BULGARIA IN WORLD WAR I

World War I was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918. It includes most of the Great Powers, united in two opposing coalitions: The Entente (France, Russia, Britain, Serbia and many other countries) vs the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria).

Bulgaria's participation in the First World War includes the fighting of the Kingdom of Bulgaria in the First World War. It covers the period from October 14, 1915, when the Kingdom of Bulgaria declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, to September 29, 1918, when the country capitulated with the Thessaloniki armistice.

For a long time, Bulgaria was persuaded by both main powers to join the war. In the end, it sided with the Triple Alliance, securing an extremely strong and important partner in the Balkans.

1915 - THE BEGINNING

On October 14, with a manifesto of the king, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia. Bulgaria had two armies - First and Second. 

• The First Army (commanded by Kliment Boyadzhiev) must cut off Serbian communications in Pomoravlje and Eastern Serbia, entering these territories.

• The Second Army (led by Georgi Todorov) must enter Vardar Macedonia, cut off the retreat of the Serbs and prevent the attempt to help their allies, who were transferred to northern Greece after the Dardanelles operation. 

The Bulgarian armies entered these territories and took them from the Serbs. At Krivolak, the Bulgarians defeated the Anglo-French forces and so the Serbian army was forced to withdraw through the impassable Albanian mountains. 

Thus, Bulgaria includes almost entirely the western Bulgarian lands within its borders. But after the defeat of the Allies at Krivolak, by German order, the offensive was halted as Greece was still hesitant to side. This saved the Entente forces in the Balkans from final defeat, and they were given the opportunity to create a new front in Greece, which they did after Greece joined the Entente countries.

1916

Unlike Bulgaria, all other Balkan countries except the Ottoman Empire were part of the Entente. After a series of successful battles, on September 1, 1916, the Kingdom of Bulgaria declared war on Romania. 

Bulgarian and Turkish troops defeated the Russian and Serbian-backed Romanian armies in Dobrogea. Subsequently, Bulgarian and Turkish troops crossed the Danube and together with the troops of the other allies captured the Romanian capital Bucharest.

In 1916, it finally became clear that the war would be long and protracted. 

• With the Lerin operation in August, the Bulgarians captured Lerin, and with the Strum operation, they shortened the front to the northeast. 

• In September and October, the Entente counterattacked in the western part of the front, as a result of which it managed to capture Bitola. 

• After the battle of the Cherna River, the front was not stabilized.

1917

At the beginning of 1917, the so-called Toplich uprising, provoked by Serbian military intelligence against the Bulgarian government in Pomoravie, broke out but it was quickly suppressed.

There was no significant change on the front in Macedonia, although the Bulgarians lost Bitola. 

In the north, however, success was achieved - Russia and Romania withdrew from the war but only South Dobrudja was returned to Bulgaria under the second treaty. 

Northern Dobrogea remains a condominium of the Central Powers. 

This provoked dissatisfaction among the Bulgarian public opinion against the government, which was reproached for not defending the Bulgarian national interest in the negotiations with the allies prior to the conclusion of the peace treaty with Romania.

1918

The Bulgarians and their allies found themselves in a difficult situation. Their economies were starting to deplete, the economy was in decline, there was a shortage of labour. 

The ghost of hunger began to hover. 

After the October Revolution, riots in the army became more frequent. The anti-war propaganda of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party was intensifying.

At the front, the situation was deteriorating. 

• There was a shortage of food and supplies. 

• Many factories were no longer operating due to labour shortages. 

• The allies on the Southern Front were increasing their armies, and the Bulgarians had no reserves. 

• It was only a matter of time before the front would break through. 

• The idea of the allies is to break through the front at Dobro Pole and Doiran, thus catching the nearly million-strong Bulgarian army in a "sack". 

• The offensive began on September 14. After three days of fighting at Dobro Pole, the Bulgarians were defeated, thus capturing the remaining soldiers in the west. 

• At Doiran, the Bulgarians under the command of Vladimir Vazov defeated the allies, but soon they too were forced to retreat. The defeated soldiers set out for the capital to seek a balance from the rulers. 

• The Vladai uprising broke out. In this situation, the Thessaloniki armistice was signed on September 29, bringing the country out of the war. 

• Tsar Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his son Boris.

BATTLES OF BULGARIA DURING WORLD WAR I

CONSEQUENCES

• After the end of the war the country experienced the so-called second national catastrophe. 

• The period from the restoration of the Bulgarian state (1878) to the end of the First World War (1919) is marked in Bulgarian history by the pursuit of national unification.

• In the name of national unification within the ethnic Bulgarian borders, Bulgaria participated in three consecutive wars (Balkan, Inter-Allied, World War I). 

• The loss of the latter puts a tragic end to the national ideal. 

• From the beginning of the Bulgarian Revival, marked by Slavic-Bulgarian History, to the Neuilly Treaty, the nation has three successive and stage goals: the struggle for the Bulgarian Church, the struggle for national independence and the struggle for national unification. The realization of the final goal before the Bulgarian nation ends with the end of Bulgaria's participation in the First World War.

LOSSES

• More than 115,000 soldiers and officers killed and missing during the First World War, plus the wounded, the captives, the losses among the Bulgarian civilian population and the destruction - THIS IS THE COLLAPSE, AT LEAST UNTIL THE SECOND WORLD WAR, OF THE NATIONAL IDEAL. 

• Bulgaria is losing half of its land - the Bulgarian ethnic territory is divided between all of Bulgaria's neighbors:

• Pomoravie, Timoshko, Vardar Macedonia and Prizren were finally annexed to the newly formed state of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. 

• the Bulgarians and the Bulgarian lands (Aegean Macedonia and Western Thrace) became part of Greece.

• Eastern Thrace (annexed by the Ottomans in 1913) remained part of the newly formed Turkey (as the successor to the fallen Ottoman Empire).

• Romania occupied all of Dobrogea.

• Inflation is constantly rising. The economy, as a result of the war and the imposed reparations and requisitions, is in decline. 

• Opposition left-wing, agrarian parties are coming to power. Bulgaria is occupied by the Entente. 

• On November 27, 1919, the Neuilly Treaty was signed, which had extremely severe consequences for the Bulgarian nation and state. By virtue of this treaty, also called the Neuilly dictatorship, the sovereign right of Bulgaria to maintain its armed forces was taken away.