The territory of Bulgaria has been inhabited since the earliest historical times.

Bulgaria’s historical heritage is related to the rich culture of Ancient Thrace. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Bulgarian land was incorporated in the Byzantine Empire.

In the second half of the 7th century, today’s northeastern Bulgaria was inhabited by Proto-Bulgarians. In alliance with the Slavs they formed the Bulgarian State, which was recognised by the Byzantine Empire in 681 AD. Khan Asparouh stood at the head of that state and Pliska was made its capital.

Under Khan Kroum (803-814 AD) Bulgaria bordered with the empire of Charles the Great to the west, and to the east the Bulgarian troops reached the walls of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

In 864 AD, during the rule of Prince Boris I Michail (852-889 AD), the Bulgarians adopted Christianity as their official religion. This act abolished the ethnic differences between Proto-Bulgarians and Slavs, and started building a unified Bulgarian nation.

In late 9th century the brothers Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius created and disseminated the Cyrillic alphabet. The cities of Ochrid and Pliska, and subsequently the new capital city Veliki Preslav as well, became centres of Bulgarian culture, and of Slavonic culture as well.

The Slavonic alphabet spread to other Slavic countries. Today, it is used in Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Belarus.

The reign of King Simeon I (893-927 AD) marked the “Golden Age of Bulgarian Culture”, and the territory of his state reached the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea.

In 1018, after prolonged wars, Bulgaria was conquered by the Byzantine Empire. From the very first years under Byzantine rule, the Bulgarians started fighting for their freedom. In 1186, the uprising led by two boyars, the brothers Assen and Peter, overthrew the domination of the Byzantine Empire. The Second Bulgarian Kingdom was founded, and Turnovo became the new capital. After 1186, Bulgaria was initially ruled by Assen, and after that by Peter.

The earlier power of Bulgaria was restored during the reign of their youngest brother, Kaloyan (1197-1207), and during the reign of King Ivan Assen II (1218 -1241) the Second Bulgarian Kingdom reached its greatest upsurge: political hegemony was established in Southeastern Europe, the territory of the country spread to the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea, the economy and culture developed.

In 1235, the Head of the Bulgarian Church was given the title of Patriarch.

The strife among some of the boyars resulted in the division of Bulgaria into two kingdoms: the kingdoms of Vidin and Turnovo. This weakened the country and it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1396. For nearly five centuries Bulgaria was under Ottoman domination. The initial years were characterised by sporadic and unorganised attempts to win freedom. Later the appearance of the clandestine fighters, the “haydouts”, made the emergence of a well-organised national liberation movement possible.

The start of the organised revolutionary movement for liberation from Ottoman domination is associated with the work of Georgi Sava Rakovski (1821-1867) - writer and journalist, founder and ideologist of the national-liberal liberation movement.

The main figures in the national liberation movement were Vassil Levski (1837-1873) - strategist and ideologist of the movement and national hero; Lyuben Karavelov (1834-1879) - writer and journalist, leader and ideologist of the movement; Hristo Botev (1848-1876) - poet and journalist, revolutionary, democrat, national hero, and many other Bulgarians.

In 1876 the April Uprising broke out - the first significant and organised attempt at liberation from Ottoman domination. The uprising was brutally crushed and drowned in blood, but it drew the attention of the European countries to the Bulgarian national issues.

In 1878, as a result of the Russian-Turkish War of Liberation (1877-1878), the Bulgarian State was restored. The Congress of Berlin (1878) divided the Bulgarian territories into three parts: the Principality of Bulgaria was proclaimed - with Prince Alexander Battemberg at its head, Eastern Rumelia - with a Christian Governor appointed by the Sultan, while Thrace and Macedonia remained under the domination of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1879, the first Constitution of Bulgaria was adopted and it was one of the most democratic at the time.

The decisions of the Congress of Berlin (1878) triggered the Kresna-Razlog Uprising (1878-1879), which in 1885 led to the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. The Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising also broke out (1903), striving for the liberation of Macedonia and Ochrid region.

Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Bulgarian Prince since 1887, proclaimed Bulgaria’s independence from Turkey and in 1908 became king of the Bulgarian people. Bulgaria took part in the Balkan War (1912) and fought together with Serbia and Greece for the freedom of Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgaria won that war, but in the subsequent war among the allies (1913) it was defeated by Romania, Turkey and by its earlier allies, who tore from her territories with a Bulgarian population.

The intervention of Bulgaria in World War I on the side of the Central Powers ended in a national catastrophe. The Neuilly Peace Treaty of 1919 imposed severe provisions on Bulgaria: it lost a great part of its lands.

In the early 1940s, Bulgaria led a policy in the interest of Germany and the Axis powers. Later Bulgaria declared war on the USA and the UK, but Bulgarian cavalry units did not fight on the Eastern Front. King Boris III supported the public pressure and did not allow the deportation of about 50,000 Bulgarian Jews.

