EN
Southern Dobrudzha, situated in north-eastern Bulgaria next to the frontier with Romania, and recognised as the perpetual land of the Bulgarians and the cradle of Bulgarian statehood, comprised one of the very important territories lost by the Bulgarians after the First World War. In contrast to the Western Borderlands (encompassing the districts of Caribrod and Bosilegrad) and the region of Strumica (Pirin Macedonia) as well as Western Thrace, which had been permanently cut off from the Bulgarian state and incorporated into Yugoslavia and Greece, respectively, the Bulgarians managed to regain Southern Dobrudzha thanks to a conducive international situation as well as the determination and skills of their diplomats. This indubitable success of Sofia's foreign policy deserves a more in-depth analysis since it constitutes a sui generis extraordinary event in international relations in Europe during the initial stage of the Second World War. The reason for its exceptional nature lies in the fact that in 1940 Bulgarian-Romanian negotiations made it possible to attain one of the chief targets of Bulgarian revisionism in conditions when the European Continent was in the throes of a war and the West was submitting to demands made by the Third Reich.