The Fatherland Front Regency (9.IX.1944 to 8.IX.1946)

Abstract

The present paper treats the place, the role, and the prerogatives of the Regency Council, operating during the early period of the socialist revolution in Bulgaria. The specific character of the revolutionary situation, in which the Regency Council existed, determined the specific character of its activity too. In order to outline these peculiarities of the Council better, the first chapter of this paper treats the prerogatives in the way they are determined by the Constitution of Tarnovo. The same chapter also treats the characteristic peculiarities in the creation and activity of the previous two Regency Councils of 1886 and 1943–1944.

On this basis, the following conclusion is drawn: that in the process of their creation and activity, the statutes of the Constitution have been regularly broken in order to answer the concrete necessities, resulting from the atmosphere in the country and mostly from the international situation. This characteristic feature is most clearly demonstrated during the creation of the third Regency Council on September 9, 1944. The next chapter of this paper treats this problem. It also treats the ideological and practical motives—of the Workers' Party (Communists) first of all—which influenced the creation of a Regency Council once again. The actual prerogatives are considered, as well as the character and the interrelations between this institution and the other authorities. This practically proves the subordination of the Regency Council and the fact that, by its forced passiveness, it helped the revolutionary process in the country.

The last chapter treats the changes in the international situation from the summer of 1945 to the autumn of 1946 and in the inner political life and the reflection of these changes in the character of the Regency Council’s activity. It also treats the attempts of the opposition to restore the rights of the Regency Council according to the Constitution, in order to oppose it to the revolutionary authority in its struggle for the preservation of the social order. The actual authority of the Regency Council in the system of the country’s government is outlined too.

This policy underwent its natural failure in spite of the active support of the USA and Great Britain. With a tremendous majority, the people rejected the monarchical form of governing by the referendum on September 8, 1946. This was one of the decisive steps along the way towards the socialist reorganization of Bulgarian society.