After the end of World War II, Bulgaria was under the political and economic influence of the Soviet Union. In 1946 Bulgaria was proclaimed a Republic. The Communist party came to powerThe Queen-Mother, King Simeon ²² and Princess Maria-Louisa left Bulgaria for Egypt via Turkey. The Bulgarian Communist Party came to power. The political parties outside the Fatherland Front were banned, the economy and banks were nationalised, the arable land was organised in cooperatives.

The date 10 November 1989 marked the beginning of the democratic changes in Bulgaria. A new Constitution was adopted (1991). Bulgaria chose the way of democratic development and market economy.

Bulgaria’s foreign policy is oriented to cohesion with the European structures. The country has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1991. In 2004, Bulgaria joined NATO. In 1995, Bulgaria started the process of accession to the European Union. In 1999, it started the accession negotiations. On 25 April 2005, in Luxembourg was signed the Treaty of Accession of Republic of Bulgaria to the European Union.

The region now called Bulgaria was once part of the Roman Empire and comprised parts of the provinces of Thrace and Moesia. It was inhabited by the Thraco-Illyrians. Beginning in the 6th century ad Slavic peoples migrated into the region and either absorbed or drove out the original inhabitants. During the latter part of the 7th century Bulgars (people of Turkic stock) migrated from their domain on the east side of the Black Sea, crossed the lower reaches of the Danube, and subjugated Lower Moesia, then a province of the Byzantine Empire. Imperial armies failed repeatedly to dislodge the invaders during the 8th century. Fewer in number than the Slavic population of Lower Moesia, the Bulgars gradually became Slavicized during this period. By the end of the century they had annexed considerable additional territory and laid the foundations for a strong state under Khan Krum, who reigned from 803 to 814. The Krum armies inflicted a devastating defeat on an invading Byzantine force in 811 and, assuming the offensive, nearly succeeded in 813 in taking Constantinople. Bulgarian-Byzantine relations were thereafter relatively peaceful and continued to be so during the first half of the 9th century. The immediate successors of Krum enlarged their dominions, mainly in the region of Serbia and Macedonia. In 860, however, during the reign (852-889) of Boris I, Bulgaria suffered a severe military setback at the hands of the Serbs. Four years later Boris, responding to pressure from the Byzantine emperor Michael III, made Christianity the official religion of the khanate. Boris accepted the primacy of the papacy in 866, but in 870, following the refusal of Pope Adrian II to make Bulgaria an archbishopric, he shifted his allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

A. First Bulgarian Empire

In the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Bulgaria became the strongest nation of Eastern Europe during the reign of Boris’s son Simeon. A brilliant administrator and military leader, Simeon introduced Byzantine culture into his realm, encouraged education, obtained new territories, defeated the Magyars (Hungarians), and conducted a series of successful wars against the Byzantine Empire. In 925 Simeon proclaimed himself Emperor of the Greeks and Bulgars. He conquered Serbia in 926 and became the most powerful monarch in contemporary Eastern Europe. Simeon’s reign was marked by great cultural advances led by the followers of St Cyril and his brother St Methodius, the “apostles of the Slavs” (see Cyril (827-869) and Methodius (c. 826-884), SS). During this period Old Church Slavonic, the first written Slavic language, and the Cyrillic alphabet were adopted.

Weakened by domestic strife and successive Magyar raids, Bulgarian power declined steadily during the following half-century. In 969 invading Russians seized the capital and captured the royal family. The Byzantine emperor John I Tzimisces, alarmed over the Russian advance into south-eastern Europe, intervened (970) in the Russo-Bulgarian conflict. The Russians were compelled to withdraw from Bulgaria in 972, and the eastern part of the country was annexed to the Byzantine Empire. Samuel, the son of a Bulgarian provincial governor, became ruler of western Bulgaria in 976. Samuel’s armies were annihilated in 1014 by the Byzantine emperor Basil II, who incorporated the short-lived state into his empire in 1018.

B. Second Empire and Turkish Rule

Bulgarian Castle

Bulgarian Castle
In 1185 Bulgarians freed themselves from Byzantine rule. They established an empire that lasted about 145 years before Serbs, and then Turks, conquered the region. This castle, which dates from that period, stands in Nessebur, in east-central Bulgaria.
Encarta Encyclopedia
Christo Popoff Studio

Full Size

Led by the nobles Ivan Asen and Peter Asen, the Bulgarians revolted against Byzantine rule in 1185 and established a second empire. It consisted initially of the region between the Balkan Mountains and the Danube; by the early 13th century it included extensive neighbouring territories, notably sections of Serbia and all of western Macedonia. In 1204, following the Latin occupation of Constantinople, Ivan and Peter’s brother, Kaloyan (reigned 1197-1207) temporarily broke with the Eastern Orthodox Church and accepted the primacy of the pope (renouncing it again in 1234). Ivan Asen II (reigned 1218-1241), the fifth ruler of the Asen dynasty, added western Thrace, the remainder of Macedonia, and part of Albania to the empire in 1230.

