The Fate of the Tsarist employees in the Age of Socialism
Съдбата на царските служители в епохата на социализма
Language: Bulgarian with a summary in English
Category: Socialist period in Bulgaria

   In the following pages I tried to consider the official and life destiny of the closest and at the same time well-known employees of Tsar Boris III. I have tried to examine the official and life destinies of several of the closest and most famous servants of Tsar Boris III. I have used a wide range of Bulgarian and foreign sources, which includes data and facts found in daily and periodical publications, documents in the files of the State Agency "Archives", in the book depository and the Historical Archive of the National Library "St.St. Cyril and Methodius ”, in the funds of the Commission on Dossiers, in the documentary database of the so-called People's Court.

   For the most part publications, devoted to the problem of the tragic consequences of the decisions of the said People's Court, usually begin with the clarification that the beginning of this terrible collapse of an entire socio-political system marked the coup of September 9, 1944. It seems to me that this date is rather a consequence of another important event that happened only a few days earlier. Because it definitely plays the role of a watershed, uncompromisingly dividing the then era into two: before and after. In this case it is September 5, 1944. The date when the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria — the satellite of Hitler's Germany, which during the entire Second World War had permanent and direct diplomatic relations with Moscow. For reasons unknown the content of this document is not widely known at all. It occurs only in retold form in various sources. Here I will quote only those authentic parts of this document, which I managed to find: “For more than three years Bulgaria has been helping Germany in the war with the Soviet Union. The Soviet government took into account the fact that the small country Bulgaria was not able to resist the powerful armed forces of Germany at a time when Germany held in its hands almost all of Europe... However, the Bulgarian government still refuses to break with Germany, pursues a policy of so-called. neutrality, by virtue of which it continues to provide direct assistance to Germany against the Soviet Union... By virtue of this, the Soviet government no longer considers it possible to maintain relations with Bulgaria and states that not only Bulgaria is at war with the USSR, but the Soviet Union is also at war with Bulgaria."

  I am not a lawyer so that I can make a competent analysis of the content of the document in question. However, there is a clear statement in it, which cannot fail to impress. This is the accusation that characterizes Bulgaria as being at war with the Soviet Union. Thus, for some four days, without firing not only a cannon but also a rifle, the troops of Marshal Tolbukhin's 3rd Ukrainian Front entered undisturbed and welcomed on Bulgarian territory, creating the necessary political and military conditions for carrying out the operation September 9 coup. And who literally in a few months — from December 1944 to the first days of April 1945 — through his legal weapon, the People's Court, liquidated through its 135 branches across the country a total of 2730 people, classified as "enemies of the people“. Objectivity requires pointing out that there were people among them who deserved this most severe punishment. Suffice it to mention the completely unnecessary assassination of British Major Frank Thompson and the criminal actions of Alexander Belev, in his capacity as Commissioner for Jewish Affairs. However, the great sin of the People's Court is that it acted inadmissibly under the fast-track procedure and under external dictation.

  In 2020, Russia solemnly and deservedly celebrated the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, in which the then Soviet Union played a decisive role in the defeat of fascism. For the majority of Bulgarian historians, however, this date brings other, not so happy memories. During its military presence in Bulgaria, the Soviet Union exported a large part of our state archives. According to the above-mentioned document, as a defeated country, Bulgaria was deprived of this archival wealth, as it fell under the blows of wartime laws. This state of affairs is still valid today. The several attempts made over the years to return these archives to our country have ended without success. The lack of sufficient archival documents on this particular range of issues discussed here is felt by anyone who has expressed a desire to delve into the depths and not to walk on the surface of events.

  Unfortunately, the fate of most royal advisers and officials has a terrible end. Because, unfortunately, the above dates are tragically intertwined in their lives. Taking into account all these circumstances, I tried to trace the life and activity of a part of this group of people; their specific official duties; where this allows their way of thinking; their objective and not so realistic view of the various often contradictory state and political conflicts they have witnessed; and last but not least — to analyze the data stated in their written testimony before the People's Court and last but not least — their life destiny after September 9, 1944.   

  For me, the main question that stood in the process of my research was to what extent and whether all these people, known by the general concept of royal officials, some of whom were occasionally assigned to perform various tasks by the highest authority in the Kingdom of Bulgaria and for the performance of which they have reported to the suzerain in writing or orally, makes them guilty from a legal and public point of view on any domestic or international matter. Moreover, they did not sign any documents of state, economic, military, political or economic nature. All of these officers have never personally indicated that an illegal party activist or guerrilla should be arrested or shot. However, it is documented otherwise. Some of the royal advisers managed to save the lives of their current judges.

  Today, standing from the distance of time, we again cannot answer the elementary question, what was the guilt of the royal officials in order for the People's Court to bring them the most severe punishment? According to some authors, that was the time then. According to others, some of them deserved to be punished, although not by execution. Others consider that their legal protection was insufficiently convincing. From the next page begins its narrative a very real, based only on archival documents and facts, political history. And my goal is more than clear — in this format it will never happen again!

 Petko Mangachev

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