The Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party (; BRSDP) was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

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 Dimitar Blagoev Nikolov (, ; 14 June 1856 – 7 May 1924) was a Bulgarian political leader and philosopher. He was the founder of the Bulgarian left-wing political movement and of the first social-democratic party in the Balkans, the Marxist ''Bu ...

, the social democratic circles of

Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo (, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the historical and spiritual capital of Bulgaria. Often referred to as the "''City of the Tsars''", Velik ...

Gabrovo Gabrovo ( ) is a city in central northern Bulgaria, the Local government, 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 international ca ...

Sliven Sliven ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. It is situated in the Sliven Valley at the foothills of th ...

Stara Zagora Stara Zagora (, ) is a city in Bulgaria, and the administrative capital of Stara Zagora Province. It is located in the Upper Thracian Plain, near the cities of Kazanlak, Plovdiv, and Sliven. Its population is 121,582 making it the sixth largest c ...

Kazanlak Kazanlak ( , known as Seuthopolis () in ancient times, is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, town in Stara Zagora Province, Bulgaria. It is located in the middle of the plain of the same name, at the foot of the Balkan Mountains, Balkan mo ...

and other cities united to form the Bulgarian Socialdemocratic Party. The

marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

nucleus of the BSDP (later, the so-called ''Partists''), which Blagoev headed, 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 (; 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 Bulgarian socialist politician. Sakaz ...

, founded a

reformist Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution. Within the socialist movement, ref ...

organization, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Union (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). Congress changed the statutes and decided to publish the newspaper ''Rabotničeski 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, in the context of extensive peasant unrest in Bulgaria, the reformist elements grouped themselves around the magazine ''Obšto 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 unavoidable due to 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 reformist party, the

Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party (Broad Socialists) The Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party (Broad Socialists) (, ''Balgarska rabotnicheska sotsialdemokraticheska partiya (shiroki sotsialisti)'') was a reformist socialist political party in Bulgaria. The party emerged from a division at the ...

References

{{Reflist Defunct political parties in Bulgaria Political parties disestablished in 1903 Political parties established in 1894 Social democratic parties in Bulgaria

History

See also

References