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On ‘Strategic Frontiers’: Debating the Borders of the Post-Second World War Balkans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2018

THEODORA DRAGOSTINOVA*
Affiliation:
Department of History, 106 Dulles Hall, 230 Annie & John Glenn Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210; dragostinova.1@osu.edu

Abstract

This article examines debates between Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia concerning the post-Second World War Balkan borders in preparation for the Paris Peace Conference of 1946. While for most of the twentieth century Greece and Yugoslavia were close allies united in their position against revisionist Bulgaria, after 1944 the communist affiliations of the new Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments determined the rapprochement between the latter two states. As various proposals for border revisions and the possibility of a Balkan Federation were discussed, the Balkans became a prime battlefield in the emerging Cold War split between the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States. By examining a period of extreme political fluidity between 1944 and 1947, this article explores how the legacy of long-standing national tensions combined with the new political realities after the Second World War created the current borders of Bulgaria, Greece and the (former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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19 I borrow this term from Daskalov, Roumen and Marinov, Tchavdar, Entangled Histories of the Balkans (Leiden: Brill, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Since 2013, there have been three more volumes with the same title, showcasing transnational approaches to Balkan history.

20 See the overview in Biondich, The Balkans; Lampe, Balkans into Southeastern Europe and Dragostinova, Theodora, Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900–1949 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Miller, Bulgaria.

22 Crampton, R. J., Bulgaria (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 279–81Google Scholar.

23 For the Fatherland Front's use of the national language, see Sygkelos, Nationalism from the Left.

24 Bulgarian Communist Party Archives (hereafter TsPA), 1b, 7, a.e. 23. Kostov to Dimitrov, 8 Oct. 1944.

25 Central State Archives, Bulgaria (hereafter TsDA), 176k, 32, a.e. 295, 200. Foreign Press Review, 12 Sept. 1944; Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bulgaria, Paris Peace Conference (hereafter AMVnR, PMK), a.e.133, 24–32. Memo of Danov, 25.

26 TsPA,1b, 7, a.e. 30. Kostov to Dimitrov, 12 Oct. 1944.

27 AMVnR, PMK, a.e.133, 4-32. Memo of Danov, 29.

28 Agreement between the Governments of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, on the one hand, and the Government of Bulgaria, on the other, Concerning an Armistice, 28 Oct. 1944, 2.

29 TsDA, 1, 1. a.e. 20, 191-196; and Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greece (hereafter IAYE), 1945, 22.1 and 7, Bulgarian and Greek memoranda.

30 Ellados, Epitropi Alutroton Voreiou, Oi geitones imon Voulgaroi (Thessaloniki, 1945)Google Scholar and Ellados, Epitropi Alutroton Voreiou, To paraponon tou ellinismou. Ekklisis pros tas akamidias, ta panepistimia kai ta alla anotata epistimonika idrimata ton Inomenon Ethnon (Thessaloniki, 1946)Google Scholar.

31 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 224, 4. Justice for Greece Committee memo; and Justice for Greece Committee, Greece and the Peace Conference (Washington, 1945).

32 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 126. ‘The Greek-Bulgarian Frontier and the Hellenic Claims’.

33 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 136, 1-2. Foreign Press Review, 17 June 1946.

34 AMVnR, PMK, a.e.133, 24-32. Memo of Danov.

35 Gennadius Library, Athens, Greece, Philippos Dragoumis Archive, 75.1, 3 and 13. ‘The Northern Boundary of Greece’. Ibid, 75.2, 19-39, other Greek memoranda.

36 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 337, 377, and 416. Telegrams between Kostov and Dimitrov, 18 June, 22 June, 24 July 1945; Ibid., a.e. 639. Rizostastis, 5 June 1945.

37 TsPA, 146b, 5, a.e. 533, 1-5. Press Conference of Staynov, 4 Oct. 1945.

38 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 133, 1-6. ‘The Greek Demands for Strategic Frontiers’.

39 TsPA, 147b, 2, a.e. 1051, 50-60. Draft of Bulgarian claims in Thrace.

40 TsPA,146b, 5, a.e. 1295, 1-8. Deliradev, ‘Concerning the Question of Changing the Bulgarian-Greek State Border’.

41 TsPA,146b, 5, a.e. 1295, 1-8. Deliradev, ‘Concerning the Question of Changing the Bulgarian-Greek State Border’. Ibid.