Feudal strife and involvement in foreign wars caused gradual disintegration of the empire after the death of Ivan Asen II. The Bulgarian armies were decisively defeated by the Serbs in 1330, and for the next quarter-century the second empire was little more than a dependency of Serbia. Shortly after 1360 the Ottoman Turks began to ravage the Maritsa Valley, completing the subjugation of Bulgaria in 1396. During the next five centuries the political and cultural existence of Bulgaria was almost obliterated. After a century of terrorism and persecution, Turkish administration improved, and the economic condition of the remaining Bulgarians rose to a level higher than it had been under the kingdom, although unsuccessful revolts against Turkish rule occurred from time to time.

With the revival of a Bulgarian literature glorifying the history of the country, in the latter half of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century, Bulgarian nationalism became a powerful movement. In 1876 the Bulgarians revolted against the Turks, but were quelled; in reprisal, the Turks massacred some 15,000 Bulgarian men, women, and children. In 1877, prompted by the desire to expand towards the Mediterranean Sea and by Pan-Slavic sentiment, Russia declared war on Turkey. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War, in which Turkey was defeated, a part of Bulgaria became an autonomous principality; another part, Eastern Rumelia, was made an autonomous Turkish province.

C. Modern Bulgaria

Elected by a Bulgarian assembly in 1879, the first prince of the new Bulgaria was a German, Alexander of Battenberg, also a prince and a nephew of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Eastern Rumelia revolted against Turkey in 1885 and was united with Bulgaria. Russia, however, considered the action inopportune and withdrew all officers who had been detailed to train the Bulgarian army. Thereupon, Serbia declared war on Bulgaria but was quickly defeated. In 1886 a group of Russian and Bulgarian conspirators abducted Prince Alexander and established a Russian-dominated government. Within a few days the government was overthrown by the Bulgarian statesman Stepan Stambolov, but the Russians compelled Prince Alexander to abdicate. The new ruler, chosen in 1887, was Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Taking advantage of a revolution in Turkey, in 1908 Ferdinand declared Bulgaria independent and assumed the title of King Ferdinand I; he reigned from 1908 to 1918.

1. Balkan Wars and World War I

In the First Balkan War (1912-1913) (see Balkan Wars), Bulgaria, allied with Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, defeated Turkey. Division of the reconquered Balkan territories, however, resulted in the Second Balkan War, which Bulgaria lost to Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, and Romania; as a consequence, Bulgaria lost considerable territory. Bulgaria entered World War I in 1915 on the side of the Central Powers, but was forced to agree on an armistice with the Allies in September 1918. Tsar Ferdinand abdicated in October and was succeeded by his son, Boris III. By the Treaty of Neuilly on November 27, 1919, Bulgaria lost most of what it had gained in the Balkan Wars and all of its conquests from World War I. It was also required to abandon conscription, reduce armaments, and pay large reparations.

D. Inter-war Period and World War II

The Agrarian Party government under Aleksandr Stambolisky, who became premier in 1919, attempted to improve the condition of the large peasant class and maintain friendly relations with the other Balkan countries. Stambolisky’s dictatorial regime, unpopular with the army and the urban middle class, was overthrown by a coup d’état in 1923; he himself was captured and killed while seeking to escape. Internal dissension continued under the new government, which represented all political parties except the Agrarians, Communists, and Liberals. Bulgaria and Greece again came into conflict in 1925, and the Greek army invaded Bulgaria. The Council of the League of Nations brought the conflict to an end and penalized Greece. In 1934, Tsar Boris staged a coup of his own and established a royal dictatorship. In September 1940, Germany compelled Romania to cede southern Dobruja to Bulgaria. In March 1941, under German pressure, Bulgaria joined the Axis powers, agreeing to immediate occupation by German forces. Bulgaria declared war on Greece and Yugoslavia in April, shortly afterwards occupying all of Yugoslav Macedonia, Grecian Thrace, eastern Greek Macedonia, and the Greek districts of Florina and Kastoría. Bulgaria signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in November and the following month declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom. Although allied with Nazi Germany (see National Socialism), Tsar Boris and his government resisted German demands for the persecution of Bulgarian Jews, most of whom survived the Holocaust.

When the tide of war turned against the Germans in 1943, Hitler attempted to force Bulgaria to declare war on the USSR. In August 1943, after returning from a meeting with the German dictator, Tsar Boris died under mysterious circumstances and was succeeded by his six-year-old son, Simeon II, and a pro-German government under Dobri Bozhilov. An anti-German resistance movement organized by the Communists and the Agrarians opposed the Bozhilov regime, which fell in May 1944. The succeeding government severed its ties with Germany, but it was too late. The USSR formally declared war on Bulgaria on September 5. No fighting occurred, and the Bulgarian government subsequently asked the USSR for an armistice; Bulgaria, moreover, declared war on Germany on September 7. The armistice was agreed to by the USSR on September 9, and under the protection of Soviet forces a government subservient to the USSR was immediately established. The armistice, signed by the USSR, the United States, and the United Kingdom in October 1944, provided for the control of Bulgaria, until the signing of final peace treaties, by the Allied Control Commission under the chairmanship of the Soviet representative, who was also the commander of the Soviet occupation forces. The armistice provided also that the Bulgarians evacuate Yugoslav Macedonia and territories they had taken from Greece.

