Alexander Stamboliiski

So they resorted to conspiracy. On June 19, 1923, the legitimate government of Alexander Stamboliiski was overthrown by a coup d’etat carried out by the Military League which was loyal to the King, and a bloody fascist dictatorship was established in the country with Professor Alexander Tsankov at the head. The popular uprising against the fascist coup, which broke out in many regions of the coun-try, was crushed, and Stamboliiski was murdered after being cruelly tortured.

The usurped fascist power, however, had by far not stabilized its positions. Only three months later, on the night of September 22, 1923, a new, much better organized uprising broke out, in which agrarians and communists acted in conjunction against the common enemy. The uprising was the most massive in North-Western Bulgaria and in the region of the town of Stara Zagora. The insurgents took scores of towns and villages and es-tablished in them worker-peasant rule. The uprising was headed by the recognized Leaders of the Communist Party Vassil Kolarov, Georgi Dimitrov and Gavril Genov.

The forces of the government, however, were far superior and the insurgent forces were defeated after two weeks of fighting. As after the April 1876 Uprising, towns and villages were put to fire while the role of the bashibozouks was performed with ‘enviable’ success by the specially formed for the purpose fascist bands – Spitzkommandos.

Civilians with progressive convictions

Thousands of insurgents and civilians with progressive convictions were murdered, still other tens of thousands were thrown into prison or forced to emigrate. A new wave of white terror flooded the country after April 16, 1925, when extreme-left elements made an attempt at the life of those present at the burial service of a fascist general in the Sofia Cathedral St Nedelya. The atrocities committed by the fascist dictatorship in Bulgaria aroused the profound indignation of world public opinion and under the impact of a far-reaching international cam-paign of protest and popular hate the “bloody professor’ Tsankov was forced to resign and his place was taken by less discredited reactionary politicians.