reach the shore of three seas - the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea.

Under the successors of Simeon the state weakened due to internal turmoil; the heretical teaching of the Bogomils spread out and all that shook the foundations of Great Bulgaria.

In 1018, after years of wars and bloodshed, Byzantium conquered Bulgaria. A great struggle for liberation and independence followed. In 1186 the uprising led by the brother boyars Asen and Peter overthrew the power of Byzantium. As a result the Second Bulgarian Kingdom was established, with Turnovo as a capital city. Until 1197 the state was under the rule first of Asen and next of Peter.

The might of Bulgaria was restored under their youngest brother Kaloyan (1197-1207), and under Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218-1241) the Second Bulgarian Kingdom reached its peak establishing political hegemony in South-East Europe, expanding its borders, experiencing economical and cultural development. After 1300 the cultural life in Bulgaria marked extraordinary development. The literary and artistic school of Turnovo carried on the traditions in the Bulgarian culture – evidenced in the mural paintings in the Boyana Church, the churches in Turnovo, the Zemen Monastery, the rock churches near Ivanovo, the miniatures in the London Gospel, the Chronicle of Manasses.

Separatist tendencies, though, on the part of the boyars led to the splitting of the state in two kingdoms - the Vidin Kingdom and the Turnovo Kingdom. This weakening of the state made it an easy prey for invaders and in 1396 the Ottoman Turks conquered it. In the course of almost 5 centuries Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule. The initial years were characterised by restlessness and attempts of liberation which however were not powerful enough to oppose the invaders' armies. Later on a well-organised national liberation movement was established thanks to the haidouts (rebels) who took revenge in their own hands trying to inspire a will for revolution on a national basis.

The beginning of the 18th C. saw the first stages of the formation of the Bulgarian nation - the Bulgarian Enlightenment took off. It was initiated by the work of the monk Paisiy Hilendarski "Slav-Bulgarian History", written in 1762. This writing urged the Bulgarian people to become conscious of and appreciate its own nationality. The ideals of national liberation were conceived and led to the establishment of national church, education centers and culture.

The revolutionary activities were organised and associated with the work of George Stoikov Rakovski (1821-1867) – writer and publicist, founder and ideologist of the national liberation revolutionary movement; Vasil Levski (1837-1873) - strategist and ideologist of the movement, captured by the Ottomans and hanged near Sofia, a national hero; Lyuben Karavelov (1834-1879) - writer and publicist, leader and ideologist of the movement; Hristo Botev (1847-1876) - poet and publicist, revolutionary democrat, who got shot being a voivode (chieftain) of a volunteer detachment fighting the Ottoman army, a national hero, and many others.

1876 saw the outbreak of the April Uprising ruthlessly crushed with unprecedented bloodshed and cruelty in Renaissance Europe, but of major political significance, as it drew the attention of the European states to the Bulgarian national issue.

In 1878, as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation (1877-1878), the Bulgarian state was restored, but national integration was not yet attained. The Principality of Bulgaria was proclaimed with an elective knyaz (prince) (Alexander of Battenberg), Eastern Rumelia with a governor of Christian faith to be appointed by the sultan, while Thrace and Macedonia remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

The opposition to this unfair decision of the Congress of Berlin (1878) led to the Kresna-Razlog Uprising (1878-1879), to the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (1885), to the break-up of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising (1903). Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a prince since 1887, proclaimed the independence from Turkey and in 1908 became tsar (king) of the Bulgarian people, Bulgaria waged the Balkan War (1912) together with Serbia and Greece for the liberation of Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgaria won that war, but in the Inter-Allies War that followed (1913) was defeated by Romania, Turkey and its former allies that tore off territories populated by Bulgarians.

The intervention of Bulgaria in World War I on the side of the Central Powers ended up in a national catastrophe. In 1918 Tsar Ferdinand abdicated to the advantage of his son Boris III. The Peace Treaty of Neuilly imposed harsh clauses on Bulgaria.

World War II proved cruicial in the turn of the Bulgarian history. Being on the wrong side again (even though the country was left no other option being threatened from German troops on its northern boder) turned out to be a painful experience. However, the participation of Bulgarian troops on the Eastern Front was prevented, more than 50 000 Bulgarian Jews living in the country were rescued from deportment and certain death.

In August 1943 Tsar Boris III died and a regency was proclaimed that governed the state in lieu of the young Tsar Simeon II. On 5 September 1944 the Soviet army invaded Bulgaria and on 9 September a government of the Fatherland Front was instated headed by Kimon Georgiev. In 1946 Bulgaria was proclaimed a republic. The Bulgarian Communist party came to power. The political parties were suppressed, the economy and the banks were nationalised, and the arable land was joined in co-operatives. At the head of the state and the communist party there stood in succession George Dimitrov, Vasil Kolarov, Vulko Chervenkov, Anton Yugov, Todor Zhivkov. The long period of totalitarism during the administration of Todor Zhivkov (1950-1989) was the time when political government and party interests completely merged. The national economy stabilised during the 70s but was soon after that on the decline due to the exhausted resources by the Communist party.

Bulgaria has finally entered the period of democracy after a long and painful waiting. 10 November 1989 saw the democratic changes in Bulgaria. A new constitution was adopted, the political parties were re-established, the property, taken away in 1947, was reinstated, as was the land, privatisation started. In the new situation of real parliamentary democracy, the Bulgarian people have chosen their leaders – Presidents Zhelyo Zhelev, Peter Stoyanov and George Parvanov, and Prime Ministers Andrei Loukanov, Dimitur Popov, Filip Dimitrov, Lyuben Berov, Reneta Indzhova, Zhan Videnov, Stefan Sofiyanski, Ivan Kostov and Simeon Saxcoburgotski.