Soviet pressure in the Bulgarian election engaged the attention of the United Kingdom and the United States in the autumn of 1945. National elections originally scheduled for August were postponed because of US protests concerning the nature of Soviet political manoeuvres within Bulgaria. The opposition parties boycotted the elections held on November 18, and a single list of candidates from the Communist-dominated Fatherland Front won 85 per cent of the vote.

E. Communist Regime

By a plebiscite in September 1946, the Bulgarians ousted Tsar Simeon and ended the monarchy; a week later Bulgaria was proclaimed a people’s republic. The constitution drawn up by the Fatherland Front, which won an overwhelming victory in the elections to the National Assembly, held in October, provided for freedom of the press, assembly, and speech. The National Assembly, which gained full control of state affairs, then elected the premier and also the president. The first president was Vasil Kolarov, a Communist Party leader. Georgi Dimitrov, a former key figure in the Communist International, was elected premier in November 1946.

In February 1947, the peace treaty formally ending Bulgarian participation in World War II was signed in Paris. It provided for reparations to be paid to Greece in the amount of US$45 million and to Yugoslavia in the amount of US$25 million; severe limitation of military strength, with partial demilitarization along the Greek frontier; and the retention of southern Dobruja. (The borders with Greece were returned to their status as of 1941.) In December 1947 the National Assembly adopted a new constitution modelled on that of the USSR; this document replaced the presidency with the presidium, an executive committee. That September, Nikola Dimitrov Petkov, leader of the Agrarian Party, had been executed after being convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government.

Under pressure from the USSR, Bulgaria renounced its treaty of friendship with Yugoslavia after the Soviet-Yugoslavian rift in 1948; relations with the country and its successor states have since continued to fluctuate, as have those with neighbouring Greece and Turkey. Diplomatic ties with the West have frequently been marred by Bulgarian accusations of Western espionage activities.

During most of the Communist period, under the leadership of Todor Zhivkov—Secretary of the Communist Party from 1954, the country’s premier from 1962 to 1971, and Head of State from 1971 to late 1989—Bulgaria was one of the most restrictive societies among the former Soviet satellites. In 1953 the government decreed that all people who left the country without permission were subject to the death penalty and their families to internment in concentration camps. Zhivkov also decreed that the country’s population of 800,000 Turks “Bulgarize” their names. As a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) and the Warsaw Pact, Bulgaria long remained among the USSR’s most dependable allies. During the 1970s the country received substantial financial aid from the USSR, which was used for industrialization.

During the mid-1980s the Zhivkov government launched a campaign to assimilate members of Bulgaria’s Turkish minority by forcing them to take Slavic names, prohibiting them from speaking Turkish in public, and subjecting them to other forms of harassment; during 1989 alone, more than 300,000 Bulgarian Turks crossed the border into Turkey to escape persecution. Late in 1989, Zhivkov was ousted from power and expelled from the Communist Party; replacing him as general secretary was the foreign minister, Petar T. Mladenov. Under Mladenov’s leadership, Bulgaria restored the civil rights of Bulgarian Turks and began to institute a multi-party system. In June 1990 the Communists, running as the Bulgarian Socialist Party, won the nation’s first free parliamentary elections since World War II. Mladenov, who had become president in April, resigned in July, and with Communist support the opposition leader, Zhelyu Zhelev, was chosen to succeed him. Under a new constitution providing for direct presidential voting, Zhelev won re-election in January 1992. In September, after an 18-month-long trial, Zhivkov was found guilty of corruption while in office and sentenced to prison.

F. Fragile Transition

After the 1991 elections, Bulgaria began to restructure its economy and enacted a plan to return land seized by the Communist Party to the original owners. The parliament also passed laws allowing foreign investment. However, with the collapse of COMECON, the trade association of the former USSR, Bulgaria lost many of its traditional markets and its economy suffered. Since then, Bulgaria has lagged behind the rest of Eastern Europe in economic reform because of a series of weak governments. Private businesses are often run by the old Communist elite. In 1995 unemployment stood at 20 per cent, and inflation topped 120 per cent. A general election held in December 1994 gave the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) an outright parliamentary majority, under the leadership of 35-year-old Zhan Videnov. At the same time, the lev dropped considerably in value, prompting a sharp rise in interest rates.

The distribution of vouchers to be used in the first phase of privatization was approved by the government in August 1995, and the list of state enterprises to be privatized was issued in October. In late March 1996 a Russian offer to join an economic union of former Soviet republics resulted in heated controversy; the Videnov government denied allegations of secret talks and claimed a desire to be part of a united Europe. The collapse of the national currency in May triggered a serious financial crisis, and hastened government legislation to reform the banking system. Exiled King Simeon II returned to Bulgaria in late May, fuelling rumours of his interest in a potential presidential candidacy. Interest rates were tripled in September by the central bank in an attempt to avert another financial crisis.

