Bulgaria

**Bulgaria**, officially the **Bulgarian Socialist Republic**, is a country in the Balkan Peninsula of south-eastern Europe, bordered by Romania to the north, Yugoslavia to the west, Greece to the southwest, and Turkey to the southeast. It is an observer member of the Third International.

Bulgaria is a Marxist-Leninist republic, the only nation of its kind, following the Bolshevik model of government inspired by the failed Russian Revolution. The country is led by the Communist Party of Bulgaria, the successor to the "Narrow Socialists" of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party, led by Chairman Anton Yugov. Being the only socialist country in Europe east of Italy, and maintaining a far different system from its Western syndicalist counterparts, Bulgaria is extremely isolated, both geographically and politically, and has relied on industrial autarky, a strong military, and the leniency of Yugoslavia to maintain its socialist republican government.

## History

### Fourth Balkan War

The Fourth Balkan War would strike Bulgaria in February 1937, as Bulgaria would be simultaneously attacked by the Belgrade Pact of Serbia, Romania, and Greece. While initially seeing Bulgarian gains, especially considering the Fall of Thessaloniki, partisan resistance in the northwest combined with strong Romanian military offensives would eventually put Bulgaria on the back pedal, with Bulgarian officers unable to maintain supplies on the front line, as Austrian arms shipments dwindled amid the Hungarian Revolt. An armistice would be signed on the 14th of December that year in the form of the Treaty of Belgrade, ceding all disputed land to the individual members of the Belgrade Pact.

### Bulgarian Revolution

What followed was a period of political catastrophe in Bulgaria. The constitutional government, already on shaky ground following the repeal of the State Protection Act and having suffered an attempted coup d'etat the prior year, and still having suffered much of the ramifications of Black Monday, fell into chaos and mass protest against it. The Tsar of Bulgaria, Ferdinand I, would abdicate to protect the government, taking responsibility for the disastrous war and passing the throne to his popular son Boris III.

However, this would backfire by placing blame on not only the constitutionalists, but the monarchy as well, resulting in the creation of the republican Fatherland Front by three main parties: the Narrow Socialists of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party, the pro-syndicalist Agricultural Professional Confederation (more commonly known as Vlasovden), and the Agrarian National Union, a land-reformist agrarian peasant party.

Together, these three parties would carry out numerous assassinations in preparation for a coup d'etat, primarily against two targets: former Prime MInister Konstantin Georgiev, and, at his funeral, Tsar Boris III, in what would come to be known as the Holy Sunday Church Assault. Decapitating the two of-age heads of the monarchy who remained, chaos would arise across Bulgaria, and the constitutional government would fall in a bloodless takeover by socialist partisans and the ANU-sponsored Orange Guard. As Sofia fell, what remained of the Royal Family would flee into exile along with former members of the constitutional government, leading the Fatherland Front coalition to declare the Bulgarian Republic on January 1st, 1938, in what would come to be known as the New Year's Revolution.

### Kostov Chairmanship

Traicho Kostov, one of the main orchestrators of the People's Court system, grew over the 1930s to become one of the most powerful figures in the party, second to only Georgi Dimitrov himself. Noted for his brutality, approving and sanctioning the efforts to achieve the maximum possible sentencing, Kostov would be a staunch loyalist towards Dimitrov, but would himself represent a revisionist undercurrent in the Communist Party, clashing with the orthodox Leninism of Valko Chervenkov and his faction.

Dimitrov, who was in consistently ill health for three years, recognized his need to designate a successor and named Kostov as his heir. Later that year, Dimitrov would die on April 19th, 1952, leaving Kostov in charge of the Party. Chervenkov and his orthodox loyalists would not go quietly, however, attempting to remove Kostov by force utilizing loyal elements of the army. These efforts, however, would fail, as he lost control of his army and was betrayed by his army associates. Arresting Chervenkov, he would be tried in secret and executed in August, decapitating the conservative faction and leaving Traicho Kostov as the sole, legitimate Chairman of the BKP.

### Gold Reserve crisis

Bulgaria received extensive aid from the Phalanstère International, primarily from the "Stabilization Loan" intended to aid Bulgaria during the Second Weltkrieg. Despite these loans leading to the success of autarky measures during the Great Leap Forward, bringing a period of economic prosperity, Bulgaria would soon find it difficult to pay these debts even with International assistance, due to the country lacking most foreign trade. As economic ministers warned of the situation potentially growing critical, Kostov would draft the "Italian plan", secretly selling the gold reserves of the Bulgarian National Bank to the decisively anti-socialist Romania, in an effort to repay the imminent maturities.

