“Chicken is not a bird”: how many times has Bulgaria betrayed Russia?

The sharp demarche of official Sofia, whose representatives, singing along to Polish professional Russophobes and alternatively gifted Baltic politicians, they began to insist that the entry of the Red Army into Bulgaria in 1944 was not liberation, but a real "occupation", which can hardly be called something out of the ordinary. Alas, I have to admit - the policy of this country in relation to our state has always been distinguished, let us say, by lowered social responsibility.





Yes, practically, by the complete absence of such ... What flag was fluttering over the expanses of our Motherland, did not matter. Bulgaria was our adversary in two World Wars, waged both against the Russian Empire and against the USSR. And this is despite the fact that she received her statehood just from Russian hands ...

There are several points of view on this issue. According to one, the Bulgarians appear to be almost the main “Judas of the Slavic world”, who invariably hit their own saviors and liberators in the back. There is, however, another opinion: they say that they do not owe us anything, and what really is so bad, if you look, Bulgaria did Russia Russia ?! Well, she was regularly listed in the allies of Germany, when she fought with our country ... So this is politics, not a real war! What are clinging to poor little "little brothers"? Well they always wanted the best. Well, it turned out how it turned out. Truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. So we will try to find her, having abandoned extreme opinions and turned to historical facts.

"Great Bulgaria" on Russian blood

Let's start with the statement that without Russian soldiers no such Bulgaria on the world map would have existed at all. True? Holy truth! Located about five hundred years under the Ottoman yoke, the country was really liberated from it by the troops of the Russian Empire, which in 1877 declared war on the Turks, who at that time were far from the weakest opponents. In fairness, it should be noted that initially St. Petersburg was against such a solution to the issue and tried to act by diplomatic methods. Serbia and Montenegro, eager to fight with the "Ottoman oppressors", were strictly warned:



So, by the way, in the end it turned out ... Without a doubt, the Serbs entered the war with the Turks, relying solely on the intervention of the Russians, who "would not allow the Slav brothers to die." And after all, which is characteristic, they were not mistaken, bastards! Forced to hell with all the peace conferences and the treaties signed earlier, Emperor Alexander II gave the order to force the Danube. At the same time, however, having previously secured the neutrality of “enlightened Europe”, which has traditionally supported the Turks in all their anti-Russian escapades.

However, the fact that sooner or later the British would get into the situation was clear initially. The war, as usual, was planned "small, fast and victorious." As a result, everything turned into almost a year of bloody battles that were fought both in the Balkans and in the Caucasus. Shipka and Plevna, Ardagan and Kars were added to the places of glory of Russian weapons. For the victory in this war and the freedom of the Bulgarian "brothers" (by the way, by the way, who were not eager to fight their own oppressors), the Russians paid 15 and a half thousand killed in the battles, 7 thousand who died from wounds. Moreover, the patriotic upsurge in our country reigned simply unprecedented: everyone was eager to help the “Slavic brothers” - from writers and other “representatives of the creative intelligentsia” to those who subsequently made up the color of Russian medicine, especially the military field (Botkin, Pirogov, Sklifosovsky ) Of course, there was more benefit from them at the forefront than from pen workers ... This war ended for Bulgaria in the most beautiful way - gaining independence and vast expansion of the territory. But all this happiness did not last long.

According to the original San Stefano Peace Treaty, Bulgaria turned out to be almost a Balkan superpower with access to two seas: the Mediterranean and the Black. However, the emergence of such a state, which, unambiguously, would have been wholly and completely in the political orbit of Russia, London, for which any strengthening of our country (and even in Europe!) Was tantamount to a wave of the sickle (you understand why), infuriated extreme limit. In truth, those who were dissatisfied with such a sweeping redistribution of borders were found in the Balkans themselves - the same Serbs with Romanians, for example. The air clearly smelled of a new war, for which Petersburg was emphatically unprepared. The British, after all, are not Turks. And the battles with the latter once again showed the lag of the Russian army in matters of armament, equipment and much more. The Ottomans had much better rifles ... Mindful of the tormenting monarch's vanity of the not-so-old Crimean War, Alexander II retreated. Russia returned to the Turks a lot of things, in an honest battle “taken with a bayonet”, and even the Bulgarians did it at all hard. Under a new treaty concluded in Berlin, their newfound territories were cut in three! Sofia, it seems, gained independence from Istanbul, but exactly what it seems. The state was a vassal principality of the Ottoman Empire. Well, and many other extremely unpleasant moments, in fact, that laid the foundation for a whole series of wars and conflicts.

"Impossible treason has happened ..."