42 TsPA, 147b, 2, a.e. 1034, 27. Kolarov to New York Herald Tribune, 22 May 1946.

43 Biondich, The Balkans and Lampe, Balkans into Southeastern Europe.

44 TsPA,1b, 7, a.e. 24, 64, and 167. Kostov to Dimitrov, 8 Oct., 20 Oct. and 19 Dec. 1944.

45 The idea of a Balkan Federation was several precursors from the nineteenth century on, as outlined in the classic interpretation of Stavrianos, Leften, Balkan Federation: A History of the Movement toward Balkan Unity in Modern Times (Hamden: Archon Books, 1964)Google Scholar. For a recent analysis that places the idea in a broader context, see Case, Holly, ‘The Strange Politics of Federative Ideas in East-Central Europe’, The Journal of Modern History, 85, 4 (2013), 833–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 230. Dimitrov to Kostov, 13 and 17 Jan. 1945.

47 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 257. Dimitrov to Kostov, 20 Feb. 1945.

48 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 285. Kostov to Dimitrov, 24 Mar. 1945.

49 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 293 and 300. Dimitrov to Kostov, 9 and 16 Apr. 1945.

50 For the issue of Balkan Federation and the position of Bulgaria on it, see Daskalov, Georgi, Bâlgaro-iugoslavski politicheski otnoshtenia, 1944–1945 (Sofia: Universitetsko izdatelstvo, 1989), 226315Google Scholar and Lalkov, Ot nadezhda kâm razocharovanie. For the use of the national rhetoric in Bulgaria, see Sygkelos, Nationalism from the Left, especially ch. 3. For an interpretation of the Balkan Federation from the position of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, see Veljanovski, Novica, Makedonia vo jugoslovensko-bugarskite odnosi, 1944–1953 (Skopje: INI, 1998)Google Scholar. For a brief overview in English, see Lampe, John, Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 226–49Google Scholar.

51 Crampton, Bulgaria, 320.

52 TsPA,1b, 7, a.e. 210. Report of Chanev, 1 Dec. 1944.

53 Kostov was the General Secretary of BCP who would be subjected to a show trial and executed in 1949. See Crampton, Bulgaria, 321. Only after Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform in June 1948 did the BCP drop the issue of incorporating Pirin Macedonia in PRM.

54 For a brief yet insightful overview of the question, see Marinov, Tchavdar, ‘Makedonskiiat vâpros i komunisticheska Bâlgariia’, in Znepolski, Ivajlo, Istoria na Narodna Republika Bâlgariia (Sofia: Siela, 2009), 481–92Google Scholar. For an interpretation that analyses these efforts as ‘national treachery’, see Angelov, Veselin, Hronika na edno natsionalno predatelstvo: Opitite za nasilstveno denatsionalizirane na Pirinska Makedoniia, 1944-1949 (Sofia: Gergana, 2004)Google Scholar.

55 TsPA,1b, 7, a.e. 452 and 483. Kostov to Dimitrov, 20 Aug. and 17 Sept. 1945; AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 277, 1-9. ‘The Yugoslav Perspective on Reparations’.

56 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 291, 1-7. Memo on Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations, 18 Feb. 1946.

57 TsPA, 1b, 8, a.e. 79, 1-12. Central Committee of BKP, 9 Feb. 1946.

58 For sophisticated analyses of this process in Bulgaria, see Boll, Cold War in the Balkans and Dimitrov, Stalin's Cold War. For the similar logic of events in Hungary, see Kenez, Peter, Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 1944–1948 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

59 Agreements reached at the Crimea Conference between President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Generalissimo Stalin, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp (last visited 30 Oct. 2017).

60 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 422 and 464. Dimitrov to Kostov, 8 Aug., 24 Aug. 1945. The latter document stated: ‘in Potsdam, Truman had at his disposal two bombs, the atomic bomb and the Bulgarian opposition letter’.

61 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 422. Letter of Dimitrov, 8 Aug. 1945.

62 TsPA, 146b, 5, a.e. 467, 574 and 574. Bulgarian Mission in Moscow, 14 Aug., 29 Aug., and 4 Nov. 1945. American and British objections to the ‘totalitarian atmosphere’ surrounding the Bulgarian elections scheduled for 26 August 1945 led to their postponement.

63 Report by Secretary Byrnes, 5 Oct. 1946 (sic), http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/decade18.asp (last visited 26 Oct. 2017).

64 The elections resulted in eighty-six per cent vote for the Fatherland Front and the lack of opposition in parliament. Crampton, R.J., Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century – and After (London: Routledge, 1997), 226–7Google Scholar.

65 TsPA,146b, 5, a.e. 574, 55-57. Bulgarian Mission in Moscow, 7 Jan. 1946; MVnR, PMK, a.e. 16. Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, 27 Dec. 1945. Report by Secretary Byrnes, 30 Dec. 1945, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/decade19.asp (last visited 26 Oct. 2017).

66 Crampton, Eastern Europe, 227.

67 Report by Secretary Byrnes, 20 May 1946, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/decade20.asp (last visited 26 Oct. 2017).

