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 objectives ...

, 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The Zveno movement, the communist Bulgarian Workers Party, a wing of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union and the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party 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 further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that profession, and t ...

s and unions could be members of the front and maintain their organisational independence. However, the Bulgarian Communist Party 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 nationa ...

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 powers. The OF government, headed by Kimon Georgiev 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 ac ...

treaty with the Soviet Union (28 October 1944). In the summer of 1945 most of

BANU Banu or BANU may refer to: * Banu (name) * Banu (Arabic), Arabic word for "the sons of" or "children of" * Banu (makeup artist), an Indian makeup artist * Banu Chichek, a character in the ''Book of Dede Korkut'' * Bulgarian Agrarian National Union ...

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 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 Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...

, leader of the communists. Bulgaria became a People's Republic 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 Fatherland Front was dissolved in 1990.

Chairmen of the National Council

(1942–1949) * Valko Chervenkov (1949–1956) * Encho Stajkov (1956–1967) * Boyan Bulgaranov (1967–1972) * Georgi Traikov (1972–1974) * Pencho Kubadinski (1974–1989) * Zhivko Zhivkov (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