Day of Remembrance and Respect for the Victims of the Communist Regime in Bulgaria Date in the current year: February 1, 2025

Before the establishment of the socialist People’s Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgaria was a kingdom (more precisely, a tsardom) that gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. When World War II broke out, Bulgaria was initially determined to remain neutral, but its neutrality didn’t last very long. In 1941, Bulgaria signed the Tripartite Pact and became an ally of Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan.

In 1943, Tsar Boris III died unexpectedly and was succeeded by his six-year-old son, Simeon II. Real power was held by a Regency Council consisting of Boris’s younger brother Prince Kiril, General Nikola Mihov, and former Prime Minister Bogdan Filov. The following year, when the Red Army invaded Romania and it became clear that Germany was losing, Bulgaria renounced the Axis and declared neutrality.

However, this did not prevent the Soviet Union from declaring war on Bulgaria and invading the country on September 8, 1944. The next day, Bulgarian communist guerrillas, backed by the Soviet Union, staged a coup, arrested the members of the Regency Council, and installed a new government.

On February 1, 1945, the former regents (Prince Kiril, Mihov, and Filov), 8 royal advisers, 22 cabinet ministers, 47 generals and senior army officers, and 67 members of parliament were found guilty of treason by the People’s Court and sentenced to death without the right of appeal. They were executed on same day. In all, between December 1944 and April 1945, the People’s Court tried more than 11,000 people and convicted more than 9,000. 2,730 were sentenced to death, 1,305 to life imprisonment, and the rest to 1 to 20 years in prison.

When the war ended and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria was formally established, the Bulgarian government expanded its campaign of political persecution to target the economic elite and dissidents. It also operated a network of forced labor camps, where tens of thousands of people were sent, often without trial. According to official sources, 2,730 people were sentenced to death in Bulgaria between 1944 and 1989. According to unofficial estimates, however, as many as 20,000 people were killed under the communist regime.

Another crime of the communist regime in Bulgaria was the government’s treatment of Bulgarian Turks. Beginning in 1956, the government implemented a policy of assimilation that included forced name changes and prohibition of traditional clothing, customs, and the use of the Turkish language.

The Day of Remembrance and Respect for the Victims of the Communist Regime in Bulgaria has been observed every year since 2011 on February 1. It is marked by commemorative events held at the memorial wall in the center of Sofia, at former concentration camp sites, and in cities and towns across the country. They include wreath-laying ceremonies, solemn speeches and church services.