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| 1990, Jan. 2 |
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| A decree abolished the secret police department in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. | 1 |
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| Jan. 15 |
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| The National Assembly voted to revoke the Communist Party's constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on power. | 2 |
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| March 5 |
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| The National Assembly adopted a bill that entitled all Bulgarian citizens to choose their own names, thus allowing ethnic Turks and Pomaks to reassume their original names. | 3 |
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| March 6 |
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| Strikes were legalized for the first time in Bulgarian history. On the same day, a new property law removed limitations on real estate ownership. | 4 |
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| April 3 |
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| The Bulgarian Communist Party renamed itself the Bulgarian Socialist Party. | 5 |
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| April–July |
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| Petur Mladenov was elected president on April 3 by the National Assembly. But on July 6 he was forced to resign when the opposition made public a videotape showing him suggesting the use of tanks to crush antigovernment demonstrations in Dec. 1989. | 6 |
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| June 10 and 17 |
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| In a general election, the first free multiparty election since 1946, the Socialists (former Communists) won a prevailing majority in the National Assembly. | 7 |
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| Aug. 1 |
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| Opposition leader Zhelyu Zhelev was elected president. He would be reelected in January 1992 for a five-year term. | 8 |
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| Sept. 20 |
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| After the opposition refused to participate in a grand coalition government, the Socialists formed a cabinet with independent members under Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov. In October Lukanov announced a plan for the transition to a market economy. However, student demonstrations, general strikes, and an opposition boycott of parliament, in protest against the government's economic reform programs and its association with the former Communists forced Lukanov to resign on Nov. 29. | 9 |
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| Dec. 20 |
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| The Grand National Assembly approved a transitional coalition government led by an independent, Dimitur Popov. The coalition included the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the Union of Democratic Forces, and the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union. | 10 |
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| Sept. 25 |
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| Bulgaria became a member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. | 11 |
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| Nov. 15 |
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| The Grand National Assembly voted to change the country's name from the People's Republic of Bulgaria to the Republic of Bulgaria. | 12 |
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