Introduction

Although at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula geographically, Bulgaria was politically isolated from the region for most of the twentieth century. Until the end of the Second World War, this isolation was mainly the result of the Bulgarian political elite's irredentism aimed at restoring the state borders outlined in the San Stefano treaty (Map 1). When the communists came to power after the Second World War, they proclaimed a complete break from pre-war irredentism: the work of pre-war writers, historians and other scholars promoting irredentist views was denounced and withdrawn from circulation; military marches and patriotic songs were banned because they included references to territories belonging to neighbouring Balkan states and the communist authorities accepted the territorial status quo of the Balkan region agreed to after the Second World War.3 But, despite these political efforts, Bulgaria continued to remain politically isolated from the Balkans, even in the communist period. The Soviet Union did not support initiatives aimed at promoting multilateral cooperation between the Balkan states because it feared that through such cooperation, Moscow would lose political control over Bulgarian politics.

It is true that there have been some occasions when the Bulgarian communist regime participated in initiatives that promoted multilateral cooperation in the Balkans. Immediately after the Second World War, the BCP was part of an ill-fated attempt to create a Bulgarian–Yugoslav federal state, with a view to its eventually including other Balkan countries.