The fatal shooting of former prime minister Lukanov in October aroused speculation as to the involvement of organized crime. In the second round of presidential elections held in November, Petar Stoyanov, the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) candidate, emerged as the clear victor. A fresh financial crisis arose in mid-November, when thousands of depositors besieged the State Savings Bank, and in December Videnov resigned from the position of prime minister. In January 1997 Stoyanov was inaugurated as president and the stand-off between the majority BSP and UDF continued. The political crisis eased in February when the BSP agreed to relinquish its mandate, allowing the president to appoint an interim Cabinet and call a general election in April. The IMF gave approval in principle to a US$148 million loan in March to support economic recovery and the currency control board system that was to be established as a condition of the loan. In the April general election the centre-right UDF won a decisive victory, nominating its chairman Ivan Kostov as the new prime minister; he was formally elected by the National Assembly in May. It was announced in June that the lev was to be pegged to the Deutschmark, and the way paved for the operation of the currency control board in July; both measures aimed at increasing financial stability.

President Stoyanov hosted a summit meeting attended by the presidents of Romania and Turkey, during which they issued a joint declaration supporting the accession to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of Bulgaria and Romania, and promising closer cooperation in the fight against organized crime in the region. The National Assembly approved a restitution law in November, providing for the return of property confiscated by previous communist governments to its former owners. During a visit in December by Mesut Yilmaz, prime minister of Turkey, agreements were signed concerning cultural affairs, law enforcement, and customs. Stoyanov vetoed reform of the judicial system in October 1998, on the grounds that reform would give the National Assembly too much control over the judiciary. The former king, Simeon, unsuccessfully attempted, in December, to reclaim his estates confiscated five decades earlier.

In November 1999, Bulgaria announced the closure of four Soviet-built nuclear reactors in return for talks on European Union (EU) membership. In the same month, US president Bill Clinton, on a trip to Sofia to mark the tenth anniversary of the end of Communism, encouraged Bulgaria’s bid for NATO membership in return for the country’s support for NATO’s 1999 air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo crisis.

On the final day of the EU summit in Helsinki, Finland, in December, Bulgaria was among seven countries invited to become candidates for membership. The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, told Bulgaria that the EU would support the country’s bid to join the organization by offering increased financial aid to the value of nearly US$2 billion over six years. Prodi praised Bulgaria’s progress in reworking its legislation to conform to EU norms.

Throughout 2000, political life in Bulgaria was marked by a further, and sometimes controversial, diversification of parties and groupings. Ethnic parties and organizations continued to proliferate. In January, two Turkish parties merged, and in February the Ilinden United Macedonian Organization was banned by the Constitutional Court. A new party, the Georgi Ganchev Bloc, was established in March.

Developments in early 2001 were directly influenced by parliamentary elections planned for June. In early April, the former king of Bulgaria announced that he would stand in the election as leader of a new party, the National Movement Simeon II. Internationally, Bulgaria supported the FYROM government in its offensive against Albanian rebels in March 2001 and promoted efforts aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Bulgaria became a signatory, in April, of an agreement setting up an international naval force, named Blackseafor, of countries bordering the Black Sea. The agreements, signed also by Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Georgia, and Turkey, envisaged using the new force for environmental and humanitarian purposes.

G. The Return of Simeon II

Simeon II

Simeon II
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was, as Simeon II, the last king of Bulgaria who was deposed by communists in 1946. Following the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, he returned to the country and in 2001 was elected prime minister as leader of his newly formed party, the Simeon II National Movement.
Encarta Encyclopedia
Corbis/Reuters NewMedia Inc.

Full Size

In June’s parliamentary elections the former Simeon II achieved a landslide victory, and in July he was sworn in as prime minister, as Simeon of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He swiftly appointed a 16-member coalition Cabinet and reiterated his election pledge to improve Bulgaria’s standards of living, which included raising the minimum wage and dealing with corruption. Simeon also pledged to continue the momentum towards EU and NATO membership. In a closely fought presidential election in November 2001 that went to a second round of voting, Georgi Parvanov, the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, beat the incumbent Petar Stoyanov. Parvanov was sworn in and took office in January 2002.

In November 2002 NATO invited Bulgaria to join the organization. At the Copenhagen summit in December that year the EU announced that Bulgaria was not included in the list of countries invited to join in 2004; however, the republic is on course for membership in 2007. In April 2004 Bulgaria formally joined NATO.

Bogomils, members of a religious sect that arose in the 10th century in the Balkans. The chief centre was in Bulgaria and the cult spread among other Slavic peoples. The movement resulted from a blending of Eastern dualism and an evangelical attempt to reform the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The Bogomils, whose fundamental doctrines are attributed to a priest called Bogomil, held that the first-born son of God was Satanael. Satanael rebelled and created, in opposition to the original spiritual universe, a world of matter and human beings. The Supreme Father gave these human beings a life spirit. This life spirit, however, was kept in slavery by Satanael until a second son of God, the Logos, or Christ, came down from heaven and, assuming a phantom body, broke the power of the evil spirit, who was henceforth called only Satan, the divine name, El, being dropped. The Bogomils practised a severe asceticism, despised images, and rejected the sacraments. They accepted the whole of the New Testament, but of the Old Testament only the Psalms and Prophets, which they interpreted allegorically. The morals and ideals of the Bogomils seem to have been much above the average of their time.

