Olivera Dragišić

Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije, Beograd

nowrunlolarun@gmail.com

The socialist conquest of power on the Balkan tripoint: the case of Vidin

Abstract: The paper discusses, analyzes and contextualizes the process of the socialist conquest of power in the Bulgarian city of Vidin in September and October 1944. The research was based on the archival material of the State Archive in Vidin. The paper’s focus is on a short but crucial period in the process of building a post-war socialist government structure in this border town

Keywords: Bulgaria, Vidin, power structure, Patriotic Front, socialism

Summary: The foundations of the new, Patriotic Front power structure in Vidin, in northwestern Bulgaria, were laid from September 9 to mid-October 1944. That chronological framework was, on the one hand, determined by the overthrow in the capital, and on the other, by the signing of the Armistice on October 28 between Bulgaria and the Allies. The Vidin city government was formed in an atmosphere of anomie, in which the old government had not yet collapsed by September, while the new one was gradually being established. This caused unease in the local administration and inspired seeking contact with the capital, which happened only in late September. The administration in Vidin was not formed by the center, i.e. by the capital, but the decision-making center on building the administration was the political part of the army (the person in charge of forming the administration was party commissar Ivan Zurlov). By the end of October, the foundations of the new administration in Vidin were laid in accordance with the allied agreements and the personnel capacities that the Patriotic Front and the party in Vidin had at their disposal. At the heart of the process was the party’s rapid takeover of PF committees and government administration, as well as the organizing of a reliable police force and the compilation of lists of prisoners who could potentially be granted amnesty. If we add organizing PF committees in worker’s associations, the cleaning of school administrations from “fascists” and dismissals of school inspectors, just six weeks after the “revolution” the system in Vidin was placed under the control of the Patriotic Front, which was backed by the Red Army, and which drew its legitimacy from allied agreements.