Bulgarian Communist Party in the context of "People's Republic of Bulgaria"

Thracians or Thracian Bulgarians (Bulgarian: Тракийски българи or Тракийци) are a regional, ethnographic group of ethnic Bulgarians, inhabiting or native to Thrace. Today, the larger part of this population is concentrated in Northern Thrace, but much is spread across the whole of Bulgaria and the diaspora.

Until the beginning of the twentieth century the Thracian Bulgarians were scattered in the whole of Thrace, then part of the Ottoman Empire. After the persecutions during the Preobrazhenie Uprising and the ethnic cleansing, caused to the Bulgarian population in Eastern Thrace after the Second Balkan War, these people were expelled from the area. After World War I, Bulgaria was required to cede Western Thrace to Greece. A whole population of Bulgarians in Western Thrace was expelled into Bulgaria-controlled Northern Thrace. This was followed by a further population exchange between Bulgaria and Greece (under the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine), which radically changed the demographics of the region toward increased ethnic homogenization within the territories each respective country ultimately was awarded. At this period the Bulgarian Communist Party was compelled by Comintern to accept the formation of a new Thracian nation on the base of this people in order to include them in a new separate Thracian state, as a part of a future Balkan Communist Federation.

Todor Hristov Zhivkov (Bulgarian: Тодор Христов Живков [ˈtɔdor ˈxristof ˈʒifkof]; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. He was the second longest-serving leader in the Eastern Bloc, the longest-serving leader within the Warsaw Pact and the longest-serving non-royal ruler in Bulgarian history.

During World War II, Zhivkov participated in Bulgaria's resistance movement in the People's Liberation Insurgent Army. In 1943, he was involved in organising the Chavdar Partisan Brigade in and around his place of birth, becoming deputy commander of the Sofia operations area in the summer of 1944. Under his rule, many fellow former combatants with Chavdar were to rise to positions of prominence in Bulgarian affairs. He is said to have coordinated partisan movements with those of pro-Soviet army units during the 9 September 1944 uprising.

Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (/dɪˈmiːtrɒf/; Bulgarian: Георги Димитров Михайлов) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Димитров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 to 1949, and the first leader of the Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 to 1949. From 1935 to 1943, he was the General Secretary of the Communist International.

Born in western Bulgaria, Dimitrov worked as a printer and trade unionist during his youth. He was elected to the Bulgarian parliament as a socialist during the First World War and campaigned against his country's involvement in the conflict, which led to his brief imprisonment for sedition. In 1919, he helped found the Bulgarian Communist Party. Two years later, he moved to the Soviet Union and was elected to the executive committee of Profintern. In 1923, Dimitrov led a failed communist uprising against the government of Aleksandar Tsankov and was subsequently forced into exile. He lived in the Soviet Union until 1929, at which time he relocated to Germany and became head of the Comintern operations in central Europe.

The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Russian: Информационное бюро коммунистических и рабочих партий, romanized: Informatsionnoye byuro kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partiy), commonly known as Cominform (Коминформ), was a co-ordination body of Marxist–Leninist communist parties in Europe which existed from 1947 to 1956. Formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Communist International in 1943, it did not replace that body, but instead mainly served as an expression of solidarity and as a means of disseminating Stalinist propaganda. The Cominform initially included the communist parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia (expelled in 1948), France, and Italy. The organization was dissolved in 1956, during de-Stalinization, largely replaced in function by the Warsaw Pact formed in 1955 and Comecon formed in 1949.

Georgi Traykov Girovski, also known as Georgi Traykov (Bulgarian: Георги Трайков Гировски, 14 April 1898 – 14 January 1975), was a Bulgarian politician and the longtime leader of Bulgarian Agrarian National Union. Traykov became leader of the Agrarian Union in December 1947, a year after the Bulgarian Communist Party rose to power. He quickly dismissed officials not affiliated with the Bulgarian Communist Party, helping to make the party a loyal partner of the Communists.

On 23 April 1964 he became the nominal head of state and Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, following the death of Dimitar Ganev. He remained head of state until 7 July 1971, when the leader of the communist party, Todor Zhivkov, took that position as the Chairman of the State Council. Nearly a year later, In April 1972, Traykov also gave up his position as chairman of the national assembly. In July 1972 Traykov was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the State Council and held this post until November 1974.

A referendum on becoming a republic was held in Bulgaria on 8 September 1946. Official results showed 96% in favour of the change against only 4% in favour of retaining the monarchy, with voter turnout reported to be 92%. The monarchy had effectively ended soon after the coup of 9 September 1944, which saw the Fatherland Front seize power. At that time, the regency council for the head of state, Tsar Simeon II, was replaced by a new council made up entirely of members of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the dominant force of the Fatherland Front.

On paper, the referendum was unconstitutional according to the Tarnovo Constitution still in force at the time. Under the Tarnovo Constitution, the state system could not be changed by a referendum. The only constitutional way to do so was by convening a Grand National Assembly, which could only take place at the tsar's initiative.

Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 17 June 2001. The result was a victory for the new National Movement – Simeon II, which won 120 of the 240 seats. Following the elections, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the country's last Tsar, who was deposed by the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1946, became prime minister.