Victory of the Resistance Central Europe Germany Italy Spain (Spanish Civil War) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma China Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States The Bulgarian Resistance (Bulgarian: Партизанско движение в България, romanized: Partizansko dvizhenie v Bǎlgariya, lit.

The Communists had long despised the pro-German policy of Prime Minister Bogdan Filov and even campaigned in 1940 for a political pact with Moscow (the Sobolev action).

[2] The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) declared this to be a "fatal move" and once again called for a union with the USSR[citation needed].

The same day the BCP spread a brochure among the people urging them "to hinder by all means the usage of Bulgarian land and soldiers for the criminal purposes of German fascism".

They carried out a number of actions, including arson and demolition of arms, clothes and fuel warehouses, communications, factories and transport lines.

The combat groups' activities impaired the image of Hitler's supporters in Bulgaria but a great number of their members were captured or killed.

In July 1942, Georgi Dimitrov announced the creation of the Fatherland Front (FF), on the underground radio station "Hristo Botev".

The FF demanded the non-participation of Bulgarian forces in the war against the USSR, the immediate return of Bulgarian occupation forces from Greek and Yugoslav territory, the repudiation of the union with Germany, a halt of the export of grain to Nazi Germany, friendly relations with the USSR, the United Kingdom and the United States, the restoration of civil freedoms, denunciation of non-constitutional laws, cessation of military actions against civil population, dismissal of all pro-fascist organizations and eradication of racial hatred.

Due to the growing number and manpower of combat groups and partisan detachments, in April 1943 they were organized into the People's Liberation Insurgent Army (Narodoosvoboditelna vastannicheska armija, NOVA).

[citation needed] The government created a special gendarmerie force which received almost unlimited power to pursue the partisans.

When that was possible, they captured villages to organize meetings in support of the FF, destroy police and tax archives and supply themselves with food and arms.

In the spring of 1944, the Bulgarian government decided to crush the partisans and mobilised about 100,000 soldiers, policemen and gendarmes, which were thrown into mass actions against the guerrillas.

It ordered the army not to resist Soviet forces, demanded that the Wehrmacht leave, repudiated the union with Germany and started negotiations with the NOVA commander Dobri Terpeshev.

On 9 September, Terpeshev ordered all partisans to descend from the mountains and seize power in all of Bulgaria - '"All brigades, battalions and cheti of the people's liberation army are to capture the villages and towns and install FF committees in them"'.

In Sofia, "Zveno" mobilised its influence in the military and strong army detachments, including the Tank brigade, sided with the FF and staged a coup on the night of 8/9 September.

Soon after FF's seizure of power, the partisans became the first forces to resist the attempted return of the Wehrmacht in Bulgaria on its western and northwestern border.

After 9 September and prior to Bulgaria's army joining the Allies' fight against the Axis, former partisans were placed in key positions in the Bulgarian military to ensure its loyalty.

In addition, there were foreign members of Bulgarian resistance movement during World War II - 68 Soviet citizens and ex-soldiers (former prisoners of war, who escaped from Nazi concentration camps),[7] several Russian white émigrés (former participants in the White movement),[8] several Serbs and 1 Czech communist.