The Fatherland Front ( bg, Отечествен фронт, ОФ, Otechestven front, OF) was a Bulgarian pro-communist political
resistance movement
A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...
, which began in 1942 during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The
Zveno
Zveno ( bg, Звено, lit=link), ''Politicheski krŭg "Zveno"'', officially Political Circle "Zveno" was a Bulgarian political organization, founded in 1930 by Bulgarian politicians, intellectuals and Bulgarian Army officers. It was associated ...
movement, the communist
Bulgarian Workers Party, a wing of the
and the
Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party
The Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party ( bg, Българска работническа социалдемократическа партия, translit=Bŭlgarska rabotnicheska sotsialdemokraticheska partiya; BRSDP) was a Bulgarian leftis ...
all became part of the OF. The constituent groups of the OF had widely contrasting ideologies and had united only in the face of the
pro-German militarist dictatorship in Bulgaria. At the beginning, the members of the OF worked together, without a single dominating group.
Professional association
A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that professio ...
s and
union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
s could be members of the front and maintain their organisational independence. However, the
Bulgarian Communist Party
The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...
soon began to dominate. In 1944, after the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
had declared war on Bulgaria, the OF
carried out a coup d'état (9 September 1944) and declared war on Germany and the other
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
* Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
powers. The OF government, headed by
Kimon Georgiev
Kimon Georgiev Stoyanov ( bg, Кимон Георгиев Стоянов; August 11, 1882 – September 28, 1969) was a Bulgarian general who was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1934 to 1935 and again from 1944 to 1946.
Life an ...
of Zveno, signed a
ceasefire
A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...
treaty with the Soviet Union (28 October 1944). In the summer of 1945 most of
BANU led by
Nikola Petkov
Nikola Dimitrov Petkov ( bg, Никола Димитров Петков; July 8, 1893 – September 23, 1947) was a Bulgarian politician, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (usually abbreviated as BZNS). He entered polit ...
and most of the Social-Democrats had left the OF and became a large opposition group which later on after the 1946
Grand National Assembly Great National Assembly or Grand National Assembly may refer to:
* Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, an assembly of Romanian delegates that declared the unification of Transylvania and Romania
* Great National Assembly (Socialist Republic of R ...
election would become a coalition named "Federation of the village and urban labour" with 99 MPs out of 465.
On November 18, 1945, the OF
won a large majority in national elections.
[
] In November 1946 Georgiev resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded by
Georgi Dimitrov,
leader of the communists. Bulgaria became a
People's Republic
People's republic is an official title, usually used by some currently or formerly communist or left-wing states. It is mainly associated with soviet republics, socialist states following people's democracy, sovereign states with a democratic- ...
on 15 September 1946
after a referendum. In 1948 and 1949 all the remaining parties in the OF save for the pro-communist wing of the BANU self-dissolved and merged into the BCP. The OF eventually transformed into a wide-ranging
popular front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
under overall Communist control. With the
fall of communism in Bulgaria
The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; bg, Народна Република България (НРБ), ''Narodna Republika Balgariya, NRB'') was the official name of Bulgaria, when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the ...
the Fatherland Front was dissolved in 1990.
Chairmen of the National Council
*
Georgi Dimitrov (1942–1949)
*
(1949–1956)
*
Encho Stajkov (1956–1967)
*
Boyan Bulgaranov (1967–1972)
*
Georgi Traikov (1972–1974)
*
Pencho Kubadinski (1974–1989)
*
Zhivko Zhivkov
Zhivko () is a Bulgarian masculine given name. The Serbo-Croatian variant of the same name is Živko.
It may refer to:
* Zhivko Atanasov (born 1991), Bulgarian footballer
* Zhivko Boyadzhiev (born 1976), Bulgarian footballer
* Zhivko Dinev (b ...
(1989–1990)
Electoral history
Grand National Assembly elections
References
{{Authority control
1942 establishments in Bulgaria
1989 disestablishments in Bulgaria
Anti-fascist organizations
Bulgaria–Soviet Union relations
Bulgarian Communist Party
Defunct left-wing political party alliances
Defunct political party alliances in Bulgaria
Eastern European World War II resistance movements
People's Republic of Bulgaria
Political parties disestablished in 1989
Political parties established in 1942
Popular fronts of communist states
Stalinist parties