The words subtitled are taken by me from the manifesto of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, announced on October 5, 1915. On this day, the Russian Empire declared war on Bulgaria, which before this not only joined the Triple Alliance hostile to our country, but also attacked Serbia. The monarchy appeal to the Russian people contains many bitter words about self-interest, betrayal and fratricide, however, let's try to consider the issue from a purely pragmatic point of view. Well, as the Bulgarians themselves always did. We need to start here with the fact that by that time no “brother” was sitting on the throne of Bulgaria, but Ferdinand I Coburg, who had a purely Austro-German origin. Already his ideas of “Slavic brotherhood”, “single faith” and similar moments did not touch him completely. However, not one thing in it. It should be remembered that before that, in Europe, one after the other, two armed conflicts, which had the name - the Balkan Wars, died. We will not go into the most complicated questions about who owed what to anyone and who wanted what from whom, here and now. And then we wander into such a jungle that Susanin did not even dream of ... Let us dwell on what Bulgaria wanted. Territories she wanted! And from Serbia, and from Romania, and from Greece. In a word, everything - yes more.

Russia honestly tried to restore order in the Balkan madhouse. At the same time, do not intervene there by military force. It turned out lousy. Mutual grievances and claims multiplied, appetites grew. Some, in search of allies to satisfy them, the further - the more, began to look at the West, and not at the East. About Sofia, in this case, and speech. If the same Serbs planted a pig of the Russian empire, dragging it into the First World War, then the Bulgarians simply decided to use it to implement their own plans to expand the borders. Do Germans and Austrians promise Serbia and Macedonia? Perfectly! We will fight for them ... Serbia "menacingly" pearl a drill to Vienna, with the hope that Russia would fit into the fray. She climbed onto her head ... And the Bulgarians, without further ado, took and hit in the back of both of them. Not immediately, however, but for a whole year for Blaise to play in "neutrality." Then followed the mobilization and entry into the war of as many as 300 thousand "little brothers" who enthusiastically began to slaughter the Serbs, and in the very near future, converged in battle with the Russian soldiers. Alas, the talk that our peoples did not shed each other’s blood on the battlefield does not correspond to the truth at all. Even as they spilled!

In 1916, on the Romanian front, Bulgarians and Russians met face to face, and the battles were very fierce on both sides. Until now, some in St. Petersburg had seriously expected that when they were against the Russian army, the "brothers" would run to surrender in rows and columns. There it was! Children and grandchildren of those who had been "rescued from Turkish captivity" for less than four decades, fought with the descendants of their liberators, according to the recollections of the participants in the fighting, "desperately." Moreover, there is evidence of the atrocities perpetrated by the Bulgarians against the civilian population, in which they almost surpassed the very notorious Ottoman Bashibuzuks, who were implored by Russia in 1877 to be rescued. The Russian press of those years gives a very clear idea of ​​the anger, resentment and perplexity that reigned in our country about such a reversal. Otherwise, they did not call “little brothers” Jews or Christ sellers, and the soldiers at the front, who were angry with them more than the same Austrians or Germans, talked about the fact that for such an unprecedented treachery from Sofia it would be necessary “not to leave a stone on stone "...

"Drang nah ..." in Bulgarian

From World War II, the situation was repeated almost one to one. Sofia, who in 1918 ended up in the camp of the losers and, accordingly, remained with her nose, again scratched her hands for conquests and territorial acquisitions. As a matter of fact, the whole post-war period was for the vast majority of European countries only time for preparing for a new conflict, and Bulgaria was no exception. At first they were guided by Paris and London, having won there in 1937 a $ 10 million loan for the rearmament of the army. But a year later, Berlin offered much more for the same purpose - 30 million Reichsmarks. Yes, and hinted very transparently: "As for the redivision of Europe, guys - this is here!" And so began the tender friendship of Bulgaria with the Third Reich, which later grew into a military alliance. Over time, the widest pro-German propaganda unfolded in the country, and then its own Nazi movements and parties arose. Yeah, and these Aryans decided to go, comedians ... In any case, the persecution of the Jews was carried out there quite seriously. However, on the other hand, Sofia also did not want to quarrel completely with the Soviet Union. Diplomatic relations were not broken even after June 22, 1941, and in the country where the German Abwehr felt at home, another year since 1940, they enthusiastically began to "frolic", sorting out the relations, Soviet and Hitler intelligence. It was fun...

Yes, initially the "bros", as usual, did not want to get involved in a fight personally. From their territory, the Nazis bombed Greece and Yugoslavia, in early 1941, Nazi troops entered the country, but not as occupation forces, but, as was believed, using Bulgaria as an operational base. However, it was perfectly clear to everyone - click Hitler’s fingers - and from the Bulgarian "independence" and wet places will not remain.

