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The Start of the Cold War in Bulgaria: A Personal View*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Cyril E. Black
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Extract

My direct experience with the Bulgarian aspect of the interallied rivalries following the Second World War extended from the planning of postwar policy in the Department of State in 1943–44 through the first year (1944–45) of American participation in the implementation of the Bulgarian armistice.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 163 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1979

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References

1 The organization, scope, and development of this work are described in U.S. Department of State, Postwar Foreign Policy Preparation, 1939–1945, Publication 3580, General Foreign Policy Series 15 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949)Google Scholar.

2 Postwar Foreign Policy Preparation, p. 51.

3 U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968), IV: 143Google Scholar, notes 26 and 27. (Hereafter cited as FRUS.)

4 Postwar Foreign Policy Preparation, pp. 372–373, 394–395; the texts of the proposal and of the final Declaration are on pp. 655–657 and 663–664.

5 FRUS, 1944, IV: 230Google Scholar.

6 Developments in Bulgaria in the summer and autumn of 1944 are discussed in Miller, Marshall Lee, Bulgaria During the Second World War (Stanford, 1975), pp. 174–216Google Scholar. The most recent Bulgarian account is Toshkova, Vitka, Bulgariia i Tretiiat Raikh, 1941–1944 (Sofia, 1975), pp. 182–234Google Scholar. The U.S. role in the armistice negotiations is covered in FRUS, 1944, III: 300–395Google Scholar.

7 FRUS, 1944, III: 449–450Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., p. 463.

9 Ibid., p. 452.

10 Woodward, Llewellyn, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War (London, 1962), pp. 307–308Google Scholar; and Resis, Albert, “The Churchill-Stalin Secret ‘Percentages’ Agreement on the Balkans, Moscow, October, 1944,” American Historical Review, 73 (04, 1978), 368–387CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the U.S. role, see Harriman, W. Averell and Abel, Elie, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–46 (New York, 1975), p. 354Google Scholar; and FRUS, 1944, III: 455Google Scholar.

11 FRUS, 1944, III: 396–479Google Scholar; and Miller, , Bulgaria, pp. 204–220Google Scholar.

12 Barnes, Maynard B., “The Current Situation in Bulgaria” (Lecture, National War College, Washington, D.C., 3 06 1947), p. 11Google Scholar.

13 Biryuzov, S. S., Surovye gody (Moscow, 1966), p. 486Google Scholar. See also pp. 522–530. On the domestic activities of the ACC, see Tanev, Stoyan, “Pomoshtta na suvetskoto voenno komanduvane za politicheskoto ukrepvane na narodnodemokratichnata vlast v Bulgariia (Septemvri 1944–1947 g.),” Voennoistoricheski sbornik, 40 (07–08, 1971), 65–81Google Scholar.

14 The political situation in Bulgaria in late 1944 and early 1945 is discussed in Oren, Nissan, Revolution Administered: Agrarianism and Communism in Bulgaria (Baltimore, 1973), pp. 79–102Google Scholar. Both the Agrarian and Communist leaders were named Georgi M. Dimitrov—with middle names of Mihov and Mihailov, respectively. Since the Agrarian was a physician by training, he was generally known as Dr. G. M. Dimitrov. His political nickname was Gemeto—literally, “the G. M.”

15 FRUS, 1945, IV: 144–154Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., pp. 191–211.

17 Ibid., p. 163.

18 Ibid., p. 169.

19 Ibid., pp. 179–181.

20 Ibid., p. 186.

21 Moser, Charles A., Dimitrov of Bulgaria: A Political Biography of Dr. Georgi M. Dimitrov (manuscript), pp. 333–359Google Scholar, provides a full account of Dimitrov's escape and subsequent events.

22 FRUS, 1945, IV: 224Google Scholar.

23 Ibid, pp. 230–231.

24 Martin, Charles H., United States Diplomacy and the Issue of Representative Government in the Former German Satellite States 1943–1946: A Study of Foreign Policy and the Foreign Policy Process (Ph.D. dissertation, Tufts University, 1974), pp. 234–311Google Scholar, provides a detailed account of the discussion at Potsdam of the complementary issues of free elections and recognition.

