The Determinants and Contents of the Resolutions of the Tenth Expanded Plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers' Party (Communists) Concerning the Macedonian Question - August 1946

• Authors: Znamierowska-Rakk E.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The establishment of the official stand of the Bulgarian communists as regards the Macedonian question at the Tenth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers' Party (communist) in August 1946 ended an almost two-years long process, marked by the pressure exerted on Sofia by Belgrade and subservient Skopie for the purpose of incorporating the Bulgarian part of Macedonia into the Yugoslav Federation. However, as a result of the tenacious protest expressed by London and Washington, the Yugoslav leaders were compelled to suspend forcing through the direct incorporation of Pirot Macedonia into the People's Republic of Macedonia. Instead, they decided to pursue the profound Macedonianisation of a population, whose overwhelming majority regarded itself as Bulgarian. At the same time, it was planned to Macedonianise the Macedonian émigrés settled in assorted regions of Bulgaria.The instrument of this policy was, according to Belgrade, to assume the form of a national-cultural autonomy of the Bulgarian Macedonians. Nonetheless, this requirement caused among the Bulgarian leaders essential resistance and doubts, being perceived by society and the democratic opposition as contrary to the Bulgarian raison d'état. On the other hand, apart from the Yugoslav pressure on the Bulgarian Workers' Party a great impact was also exerted by the Soviet side, which opted for Macedonianisation. A further factor was the unregulated position of the Bulgarian state on the international arena - in the summer of 1946 the Paris Conference witnessed a struggle for determining the final conditions of the peace treaty with Bulgaria, forcing Sofia to turn for support to Belgrade. Yugoslavia's backing, especially in its capacity as a member of the anti-Nazi coalition, was of prime importance for Bulgarian interests. In this state of things, at the beginning of August 1946, the leaders of the Bulgarian communist party gathered at the Tenth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers' Party, approved a complex programme of the Macedonianisation of Pirot Macedonia, and a planned incorporation of this territory into the People's Republic of Macedonia as part of Tito's Yugoslavia.

Keywords

EN

BALKANS; BULGARIA; MACEDONIAN QUESTION

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Studia z Dziejów Rosji i Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 39
• Pages: 183-218
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Znamierowska-Rakk E.

• E. Znamierowska-Rakk, Instytut Historii PAN, ul. Rynek Starego Miasta 29/31, 00-272 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

05PLAAAA0034832