The Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party ( bg, Българска работническа социалдемократическа партия, translit=Bŭlgarska rabotnicheska sotsialdemokraticheska partiya; BRSDP) was a
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
n leftist group founded in 1894.
Bulgarian Communist Party – an article translated from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979).
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History
In July 1891, on the initiative of Dimitar Blagoev, the social democratic circles of Tarnovo
Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province.
Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...
, Gabrovo
Gabrovo ( bg, Габрово ) is a town in central northern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province.
It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, in the valley of the Yantra River, and is known as an internatio ...
, Sliven
Sliven ( bg, Сливен ) is the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace.
Sliven is famous for its heroic Haiduts who fought against the Ottoman Turk ...
, Stara Zagora, Kazanlak
Kazanlak ( bg, Казанлък , Thracian and Greek Σευθόπολις (''Seuthopolis''), tr, Kazanlık) is a Bulgarian town in Stara Zagora Province, located in the middle of the plain of the same name, at the foot of the Balkan mountai ...
and other cities united to form the Bulgarian Socialdemocratic Party
The Bulgarian Social Democratic Party ( bg, Българска социалдемократическа партия, translit=Balgarska Socialdemokraticheska Partiya; ) was the first name of the party created by Dimitar Blagoev on the 1891 Buzlu ...
. The marxist nucleus of the BSDP (later, the so-called ''Partists''), which was headed by Blagoev, was opposed by a group, who were essentially opposed to making the social democratic movement into a party. In 1892 this group, led by Yanko Sakazov
Yanko Ivanov Sakazov ( bg, Янко Иванов Сакъзов; 24 September 1860 – 2 February 1941Heumos, Peter. Europäischer Sozialismus im Kalten Krieg: Briefe und Berichte 1944 - 1948'. Frankfurt/Main .a. Campus-Verl, 2004. p. 55) was a ...
, founded a reformist
Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement.
Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...
organization, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Union
The Bulgarian Social Democratic Union ( bg, Български социалдемократически съюз) was a Bulgarian leftist group founded in 1892.
History
In 1892 a group, led by Yanko Sakazov, founded a reformist organization, the ...
(hence their name, ''Unionists''). In 1894, Blagoev’s supporters agreed to unite with the Unionists in the interests of working class unity and took the name ''Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party''. The First Congress (July 1894), at which the Unionists were in the majority, adopted a program and statutes that were primarily’ reformist. They gained the majority in the leadership.
The struggle of the marxist wing against the reformists brought its first significant results at the Fourth Congress (July 1897). The congress made some changes in the statutes and decided to publish the newspaper ''Rabotnicheski vestnik ''for agitation and propaganda among the workers. Blagoev became the editor of the theoretical organ, the magazine ''Novo vreme'', which was published beginning in January 1897. In 1900 the reformist elements grouped themselves around the magazine ''Obshto delo'', edited by Sakyzov, which propagandized the idea of class cooperation. The Eighth Congress of the party (July 1901) rejected this idea. A split was the unavoidable result of deep ideological and tactical differences within the party. At the Tenth Party Congress in 1903 the marxists, formed a separate Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists). The reformists, so-called Broad Socialists, who wanted to transform the party into a broad organization of all “productive strata”, formed their own reformist party, the .
See also
* Macedonian-Adrianople Social Democratic Group
The Macedonian-Adrianople Social Democratic Group was a regional faction of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party in the Ottoman Empire. According to Macedonian historians, most of its activists were ethnic Macedonians. History Creatio ...
References
{{Reflist
Defunct political parties in Bulgaria
Political parties disestablished in 1907
Political parties established in 1894
Social democratic parties in Bulgaria