25 The text of Petkov's, letter is in FRUS, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), 1945 (1960), II: pp. 724–725Google Scholar; and for related comments see pp. 722–723, 728–732.

26 FRUS, 1945, IV: 284–294, 302–306Google Scholar.

27 Ibid., pp. 308–309.

28 Ibid., pp. 311–312.

29 Ibid., pp. 312–313

30 The London meeting and its aftermath are discussed in Martin, , United States Diplomacy, pp. 365–449Google Scholar.

31 FRUS, 1945, IV: 364Google Scholar.

32 Ibid., pp. 374–375.

33 Ibid., pp. 376–377.

34 Ibid., pp. 377–378.

35 The latter two documents are published in Ibid., V: 633–641; see also Ethridge, Mark and Black, C. E., “Negotiating on the Balkans, 1945–1947,” in Negotiating with the Russians, eds. Dennett, R. and Johnson, J. E. (Boston, 1951), Pp. 171–206Google Scholar. for a more general account of the mission.

36 Martin, , United States Diplomacy, p. 480Google Scholar.

37 FRUS, 1945, IV: 405–406, 409–410Google Scholar.

38 Letter from Ethridge to author, 13 February 1951.

39 Martin, , United States Diplomacy, pp. 489–504Google Scholar.

40 FRUS, 1945, II: 700–701Google Scholar.

41 Ibid., p. 822; a full account of the Moscow negotiations is available in Martin, , United States Diplomacy, pp. 539–565Google Scholar.

42 Martin, , United States Diplomacy, pp. 567–572Google Scholar.

43 Ibid., pp. 591–609.

44 FRUS, 1947, IV: 163–164Google Scholar.

45 The Trial of Nikola D. Petkov (Sofia, 1947)Google Scholar, is an official record of the proceedings; and Dr. G. M. Dimitrov published an appraisal of his colleague, Agrarian in “Bravest Democrat of All,” Saturday Evening Post, 6 12 1947, pp. 28–29Google Scholar, 208–210. Padev, Michael, Dimitrov Wastes No Bullet: Nikola Petkov: The Test Case (London, 1948)Google Scholar, provides a wellinformed account of Petkov's career.

46 Alperovitz, Gar, Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam. (New York, 1965), pp. 211–212Google Scholar.

47 Ibid., p. 216.

48 Sherwin, Martin J., A World Destroyed: The Atomic Bomb and the Grand Alliance (New York, 1975), chaps. 8 and 9Google Scholar.

49 FRUS, 1945, IV: 308Google Scholar.

50 May, Ernest R., “Lessons” of the Past: The Use and Misuse of History in American Foreign Policy (New York, 1973), pp. 27–29Google Scholar; and more recently Weil, Martin, A Pretty Good Club: The Founding Fathers and the U.S. Foreign Service (New York, 1978), pp. 195–197Google Scholar.

51 Martin, , United States Diplomacy, pp. 225Google Scholar, 230.

52 Trial of Nikola D. Petkov, p. 40

53 Bozhinov, Voin, Zashtitata na natsionalnata nezavisimost na Bulgariia, 1944–1947 (Sofia, 1962)Google Scholar; Kukov, K., Razgrom na burzhuaznata, opozitsiia, 1944–1947 g. (Sofia, 1966)Google Scholar; Dimitrov, Ilcho, Godini na prelom: Tri ocherka iz nai-novata bulgarska istoriia (Sofia, 1969)Google Scholar; and Isusov, Mito, “Otechestveniiat Front i opitite za deformirane na novata parlamentarna sistema v Bulgariia (1945–1946 g.),” Istoricheski Pregled 30, no. 4–5 (1974), 160–188Google Scholar.

54 FRUS, 1945, IV: 250–251Google Scholar.

55 Ibid., VI: 60–61.

56 Ibid., p. 66.

57 Ibid., IV: 145–148.

58 Barnes, , “The Current Situation in Bulgaria,” pp. 8–9Google Scholar.

59 Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, vol. I, Eightieth Congress, First and Second Sessions, 1947–1948 (Washington, D.C., 1976), p. 45Google Scholar.