740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/1–945: Telegram
The United States Representative in Bulgaria ( Barnes ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:31 p.m.]
25. Bulgarian Communist Party and Russian fears of British influence in Bulgaria have recently been revealed again in a somewhat striking manner. G. M. Dimitrov has been told by General Biryusov18 that he must resign as Secretary of the National Committee of the Agrarian Party and possibly go abroad. It has been proposed to Dimitrov that he accept some official mission but at the present time he is not disposed to be that accommodating. If it becomes necessary for him to leave the country he may apply for admission to the United States possibly as a political refugee. Comment by the Department would be helpful in dealing with any such eventuality. So far as the Agrarian Party as a whole is concerned, Dimitrov’s [Page 141] past connections with the British have not adversely affected his standing. He is highly respected and considered the outstanding intellectual of the party.19
- Col. Gen. Sergey Semenovich Biryuzov, President (Chairman) of the Allied Control Commission for Bulgaria.↩
- Telegram 44, January 23, 1945, from Sofia, reported that on January 20, 1945, Dimitrov was replaced as Secretary General of the Agrarian Party by Nikola Petkov, a Minister without Portfolio in the Bulgarian Cabinet. The telegram added that Petkov, a close friend of Dimitrov, was a convinced friend of the Western democracies (740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/1–2345).↩