Between 1955 and 1956, a substantial amount of the accumulated gold reserves of the BNB would be sold in secret to repay the country's debts with Kostov's permission. However, in January 1956, these actions will be discovered.

## Politics

Bulgaria is led by the Fatherland Front, a de jure coalition that is, in reality, completely controlled by the Bulgarian Communist Party as a one-party vanguard state. However, the party itself is not uniform, having been consumed by factionalism since the beginning of the 1950s.

### Nationalist Faction

* Traicho Kostov, current Chairman of the Communist Party.
* Anton Yugov, Kostov's closest ally and a fellow proponent of "Bulgarian-style" nationalist Leninism.
* Ferdinand Kozovski, the "old master of the Bulgarian Revolution", former partisan leader who reorganized the Bulgarian army following the Socialist Republic's establishment.
* Vladimir Stoychev, minister of foreign affairs.

### Reformist Faction

* Todor Zhivkov, the "Lion of Sofia" and the de facto leader of the Party after Kostov's resignation. Affectionately referred to as "Uncle Tosho", advocate for economic liberalization.
* Grisha Filipov, leading economic expert in the Party, close associate and friend of Zhivkov. Considered his right-hand man and preferred successor.
* Georgi Traykov, former member of the ANU who defected and purged the party following their attempted coup d'etat, linked the party completely to the Communists.
* Stanko Todorov, rising star in the Communist Party.

### Fusionist Faction

* Ivan Todorov-Gorunya, former revolutionary general and a member of the Orthodox Faction, proponent of a fusion between Totalism and traditional Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.
* Dimo Kazasov, a former Zveno founder who later came to join the Communist Party. Follower of Todorov-Gorunya, but prefers Sorelianism to Todorov-Gorunya's own Maximist bias.
* Tsviatko Anev, commander in the Bulgarian Army in charge of the Sofia garrison and a close associate of Ivan Todorov-Gorunya.

### Orthodox Faction

* Tsola "Sonya" Dragoycheva, hardline Leninist and the highest-ranking female politician in Bulgaria, appalled by Todorov-Gorunya's radical ideas.
* Violeta Yakova, skilled partisan fighter, promoted to General by the age of 30. Fanatically devoted to Communism and the Party, and shocked by its willingness to deviate from Leninism.

Different factions still stir in the shadows, however:

### Syndicalists

* Manol Vasev, the former head of the now-defunct Vlasovden, now scheduled for his arrest and execution.
* Todor Angelov, a militant revolutionary who fought abroad for syndicalism, a former supporter of the BKP who grew to feel betrayed by it. Vasev's vengeful successor.

## Economy

Following the establishment of the Socialist Republic, Bulgaria began to rebuild its economy, picking up the pieces of prior plans from the Constitutionalist government to launch the "Great Leap Forward". Implementing a planned economy, Bulgaria would heavily industrialize its backwards economy over the 1940s, eventually making a miraculous comeback as a heavily industrialized, prosperous economy, earning it the moniker of the "Belgium of the Balkans". However, this economic growth is a bubble. While Bulgaria did see its industrial sector, employment rate, and GDP per capita skyrocket, it came at the cost of Bulgaria running a substantial deficit that it has been unable to pay back. Development loans from both Yugoslavia and the Third International, while helpful, backfired as it only began to compound the Bulgarian debt crisis.

Despite its current setbacks, however, Bulgaria has the potential to bounce back from its crises and earn its place as a Balkan economic powerhouse, rivaling even Yugoslavia itself.

In the Zhivkov route, Bulgaria can become a powerhouse for the fledgling electronics industry, co-opting the newly-created MOSFET transistors of the Syndicalist States to jumpstart the Bulgarian computer industry. Stating that he would turn Bulgaria into the "Japan of Eastern Europe", one of the last things Bulgaria can do in-game is develop the first semiconductor factory in eastern Europe.

## National Spirits

+5.0% Stability
+12.5% Division Defense
+10.0% Division Recovery Rate

+5.0% Construction Speed
+5.0% Production Efficiency Cap
+10.0% Factory Output