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| d. Bulgaria |
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(See 1915, Oct. 14) (See 1919, Nov. 27)| Defeated in World War I, Bulgaria not only failed to recover any of the territory lost in the Second Balkan War, but was also deprived of some further areas on the Serbian frontier and of all access to the Aegean. The country was flooded with thousands of refugees from Thrace and Macedonia, whom the government, loaded with debt and heavy reparations payments, was unable to settle. They formed a huge mobile element, easy converts to the revolutionary program of the Macedonian committees or to Bolshevik agitators. The drastic policy of nationalization pursued by the Yugoslav and Greek governments in Macedonia stimulated the unrest in Bulgaria, which the government was unable to control. Raids of revolutionary bands across the frontiers became the order of the day, creating a state of chronic tension between Bulgaria and its neighbors. | 1 |
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| 1918, Oct. 4 |
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| Abdication of Tsar Ferdinand. | 2 |
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| 1918–43 |
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| BORIS III, son of Ferdinand, tsar. | 3 |
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| 1919, Aug. 17 |
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| The Peasant Party won a great victory in the elections. | 4 |
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| Oct. 6 |
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| Alexander Stamboliski, leader of the Peasant Party, became premier. | 5 |
| The Communist Party, formed in 1919, not only did not join the government (despite winning 18 percent of the vote) but soon clashed with the Agrarians. Communist leaders were very active in labor agitation and in the organization of strikes, the most important of which was the general strike of Dec. 1919. Stamboliski opposed these actions by forming the Orange Guard, composed mainly of peasants armed with clubs, which was used to break up demonstrations. After the arrest of the leaders, the strikes collapsed. | 6 |
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| Nov. 27 |
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| Bulgaria signed the Treaty of Neuilly (See 1919, Nov. 27). | 7 |
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