The June 9, 1923 overthrow of Agrarian Party leader Aleksandar Stamboliyski by the Bulgarian military was turning point in 1920s Europe and the Communist International. The coup instituted a reign of terror under the White Guard rule of Aleksandar Tsankov against the workers, left, and insurgent peasants. At the time the Bulgarian C.P. was one of the most influential in the world, a genuine mass party it was the largest single Party in Bulgaria and failed to intervene in the coup. Proposed by Radek, below is the first statement on the events from the Enlarged Executive of the Communist International.

‘Manifesto on Bulgaria’ by the E.C.C.I. from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 3 No. 52. July 23, 1923.

Comrade Radek, on behalf of the Executive, and submitted the following Manifesto to the meeting, which adopted it unanimously:

Manifesto on Bulgaria

Forward to the battle against the Government of the white coup d’état in Bulgaria!
Up with the government of Workers and Peasants!
To the Bulgarian workers and peasants!
To the international working class!

Comrades! Brothers and sisters! In Bulgaria a small clique of bankrupt bureaucrats, unemployed officers and profiteers have seized the Government by means of a military coup d’état. The very same people who drove the Bulgarian people into the world-war, who have 200,000 lives upon their consciences, who have been thrice kicked out of office by the Bulgarian people in democratic elections, this very clique has dared to seize power. It introduces a reign of the most atrocious terrorism against the great majority of the population, against the workers and peasants. The prisons of Bulgaria are being filled with workers and peasants, the villages are abandoned to the mercy of reactionary adventurers under the guise of so-called punitive expeditions. They shoot the leaders of the peasantry, but they have not the courage to confess their responsibility for their deeds. Tomorrow they will begin the assassination of the leaders of the working class.

The white coup d’état of the Bulgarian bureaucrats, generals and profiteers was perpetrated with the aid of the Social Democratic Party, which is part of the Second International. This Party, which shares the guilt for the crime of the Bulgarian war-government, is a Party upon which all workers have turned their backs, so that it has shrunk to nothing, and serves only as a fig-leaf to the counter-revolutionary coup d’état. By this it has proved itself worthy of Noske, Turati, and their like, who paved the way for the white coup d’état in Germany and Italy respectively.

The coup d’état was consummated with the aid of the scum of the European counter-revolution, with the aid of Wrangel officers and with the support of Horthy’s hangmen and the Roumanian bayars. Capitalist Europe, which has so hypocritically attempted to arouse the so-called civilised world against the Red terror, makes haste to recognise these murderers and incendiary adventurers. The British Government, the Government of the English junkers and manufacturers, supports them, in the hope that Bulgaria will become a bulwark against Soviet Russia. The Italian Government supports them because it considers the military adventurers of Sofia, as a possible aid in a campaign against Jugo-Slavia. The capitalist world has approved of the white coup d’état in Bulgaria. The Fascist bands of all countries see in it the proof that the desire alone is sufficient to enable one to put his foot upon the neck of the people of the working class. We, the Communist International, the union of all the militant workers of East and West, call the Bulgarian workers and peasants, and the international working class to the battle against the Bulgarian usurpers of power.

Peasants of Bulgaria! To you the victory of the white clique is a lesson which you ought to assimilate, if you wish to throw off the yoke that is being imposed on you. The peasant Government of Stambuliski was overthrown because it failed to form an alliance with the workers of the cities. The interests of the great majority of the Bulgarian peasants, who are poor, go hand in hand with the interests of the workers and artisans of the cities. Stambuliski persecuted the working class. He lost the only support which he might have gained in the cities, against the clique of bureaucrats and officers who had been exploiting and enslaving the Bulgarian people during four decades, and will now continue to do so, since Stambuliski has paid for his policy with his life. But the Bulgarian peasants continue to live. They will be compelled to fight, if they do not wish to be further treated like cattle. We call upon them to unite with the workers of the cities and to start the fight under the slogan of the establishment of a government of the workers of the cities and villages.

Workers of Bulgaria! The Stambuliski Government, in the interests of the bourgeoisie and usurers of the villages, persecuted the labour movement and sacrificed the interests of the workers of the towns as well as these of the poorer peasants.

