Bulgarian Presentation
Slide 1:
 As early as 1928 several right wing members formed a political circle
called Zveno, which opposed liberal democratic government and
classical liberalism.
 The Zveno members were not Fascists, but they advocated a
corporative economy and were against political parties and the terror
of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), the
Macedonian liberation movement.
 They wanted a new type of parliament that would not represent
political but economic circles, an idea that was influenced by Italian
fascism.
 Until around 1934 Zveno remained a small organization, mainly
focused around military members.
 By the beginning on 1934 it became clear that the days of
parliamentary order was numbered. BANU demanded a larger
presence in the government.
 Society was demoralized by financial scandals, and the inability of the
government to deal with the IMRO acts of terror who murdered their
adversaries in the streets. Between August and December 1932 the
press reported 33 assassination or attempted assassinations of
Macedonians. Most victims belonged to IMRO. Because of these
attacks Macedonian Organization organized a gigantic funeral with
5,000 people following a coffin throughout the streets of Sofia.
 With this new humiliation for the Sofia government, a wave of
indigestion swept the country
Slide2:
 May 19th, 1934 the military league made the expected coup and
established control over the country with relative ease.
 Kimon Geogiev who was a member of Zveno became Prime Minister.
 As talked about in Crown of Thorns ever since General Vatev had
assumed the role as war minister 9 days before he’d been hearing
about an impending coup.
 General Vatev even asked fellow generals and friends if such rumors
were true. They all denied such statements.
 The Military League had made up it’s mind 6 months earlier to
overthrow the cabinet.
 Looking for “nonparty” civilian members, the officers approached
Colonel Veltchev, to become the future prime minister, but preferring
to be behind the power he recommended Kimon Geogiev.
 Before the coup the prestige of Zveno was high, there were few
members but all were highly educated individuals.
 King Boris disliked the Military League and had a strong desire that
they leave the political arena.
 On the night of May 18th, while the plans of the Coup were in action.
The founders of the coup waited nervously for the climax of the
drama. They had thought that King Boris was sound asleep, but
suddenly at 330 in the morning the doors opened and to their surprise
General Panov, the king’s aide told them that King Boris was waiting
for them.
SLIDE 4
 King Boris met the main conspirators of the coup, he had been well
informed and was not taken by surprise of the conspirators. A new
cabinet was appointed, and by the end of the night Kimon Gheorghiev
was appointed prime minister.
 It was not just a change of cabinets, and it was a change of regime.
Decrees were put in place to ban political parties, censorship of the
press, and the most courageous measure was banning the IMRO.
 After the Coup King Boris was watched very carefully. He was ready
for anything and was very carful not to draw attention to himself.
SLIDE 5
 In September 1934 the King & Queen of Yugoslavia went on a
official state visit to Bulgaria. Tensions were high and King Boris
took many measures to ensure the safety of the King & Queen. He
even went as far as to send several hundred Macedonians and extreme
Bulgarian nationalist out of Sofia.
 The official visit went smoothly and when the King & Queen
returned to Belgrade there was relief for King Boris.
 Hardly one month after the Visit to Bulgaria King Alexander was
assassinated in France. If this had happened in Bulgaria, and not
France another Balkan war may not have been avoided.