The Hardening of Battle Lines (April–October 1946)

Abstract

The negotiations of peace treaties with the former German satellites, which got under way in Paris in April 1946, signalled the beginning of the end of open Western involvement in Bulgaria’s domestic politics. The conclusion of peace treaties would mean that the United States and Britain would lose the opportunities for intervention provided by the Allied Control Commission (ACC). Whilst no longer prepared to involve themselves actively in Bulgarian affairs, the Western powers were not yet ready to accept a complete withdrawal from the country. They used the peace treaty talks and the Bulgarian government’s desperation to obtain good territorial terms for the country as an opportunity to try to stem the communist pressure against the opposition and the non-communist parties in the FF. The peace treaty negotiations also spelled dangers and opportunities for the Soviet Union. The conclusion of a peace treaty would remove the legal basis for the Red Army’s presence in Bulgaria and thus deprive the Soviet Union of its most effective means of influencing Bulgaria’s development. This prompted Stalin to allow and indeed encourage the Bulgarian communists to consolidate their hold on the state apparatus, and especially the army, in order to ensure an unassailable position for the future.