In 1118 the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus executed the leader of the sect for heresy. At the time of the Muslim conquest of Bosnia in the 15th century, the majority of the Christians who embraced Islam, the religion of the conquerors, were Bogomils. Before the Bogomils were suppressed they influenced the development of the Albigensian and Cathari groups of France and Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Bulgaria - an ancient land
As a state established by khan Asparoukh, Bulgaria has been existing for more than 13 centuries. Thracians were the first settlers in the Bulgarian lands and their civilisation is evidenced by the numerous archaeological finds, uncovered tombs, discovered gold and silver treasures. Testimonies for the presence of life in the pre-historic ages have been preserved in the best-preserved Neolithic housings discovered world-wide – namely those off the town of Stara Zagora, in the “Bacho Kiro” cave off the town of Dryanovo and in the Magurata cave – close to the town of Belogradchik. The first written reference where the name “Bulgarians” is to be found is included in an anonymous Roman chronograph of 452 AD.

The settlers
During the Bronze Age the present-day Bulgarian lands were inhabited by the Thracians, mentioned for the first time by Homer. They were engaged in agriculture and stockbreeding, and left evidence of a rich culture (the Vulchitrun gold treasure). The first Thracian state unions emerged in the 11th-6th centuries BC, which flourished in the 7th-6th centuries BC. In the 1st century BC their lands were conquered by Rome, and after the 5th century AD they were incorporated in the Byzantine Empire. The Thracians were later gradually assimilated by the Slavs who settled in the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th century AD.

In the second half of the 7th century, the Proto-Bulgarians - an ethnic community of Turkic origin - settled on the territory of the present-day Northeastern Bulgaria. In alliance with the Slavs they formed the Bulgarian State, which was recognised by the Byzantine Empire in 681 AD. Khan Asparouh stood at the head of that state and Pliska was made its capital.

A major political force
Under the rule of Khan Tervel (700-718 AD), Bulgaria expanded its territory and turned into a major political force. Under Khan Kroum (803-814 AD) Bulgaria bordered with the empire of Carl the Great to the west, and to the east the Bulgarian troops reached the walls of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. In 864 AD, during the rule of Prince Boris I Michail (852-889 AD), the Bulgarians adopted Christianity as their official religion. This act abolished the ethnic differences between Proto-Bulgarians and Slavs, and started building a unified Bulgarian nation. After adopting Christianity, the influence of the Byzantine Empire grew. This is evidenced by the ossuary in the Bachkovo Monastery (1083 AD). Bulgarian church music was created.

The Cyrillic alphabet
In the second half of the 9th century the brothers Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius created and disseminated the Cyrillic alphabet. Their disciples Clement and Nahum came to Bulgaria, where they were warmly welcomed and found good conditions for work. They developed a rich educational and literary activity. From Bulgaria the Cyrillic script spread to other Slavic lands as well - present-day Serbia and Russia. The cities of Ochrida and Pliska, and subsequently the new capital city Veliki Preslav as well, became centres of Bulgarian culture, and of Slav culture as a whole.

Golden Age of Bulgarian Culture
The reign of Tsar Simeon I (893-927 AD) marked the “Golden Age of Bulgarian Culture”, and the territory of his state reached the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. During the reign of Simeon’s successors, Bulgaria was weakened by internal struggles, the heresy of the priest Bogomil spread and influenced the teachings of the Cathars and Albigenses in Western Europe.

In 1018, after prolonged wars, Bulgaria was conquered by the Byzantine Empire. From the very first years under Byzantine rule, the Bulgarians started fighting for their freedom. In 1186, the uprising led by two boyars, the brothers Assen and Peter, overthrew the domination of the Byzantine Empire. The Second Bulgarian Kingdom was founded, and Turnovo became the new capital. After 1186, Bulgaria was initially ruled by Assen, and after that by Peter. The earlier power of Bulgaria was restored during the reign of their youngest brother, Kaloyan (1197-1207), and during the reign of Tsar Ivan Assen II (1218 -1241) the Second Bulgarian Kingdom reached its greatest upsurge: political hegemony was established in Southeastern Europe, the territory of the country spread to the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea, the economy and culture developed.

Bulgaria reached a new peak, which lasted until the end of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (1186-1396). The schools of literature and the arts in Turnovo developed the traditions in Bulgarian culture, which is evidenced by the frescoes in the Boyana Church, the churches in Turnovo, in the Zemen Monastery, the churches hewn into the rocks near Ivanovo, the miniatures in the Gospel that belonged to Tsar Ivan Alexander, kept at the British Museum in London, and Manassiy’s Chronicle. In 1235, the Head of the Bulgarian Church was given the title of Patriarch.

The strife among some of the boyars resulted in the division of Bulgaria into two kingdoms: the kingdoms of Vidin and Turnovo. This weakened the country and it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1396. For nearly five centuries Bulgaria was under Ottoman domination. The initial years were characterised by sporadic and unorganised attempts to win freedom. Later the appearance of the clandestine fighters, the “haydouts”, made the emergence of a well-organised national liberation movement possible.