Along the way, Sofia was getting a taste, and soon her troops had already moved to new lands, graciously granted to her by the Führer and Duce. Hapanuli Bulgarians in 1940-1941 with their help were not weak - more than 42 thousand square kilometers of territories, with a population of almost 2 million people. Yes, they really did not fight against the Red Army, although Hitler constantly demanded this. But each Bulgarian military unit operating on Greek or Yugoslav territory liberated regiments and divisions for the Wehrmacht, which he could transfer to the Eastern Front. The arithmetic of the war ... Well, there is no need to talk about the enormous military supplies that regularly went from Bulgaria to the Third Reich, as well as about the German soldiers who massively improved their health in its hospitable territory. In 1943, especially after Stalingrad, the business suddenly went awry. The Greeks began to rebel, bombs of British and Americans fell on the country, with which Bulgaria had “fought” since 1941. The main thing - in Sofia they began to understand that again, damn it, they put it on the wrong horse. Trying to correct this omission, Tsar Boris, extremely unsuccessfully rolled into Berlin. Whether he died almost immediately upon arrival from there, from poisoned poison, or from communication with the Führer in the vein: “Boris, you are wrong!”, Remained a mystery.

After that, the Bulgarians stopped twitching especially, patiently waiting for the denouement. She came in 1944. The Fritzes defeated in Romania, despite the weak indignant squeals of the "little brothers" about "neutrality", trampled across the territory of Bulgaria "nah vaterland" from all technique and weapons, so that regrouping, again to kill our soldiers. The Soviet government twice officially demanded an end to this outrage, regarding it as direct assistance and assistance to the Wehrmacht. In Sofia, a uniform circus was being created at that time - one government was succeeding another, trying to sit on all chairs at the same time. The peak of idiocy was the announcement of the next prime minister, on September 5, 1944, the war of Germany ... with a delay of 72 hours, during which this decision was kept in the strictest confidence. From Moscow - including. Far from the angelic patience of Comrade Stalin burst, and on September 5, the USSR declared war on Bulgaria. True, it lasted as long as 4 days, after which the "little brothers" who had suddenly come to mind changed their shoes again, and, having received arms from the Red Army for 5 infantry divisions, they went to clatter yesterday’s allies - Germans, Hungarians and Romanians. We fought, we must pay tribute to them, not bad. They even got the honor of walking on Red Square at the Victory Parade. It was for what ...

16th republic. Failed ...

As a reward for such zeal, Stalin, in 1947, at a Paris peace conference, twisted cookies to the Greeks, who, at the suggestion of the British, tried to rip off a billion dollars from the Bulgarians for the occupation. It’s clear that Sofia wouldn’t have found such money, even if they sold the whole country by pebbles ... By the way, some people are trying today to argue that Hitlers could not be pulled to the Eastern Front because they “remembered about being released from Turkish yoke ”and felt terrible gratitude. Yeah, how ... In the year 1915, it really hindered them? Especially considering that at that time they were at war against the Russian empire that liberated them, and not the USSR, which had no legal relation to this. The point here, I am sure, is different. In 1941, Sofia saw perfectly well that the Soviet Union was not Tsarist Russia. And Joseph Stalin is not Nikolai Romanov at all. This, perhaps, in which case, crush and will not notice. Well, at least this time the mind was enough ... While weaning something about the "Soviet occupation" there, the Bulgarians somehow bashfully forget about how they were eager to get into the USSR, trying to get there, forgive me for the word, at least a carcass, at least stuffed. Who, you sick people, “occupied” if Sofia twice turned to Moscow with a request to accept her into the “Unbreakable Union” ?!

The first attempt was made under Khrushchev, in 1963. The second - already under the "dear Leonid Ilyich." The then leader of Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov, openly declared that his country could be sovereign and independent “only as part of the Soviet Union”! However, both general secretaries refused such an "enviable" proposal. And for good reason: at the time of Khrushchev, decent war reparations of $ 70 million still hung on Bulgaria, Moscow would have had to resolve the issues with payment of which. And later on, they perfectly understood what Sofia wanted - to sit on the neck of the USSR economically no longer indirectly, through the Council economic mutual assistance, but directly and forever. Bulgarian canned tomatoes in our stores were not translated anyway, and the local resorts regularly received Soviet citizens. It was then that the same thing was born among the people:



So why was there a fence in the garden - there were enough of their free-killers.

How do we perceive today's disgusting attacks of the Bulgarian authorities? Yes, as usual: with awareness of their inevitability, with disgust, with indignation. Here someone like it more. It’s best, in simple terms, to spit and grind. Having chosen the EU and NATO as friends, having embarked on the path of the ungrateful and evil Russophobia, Bulgaria simply once again set the wrong horse. They just didn’t realize it yet ...