Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists) () was a Marxist, socialist political party in Bulgaria. The party's origins lays in 1903, after a split at the 10th Congress of the

Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party The Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party (; BRSDP) was a Bulgarian leftist group founded in 1894. History In July 1891, on the initiative of Dimitar Blagoev, the social democratic circles of Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Sliven, Stara Zagora, Kazanla ...

.Bulgarian Communist Party – an article translated from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). Taken from the Free dictionary by Farlex.
/ref> The other faction formed the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party (Broad Socialists).

History

The party's leader was

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 driving force behind the formation of the BSDWP in 1894. It comprised most of the hardline Marxists in the Workers' Social Democratic Party, which followed the doctrine of

class struggle In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

. This entailed concentrating on building the party amongst the industrial working class rather than creating a broader political framework which would also appeal to the

peasantry A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

. One feature of this was their proposal to confiscate all

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental Capacity (law), legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by a state entity, and from Collective ownership ...

, which inhibited their electoral success. In 1909 the Social Democratic Union 'Proletarian', which had been expelled from the Narrow Socialists, merged into the Broad Socialist party. At the Zimmerwald Conference, where the unraveling of the coalition between

revolutionary socialists The Revolutionary Socialists (; ) (RS) are a Trotskyist organisation in Egypt originating in the tradition of ' Socialism from Below'. Leading RS members include sociologist Sameh Naguib. The organisation produces a newspaper called ''The Social ...

and reformist socialists in the

Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...

began, the party supported the so-called Zimmerwald Left. It opposed

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and was sympathetic to the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

in Russia. Under the influence of the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

the ''narrow socialists'' accepted the ideas of

Leninism Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

. Under Blagoev's leadership, the party applied to join the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

in 1919. Upon joining the Comintern the party was reorganised as the ''

Bulgarian Communist Party The Bulgarian Communist Party ( Bulgarian: Българска комунистическа партия (БΚП), Romanised: ''Bŭlgarska komunisticheska partiya''; BKP) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria f ...

''.

Electoral history

References

1903 establishments in Bulgaria 1919 disestablishments in Bulgaria Bulgarian Communist Party Defunct political parties in Bulgaria Political parties disestablished in 1919 Political parties established in 1903 Social democratic parties in Bulgaria {{Bulgaria-party-stub

History

Electoral history

See also

References