The formation of the Bulgarian nation and the development of Bulgarian education started in the beginning of the 18th century. One impetus for this was the work of the monk Paissii of Hilendar History of Slavs and Bulgarians, written in 1762. The ideas of national freedom led to the establishing of an autonomous Bulgarian national Church, and to the flourishing of education and culture. Some of the key figures during the Bulgarian National Revival were Zachary Zograph, Nikolay Pavlovich, Stanislav Dospevski, and many others. That period marked also the beginning of the first amateur theatre performances.

The start of the organised revolutionary movement for liberation from Ottoman domination is associated with the work of Georgi Sava Rakovski (1821-1867) - writer and journalist, founder and ideologist of the national-liberal liberation movement. The main figures in the national liberation movement were Vassil Levski (1837-1873) - strategist and ideologist of the movement and national hero; Lyuben Karavelov (1834-1879) - writer and journalist, leader and ideologist of the movement; Hristo Botev (1848-1876) - poet and journalist, revolutionary, democrat, national hero, and many other Bulgarians.

In 1876 the April Uprising broke out - the first significant and organised attempt at liberation from Ottoman domination. The uprising was brutally crushed and drowned in blood, but it drew the attention of the European countries to the Bulgarian national issues. In 1878, as a result of the Russian-Turkish War of Liberation (1877-1878), the Bulgarian State was restored, but national unity was not achieved. The former Bulgarian territories were divided into three: the Principality of Bulgaria was proclaimed - with Prince Alexander Battemberg at its head, Eastern Rumelia - with a Christian Governor appointed by the Sultan, while Thrace and Macedonia remained under the domination of the Ottoman Empire.

After 1878, the first cultural and educational institutions in the Principality began to be built. The St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library was built in 1878, the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia opened its doors in 1888, and the Ivan Vazov National Theatre - in 1904. The first film was shown in Rousse in 1897. The late 19th and the early 20th century were characterised by remarkable achievements in all fine arts. That was the period marked by the works of the Bulgarian poets and writers Ivan Vazov, Aleko Konstantinov, Dimcho Debelyanov, Pencho Slaveykov - the only Bulgarian nominated for Nobel Prize, Peyo Yavorov and many others. The artists Anton Mitov, Ivan Angelov, Ivan Mrkvicka, Yaroslav Veshin, B. Schatz and others created some of the most remarkable works of art during that time. The late 19th century also marked the beginning of Bulgarian professional musical culture. The first Bulgarian composers were Emanouil Manolov, Dimiter Christov and Georgi Atanassov-Maestro.

The decision for the fractionation of Bulgaria, taken at the Berlin Congress (1878), was never accepted by the people. The decisions of 1878 triggered the Kresna-Razlog Uprising (1878-1879), which in 1885 led to the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. The Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising also broke out (1903). Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Bulgarian Prince since 1887, proclaimed Bulgaria’s independence from Turkey and in 1908 became Kniaz of the Bulgarian people. Bulgaria took part in the Balkan War (1912) and fought together with Serbia and Greece for the freedom of Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgaria won that war, but in the subsequent war among the allies (1913) it was defeated by Romania, Turkey and by its earlier allies, who tore from her territories with a Bulgarian population.

The intervention of Bulgaria in World War I on the side of the Central Powers ended with a national catastrophe. In 1918, Kniaz Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his son Boris III. The Neuilly Peace Treaty of 1919 imposed severe provisions on Bulgaria: it lost its outlet on the Aegean Sea, Western Thrace became a part of Greece, Southern Dobroudja was annexed to Romania, and the territories around Strumica, Bosilegrad, Zaribrod and villages around Kula were given to the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom. (Southern Dobroudja was restored to Bulgaria by the Bulgarian-Romanian Treaty of 1940.)

In the early 1940s, Bulgaria led a policy in the interest of Germany and the Axis powers. Later the participation of Bulgarian cavalry units on the Eastern Front was discontinued. Tsar Boris III supported the public pressure and did not allow the deportation of about 50,000 Bulgarian Jews. In August 1943 Tsar Boris III died and the regency of the young Tsar Simeon II took over the governing of the country. On 5 September 1944, the Soviet Army entered Bulgaria and on 9 September the Fatherland Front Government, headed by Kimon Georgiev, came to power. In 1946 Bulgaria was proclaimed to be a People’s Republic. The Queen-Mother, Tsar Simeon ?? and Princess Maria-Louisa left Bulgaria for Egypt via Turkey. The Bulgarian Communist Party came to power. The political parties outside the Fatherland Front were banned, the economy and the banks were nationalised, the arable land was coercively organised in cooperatives. The governing of the state went successively into the hands of Georgi Dimitrov, Vassil Kolarov, Vulko Chervenkov, Anton Yougov and Todor Zhivkov.

