Bulgaria

The modern Bulgarian state was restored in 1878 after nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule, through the Russo-Turkish War and the Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878), though the Treaty of Berlin (July 1878) reduced its territory, sowing lasting grievances. As an autonomous principality under Ottoman suzerainty (1878–1908), then fully independent kingdom under Tsar Ferdinand I (1908), Bulgaria played a pivotal and ultimately self-destructive role in the Balkan Wars: bearing the heaviest casualties in the First Balkan War (1912–13), it then launched a disastrous attack on its allies Serbia and Greece in the Second Balkan War (1913). Nursing profound territorial grievances, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915, overrunning Serbia but surrendering in September 1918 — the first Central Power to do so. The Treaty of Neuilly imposed further losses. Bulgaria joined the Axis in World War II; a communist coup (1944) established the People's Republic (1946). Bulgaria was one of the most loyal Soviet satellites; Todor Zhivkov ruled from 1954 to 1989. After the Velvet Revolution the communist party transformed into the BSP; Bulgaria joined NATO (2004) and the EU (2007), though it has struggled with corruption and emigration.

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