68 TsPA, 147b, 2, a.e. 1044, 44-46. Kolarov to Byrnes, Bevin, and Molotov, 28 and 29 June 1946.

69 The lack of a comprehensive, multi-dimensional study of the Paris Peace Conference of 1946 represents a major lacuna in the historiography. A short outline of the major issues, accompanied with selected sources, is Kertesz, Stephen, The Last European Peace Conference, Paris, 1946: Conflict of Values (Lanham: University Press of America, 1985)Google Scholar. For a good collection of documents related to the talks, see U.S. Department of State, Paris Peace Conference, 1946: Selected Documents (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947).

70 TsPA,146b, 5, a.e. 574, 55-57. Bulgarian Mission in Moscow, 7 Jan. 1946; MVnR, PMK, a.e. 16. Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, 27 Dec. 1945.

71 The Bulgarian–Yugoslav and Bulgarian–Romanian frontiers remained at their 1941 extent, as agreed by the three countries, so they were not discussed in Paris. Other territorial questions debated included Yugoslav demands vis-à-vis Italy in Istria and the confrontation between Romania and Hungary over Transylvania. For the difficult position of Hungary, which failed to preserve its wartime territorial gains in Transylvania, but also had to enact a population exchange with Czechoslovakia, see Kertesz, Between Russia and the West. For the Italian-Yugoslav border, see Sluga, The Problem of Trieste.

72 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 137. Messages d'Athenes, 19 Mar. 1946.

73 IAYE, 1946, 43, 1. Greek memo draft.

74 Lalkov, ‘Edin diplomaticheski spor’, Minalo, 3–4 (1997), 62.

75 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 350, 40-52. Bulgaria at the Political and Territorial Commission, 2 Sept. 1946.

76 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 402, 3-4. Bulgarian delegation on the draft treaty, 25 Aug. 1946.

77 See Daskalov, Debating the Past.

78 Lalkov, ‘Edin diplomaticheski spor’, 61.

79 TsPA,1b, 7, a.e. 783, 1. Chervenkov to CPY, 30 Aug. 1946.

80 TsPA,1b, 7, a.e. 738. Kostov to Tito, 19 Aug. 1946.

81 Lalkov, ‘Edin diplomaticheski spor’, 65.

82 Ibid., 63–4.

83 Ibid., 65–6.

84 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 402, 65. Amendment proposed by Greece, 7 Sept. 1946.

85 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 74. Declaration of the Yugoslav delegation, 1 Oct. 1946.

86 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 510, 24-31.

87 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 351, 88-92.

88 IAYE, 1946, 43, 4. Proceedings of the 15th Meeting of the Political and Territorial Commission, 3 Oct. 1946.

89 IAYE, 1946, 43, 6. Speech of Tsaldaris, 11 Oct. 1946.

90 TsPA, 1b, 7, a.e. 778 and 740. Kulishev to Dimitrov, 30 and 31 Aug. 1946.

91 Crampton, Eastern Europe, 227–8 and Boll, Cold War in the Balkans, 177–92.

92 TsPA,1b, 7, a.e. 904. Dimitrov to Kostov, 22 Aug. 1947.

93 Crampton, Eastern Europe, 227–8 and Boll, Cold War in the Balkans, 177–92.

94 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 226,1-2. Foreign Press Review, 22 July 1945.

95 See Hammond, Andrew, ed., The Balkans and the West: Constructing the European Other, 1945–2003 (Burlington: Ashgate, 2004)Google Scholar. Two classics on Western views of Eastern Europe are Wolff, Larry, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994)Google Scholar and Todorova, Maria, Imagining the Balkans (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

96 Winston Churchill, Iron Curtain Speech, 5 Mar. 1946, http://www.historyguide.org/europe/churchill.html (last visited 13 Jan. 2015).

97 President Harry Truman's address before a joint session of Congress, 12 Mar. 1947, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/trudoc.asp (last visited 13 Jan. 2015).

98 For a work conceptualising Greece as ‘Balkan’, see Calotychos, Vangelis, The Balkan Prospect: Identity, Culture, and Politics in Greece after 1989 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

99 Lalkov, ‘Edin diplomaticheski spor’, 62.

100 AMVnR, PMK, a.e. 104, 2-6. Political Directorate, 15 Jan. 1947.

101 Daskalov, Georgi, Bâlgariia i Gârtsia. Ot razriv kâm pomirenie, 1944–1964 (Sofia: Universitetsko izdatelstvo, 2004)Google Scholar and Hatzivassiliou, Evanthis, ‘Negotiating with the Enemy: The Normalisation of GreekBulgarian Relations,’ Journal of Southeast European & Black Sea Studies 4, 1 (2004), 140–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

102 See the aforementioned woks by Michailidis, Ta prosopa tou Ianou.