Fatherland Front (Bulgaria)

Flag of the FF

The Fatherland Front (FF) (Bulgarian: Отечествен фронт) was originally a Bulgarian political resistance movement during World War II. The Zveno movement, the communist Bulgarian Workers Party, a wing of the Agrarian Union and the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party, were all part of the FF. The constituent groups of the FF had widely contrasting ideologies and had only united in face of the pro-German, militarist dictatorship in Bulgaria. Still, initially the members of the FF worked together, without a single dominating group. However, the Bulgarian Communist Party began to dominate soon. In 1944, after the Soviet Union had declared war on Bulgaria, the FF committed a coup d'état and they declared war on Germany, Italy and the other Axis nations. The FF government, headed by Kimon Georgiev (Zveno), immediately signed a ceasefire treaty with the Soviet Union. Soon the Bulgarian Communist Party became dominant in the organization. In 1946 Georgiev resigned and his successor was Georgi Dimitrov, a communist, and Bulgaria became a People's Republic. Most of the parties within the Front ceased to exist, but it became a mass organisation (popular front) for the communists, with the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union as a remaining member of the Front. With the end of Communism in 1989 it was dissolved.