The scale of the defeat the ultra-reactionary 1923 Bulgarian coup inflicted upon our movement was catastrophic. To gauge that reverse, look at this summary of the Bulgarian Communist Party’s activity for the year 1920. Though not as ferocious as what would come, 1920 still saw mass repression and violence on the workers’ movement. And yet in March of that year the Party won 20.39% and 50 in parliamentary elections, seats making it the second largest parliamentary party. Numbering around 40,000 members with 100s of thousands more in their periphery, the Party had a mass base and a fighting chance for powers, making it easily one of the most important in the early Comintern. A tragedy for our class.

‘The Bulgarian Communist Party’s Activities in 1920’ by V. Kolorov from Moscow. Vol. 1 No. 32. July 3, 1921.

In order to give you some idea of the position and work of the party for the last year. I will quote some brief extracts from the records of the Executive Committee. Up to April the party consisted of 83 town and 1,445 provincial branches with a party membership of 40,000, of whom were town workers with little or no property, whilst were agricultural workers, semi-proletarians and small landowners.

Affiliated to the party are the following:

a) The General Workers Council of Trade Unions with 32,000 members, organised in 18 trade unions. There are no more trade unions in the country.

b) The Communist Union of civil and other workers with 2449 members. Besides this union there are a few neutral groups of civil and other workers which lead a most pitiable existence.

c) The Communist Teachers Union with 2,222 members. Outside this union there is a neutral organisation of trades which is quickly falling to pieces as it cannot solve the problems before it during this revolutionary epoch.

d) The General Women’s Committee which consists of 60 women’s educational groups with a total of 4,340 members. The bourgeois women’s organisation is practically defunct owing its non-activity.

e) The Young Communist Organisation with 6,882 members is organised in 177 groups. There is no other youth’s organisation in the country. The bourgeoisie has been attempting lately to gather its youth around its own bourgeois parties.

f) The Central Emigrants Organisation, with 1,663 emigrant-members, carries on an active communist propaganda amongst the numerous emigrants in the country. The National Emigrant Association is devoid of members.

g) The Ex-Servicemen’s Union with 619 branches with a total membership of 16,521. The attempts of the bourgeoisie and its army of social-traitors to cause a split between the ex-service men and the Communist Party by means of a neutral organisation of ex-service men, did not succeed.

h) The Communist Organisation of wounded ex-servicemen has 1,174 members. A neutral organisation exists but it is approaching affiliation to the Communist Party.

i) The Communist group of engineers with 29 members.

j) The General Cooperative Society of Workers “Freedom” with 42,000 members and 103 associations and agencies throughout the country.

The party has 58 out of a total of 228 members in parliament. Besides this it controls 22 town councils and 65 rural district councils. The government hinders their work with persecutions and lawlessness and encroaches upon their autonomy because their Communist activities. Many of them have been dissolved and others await the same fate. The party branches held 12,254 branch meetings last year; 5,647 conferences and meetings were organised; and were attended by 1,632,000 persons; 1900 debating circles were organised and had an attendance of 175,600 persons; 118 plays, 2,282 social evenings and concerts were arranged and were attended by 426,000 persons. Besides this, the party issued 1,140,000 copies of 749 appeals and manifestoes.

“Worker’s News,” the official organ of the party has a circulation of 28,000 copies and “Agricultural News”, an issue of 14,000, whilst no bourgeois paper has a circulation exceeding 15-17,000. The organ of the Bulgarian Social-Democrats has an issue of 4,000 copies.

Besides the party publishes:

1) “Novo Vrema,” an educational magazine with a circulation of 6000.
2) “The Communist International” in Bulgarian with an issue 5,000 copies.
3) “Cherven Smech” a cartoonist review with an issue of 5,000 copies.
4) “Raventsvo” the organ of the women Communists, with an issue of 10,000 copies.
5) “Narodnaia Armia”, a weekly newspaper for Communist propaganda among the soldiers with an issue of 5,000 copies.
6) “Mladestka Pravda” prohibited by the government but still issued illegally.
7) “Drugarch”, a paper for children, but stopped by the Government.
8) “Osvobozhdeni” a paper for Communist propaganda amongst the emigrants and having an issue of 3,000 copies.
9) “Plennik”, organ of the Ex-servicemen’s organisation, with an issue of 7,000 copies.
10) “Invalid-Boetz”, organ of the Communist organisation of wounded ex-servicemen, with an issue of 2,000 copies.
11) “The Bulletin of the Communist Communal Councils”.

Besides these the party publishes 2,000 copies of the newspaper “Zia” in the Turkish language, for Communist propaganda amongst the Turkish population and 2500 copies of the “Armenian Communist Correspondence” in Armenian.

During the period from October 1st. 1918 to April 1st 1921 the party published 1,100,000 copies of 98 original and translated books and pamphlets is spite of the 780,000 of these books and pamphlets have already been sold.

The publishing of all the party literature is undertaken by the workers co-operative society “Sveedom”. The party has 319 agencies for distributing its publications: besides this the primary duty of each party member is the distribution of party literature and newspapers.

The total income of the party groups and branches was 4,147,382 lev while the expenditure was 3,612. 929 lev. The E.C. received 849,524 lev and expended 650,087 lev. The party could meet all its liabilities thanks to the devotion and activity of its members, The E.C. ‘s financial account is split into 4 sections, a fund for agitation and propaganda, another for the party press, a third for helping the victims of the capitalist dictatorship and the fourth for literature for women. The party has imposed a special levy for the Comintern on each member. 30,000 lev were collected in 1920 for this purpose.

During the government elections in March 1920 the party received 182,000 votes out of a total of 800,000. The party although working legally, is really outside the law. Martial law, with military courts, censorship, arrests and internments, persecution and murders, are all employed to crush the Communist movement.

In the year 1920 Communists, including nearly all the communist Members of Parliaments, were summoned to appear before the law courts. Many of them were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. But the pressure of the working class has compelled the government to grant an amnesty to most of them. The party took advantage of every important chance to unite the popular movements with revolutionary Communist slogans. A bloody encounter with the gendarmerie took place in Softa on the 7 last the third anniversary of the Russian revolution. There were many such encounters during 1st of May demonstrations.

The Communist Party was the only organisation which took control of large mass movements. The opportunist parties are beaten along the whole front, and have been driven out of the ranks of the working class, though now they are groups of generals without an army. There is no other Socialist or Labour party in Bulgaria. The agricultural Union, which formerly had a great influence on the peasant masses, is becoming more and more a tool of Entente imperialism and Bulgarian capitalism, and as a result quickly losing its power. The poorer peasants are being attracted into the Communist party. In order to co-ordinate and unite the revolutionary movements in the Balkans, the Bulgarian Communist Party has already taken the initiative and founded the Balkan Communist Federation.

The Communist movement in the Balkans has a solid foundation, despite the colossal difficulties resulting from the weak industrial development of these countries, and high pressure of Entente Imperialism.

V. Kolorov.

Moscow was the English-language newspapers of the Communist International’s Third Congress held in Moscow during 1921. Edited by T. L. Axelrod, the paper began on May 25, a month before the Congress, to July 12.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/3rd-congress/moscow/Moscow%20issue%2032.pdf