But whereas the Stambuliski Government persecuted the workers, the Zankov Government will go further than that, for it seeks to destroy them. Those who held the mistaken belief that the struggle of the now victorious white clique against Stambuliski was a struggle between two bourgeois cliques to which the working class could afford to be neutral, can now see the best proof of their error by the bloody persecution of the labour organisations. The usurpers of the State are now the enemy, who must be defeated. Join hands, for the fight against the white coup d’état, not only with the wide masses of the peasantry, but also with the leaders of the Peasant party who have survived. Point out to them the consequences of the cleavage between the workers and the peasants, and call them to the united fight for a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government.

Peasants of Macedonia! Revolutionaries of Macedonia! You have allowed the Bulgarian counter-revolution to use you for the coup d’état, although your interests as shown by your past, are most closely interwoven, with the interests of the working people, with the interests of the revolution in the Balkans and The Stambuliski and throughout the world. Government delivered Macedonia to the Serbian the Serbian bourgeoisie in order to gain their support. It persecuted you in a bloody fashion. But do not believe for a moment that the counter-revolutionary movement will be able to liberate the Macedonian people. It will fight against the Bulgarian peasants and workers, against your own brothers, but not for the liberation of the Macedonian peasants. In order to entrench itself in power it will a thousand times betray Macedonia and oppress you, because it cannot tolerate any revolutionary peasant movement in Macedonia. Only a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government in Bulgaria will arouse the sympathies of peasants and workers in Roumania, Jugo-Slavia and Greece. Only such a Government will blaze the path for the establishment of a Balkan Federation of Workers’ and Peasants’ Governments, which alone can bring about your deliverance, so that Macedonia should not become again the arena of sanguinary battles, in which your huts are burned to the ground, your fields devastated and trampled under foot. Peasants and revolutionists of Macedonia. None of you, however great your anger against the Bulgarian Peasant Party and its leaders, must lend the slightest support to the Government of White Terror in Bulgaria. Moreover, for the sake of your own national freedom, you must join hands with the Bulgarian Workers and Peasants in the common struggle:

Workers and Peasants of Jugo-Slavia, Roumania and Greece! Show your utmost resentment to those in the Balkans who are supporting the Zankov Government, show your hatred to the envoys of that Government, surround the Bulgarian white guards with the wall of your resistance, hasten to the aid of the Bulgarian workers and peasants at every opportunity, to the aid of the valiant industrious people of Bulgaria now starting the fight against the white government. Workers of Czecho-Slovakia! Workers of Austria and Germany! The victory of the fascist bands in Bulgaria will give encouragement and hope to the fascist adventurers in your own countries. Be on your guard, be watchful, do not allow yourselves to be misled or lulled to sleep. Fight with your utmost determination against any aid being rendered to the Bulgarian white guards, and draw the necessary conclusion from the conduct of the Bulgarian reaction and from the errors committed. by the Bulgarian peasants and workers. Exert all your efforts to bring about an alliance of the poor peasants and the workers against the hirelings of capital and of the military cliques. Dare to venture upon even a difficult fight when danger is nigh, if you do not wish to pay with your lives for your hesitation.

Workers of all countries! We call on you to watch with utmost attention the development of events in Bulgaria. We call on you to bring to the notice of the wide masses all the misdeeds perpetrated by the victorious fascist clique in Bulgaria against the working people of Bulgaria, with the aid of the capitalist Governments of all countries, and to mobilise the masses against the murderous Government of Sofia. The message from Sofia speaks to you just as eloquently as did the message from Rome. The working class of all countries is in danger! Know this, and prepare for the defence!

Down with the fascist bands, the hirelings of capital! Down with the militarist usurpers and usurers of Sofia! Long live the Bulgarian-Workers’ and Peasants’ Government!

Long live the Balkan Federation of Workers’ and Peasants’ Governments.

Long live the solidarity of the international working class in the struggle against the fascist menace!

The Enlarged Executive of the Communist International.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1923/v03n52-jul-23-Inprecor-loc.pdf