The date 10 November 1989 marked the beginning of the democratic changes in Bulgaria. A new Constitution was adopted (1991), the political parties were restored, the property expropriated in 1947 was resituated, privatisation and restitution of the land started. In 1990 Zhelyu Zhelev became President of Bulgaria - the first democratically elected President. The key priorities in Bulgaria’s foreign policy became the membership in the European Union and NATO. As a result of the country’s considerable progress towards meeting the criteria for EU membership, Bulgaria received on 10 December 1999 the invitation to start the pre-accession negotiations. The negotiations started in Brussels on 15 February 2000. On 1 December 2000, the Council of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the European Union decided to remove Bulgaria from the negative visa list.

681 AD – The Bulgarian state was established – one of the first ever European states. The first Bulgarian capital was Pliska. Its tsars (khans) Asparoukh, Krum the Dreadful (803 – 814 AD), and Omurtag (852 – 831 AD) turned it into a mighty power in south-eastern Europe. 855 AD – The Saint brothers Cyril and Methodius made the Slavonic alphabet. 865 AD – Prince St. Boris (852-907 AD) did away with paganism and introduced East-Orthodox Christianity as the official religion in Bulgaria. In 865 AD he moved the capital from Pliska to Veliki Preslav (Great Preslav). The Byzantine Empire recognised him as tzar of the Bulgarians.

893 – 927 AD – Under the reign of tzar Simeon (the Great), son of tsar Boris I, the Bulgarian kingdom became the biggest in territory and the most powerful in Europe. The “golden age” of Bulgarian culture set in. 1018 AD – Emperor Basil II conquered Bulgaria and turned it into a province of the Byzantine empire.

1185-1396: The era of the Second Bulgarian kingdom, which came to being after a successful uprising by the Bulgarian aristocracy. The reign started of the Assen dynasty. They proclaimed the town of Turnovo as capital. Ivan-Assen II (1218 – 1241) was the best-known and powerful ruler of the period of the Second Bulgarian kingdom.

1396: Bulgaria fell entirely under Ottoman domination. In the course of long 5 centuries Bulgaria was a province of the Ottoman Empire. In the process of conquering the aristocracy was destroyed, the Bulgarian administration was done away with, the Bulgarian Church was deprived of autocephality and partriarchical rang and was placed under the Constantinople patriarchy.

1652: The beginning of the Bulgarian National Revival. Monk Paissii of the Hilendar monastery (on Mount Athos) wrote the “Slav-Bulgarian History” book.

1870: Start of the organised national-liberation movement.

1876: The April uprising of the enslaved Bulgarian people burst out — it was smothered in a sea of blood but caused a big international response of indignation at the Turkish tyranny.

1877-1878: The Russian-Turkish Liberation war in which Bulgaria gave many lives for its freedom.

The Third Bulgarian State had its start with the San-Stefano peace agreement signed on March 3, 1878. As a result of that agreement Bulgaria was restored to the territory of the three historical and ethnic Bulgarian regions – namely Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgaria became the biggest Balkan country.

13 July 1878 – The treaty of Berlin was signed as a result of which the newly-liberated Bulgaria was divided into the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia and a large portion of the Bulgarian lands was cut away to remain under Ottoman domination.

16 April 1879 – The Turnovo Constitution was passed solemnly by the First Grand National Assembly.

26 June 1879 – Alexander Battenberg became prince of Bulgaria, and Sofia – the capital of the new Bulgarian state.

6 September 1885 – Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (the real-term liberation of Bulgaria).

22 September 1908 - King Ferdinand I proclaimed Bulgaria’s full independence from Turkish rule.

After restoring the national state-hood in 1878 Bulgaria was a constitutional monarchy with a democratic government and a quickly developing economy. The processes of successful growth were discontinued as a result of the adventurism of king Ferdinand I that led to the catastrophes of 1913. (when this country had to wage wars against Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, and Romania at the same time) and of 1918 (warring against the Entente countries). 1923 and 1934 – Democratically elected governments were toppled via coups d’Etat that brought to power authoritarian regimes. 1941 – Bulgaria entered World War II on the side of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. Bulgaria was the only ally of Hitler Germany which did not allow the killing of its Jewish citizens. It was thanks to king Boris III and to the Bulgarian governments that no hostilities were waged on this country’s territory. 1944 – After World War II, as a result of the Yalta agreements between the Great Powers, Bulgaria chanced in the field of influence of the Soviet Union. 1953-1989 – Years of the communist rule of Todor Zhivkov who headed both the party and the state. 10 November 1989 – Under the pressure of domestic and international circumstances Todor Zhivkov was forced to resign. Bulgaria once again embarked on the road of democratic development. 7 December 1989 – The Union of Democratic Forces /UDF/ was formed as a unification of 13 opposition organisations. 10-17 June 1990 – The first free parliamentary elections. 12 July 1991 – A new democratic Constitution was passed. 13 October 1991 – The first free local authorities elections. January 1992 – The first free presidential elections. Zhelyu Zhelev was elected as head of the state. 3 November 1996 – Petar Stoyanov, proposed by the UDF, was elected with a landslide majority as President of the Republic of Bulgaria. 19 April 1997 – The Parliamentary elections were won by the Democratic Forces United /DFU/ A government was formed headed by Ivan Kostov, Prime-Minister. Bulgaria started on the road of genuine democratic reforms.