The Third Bulgarian Kingdom (1878–1946)

The Unification (1885)

On 6 September 1885 the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia united without asking the Great Powers. Serbia attacked, thinking Bulgaria an easy target. The Bulgarian army, led by young captains, won at Slivnitsa. The captains became legends, and the Serbs became more cautious.

Independence (1908)

On 22 September 1908, in Tarnovo, Prince Ferdinand declared independence and became tsar. Bulgaria was no longer anyone’s vassal.

The wars

• The Balkan War (1912–1913) – victory over the Ottoman Empire.
• The Second Balkan War (1913) – defeat against its former allies. The First National Catastrophe.
• The First World War (1915–1918) – on the side of the Central Powers. Defeat and the Treaty of Neuilly. The Second National Catastrophe.

Between the wars

Turbulent years: the Stamboliyski government, coups, assassinations. Yet literature and the arts flourished.

The Second World War and the rescue of the Jews

Bulgaria joined the Tripartite Pact in 1941. In 1943 the government planned to deport Bulgaria’s Jews. Thanks to Dimitar Peshev, members of parliament, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church – the Metropolitans Stefan and Kiril – and many ordinary citizens, around 48,000 Bulgarian Jews were saved. Tragically, more than 11,000 Jews from the occupied territories of Aegean Thrace and Vardar Macedonia were deported to the death camps. The story is both a source of pride and of pain, and both must be remembered.