740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/12–844: Telegram

The American Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State

12. See my telegram No. 11, December 7, 9 a.m. It has now been verified that General Biryuzov did convoke members of the Fatherland Front Government and tell them in the name of the ACC that [Page 500] the decision to reintegrate officers and men into the army must be rescinded. The outstanding point of interest in connection with this fact, aside from its disregard of the ACC as an Allied organization, is the implication that with the aid of the Russians the Bulgarian Communists are seeking to gain control of the army.

Yesterday afternoon a huge mass meeting, variously estimated at from 35 to 150,000, was organized in the cathedral square to emphasize the unity and strength of the FF. It celebrated the rescinding of the order and emphasized the necessity for a complete purge of the army and Government of all “Fascist” elements, thereby giving the lie to the very thing that the meeting was to prove, namely, unity of the FF. It appears at the present moment that so long as the non-Communists [apparent omission], this Government will be maintained in office until such time as the army is a “people’s army”. The Communists now control the Ministry of the Interior and with it the country’s entire police force—the militia. If the army, or that portion of it that is left in Bulgaria, can be brought into line with the “will of the people”, no serious obstacle to the completion of the September revolution should exist.

Communist control of the army is being sought from the top down. General Kozovski, who has been made the right hand of the Bulgarian Chief of Staff, General Marinov (with or without his consent is not yet clear), arrived in the country with the Russian Army and as a Russian General although of Bulgarian origin and not a Bulgarian General. Also Dobri Terpeshev, the Communist Minister without Portfolio, who negotiated the military agreement with Tito,70 now appears in public from time to time in the uniform of a Bulgarian Lieutenant General and is thought to be the chief Political Commissar of the Bulgarian Army.

Repeated to Moscow and Caserta.

Barnes
  1. Marshal Tito (Josip Broz), military leader of Partisan guerrilla forces in Yugoslavia, and President of the National Liberation Movement in that country.