The Bulgarian History Podcast · Eric Halsey

230 The September Uprising

·28 min·1 clip

Martial law, 2,000 arrests, and scattered revolts leave the September uprising collapsing within days.

1. The Bulgarian History Podcast episode 230 covers the September Uprising and the political aftermath of the June 1923 coup. 2. Eric Halsey writes and narrates the episode, and he frames Alexander Tsankov as a “fascist, sort of an early fascist, proto-fascist figure” because he leads the new government. 3. The episode asks what follows after Tsankov’s regime gains legal recognition and begins building a governing coalition. 4. Tsankov’s government releases former wartime cabinet members from prison and begins reversing agrarian-era policies. 5. The regime imposes limits on foreign exchange trading, which the host says causes a sharp decline in the lev exchange rate. 6. The government also restricts foreign capital, bans non-essential imports, and gives more money to refugees, disabled people, orphans, and widows. 7. The Bulgarian Theological Seminary returns to its Sofia building and shares space with the Faculty of Agronomy for two years. 8. The Constitutional Bloc dissolves, and Tsankov’s allies create the Democratic Alliance with the Military League, the People's Agreement, and former Constitutional Bloc parties. 9. The Democratic, Radical Democratic, and United People's Progressive Parties form the Union of Democracy, which later joins the People's Agreement to create the Democratic Agreement. 10. The broad socialists join the Union of Democracy, while the liberal parties stay outside the coalition to run separately in the election. 11. Georgi Dimitrov is introduced as a 41-year-old printer, union organizer, and leading Bulgarian Communist Party figure who was born to Macedonian refugee parents in 1882. 12. Dimitrov’s career includes election to the National Assembly in 1913, imprisonment during the First World War, and later contact with Lenin in the Soviet Union. 13. Dimitrov publishes articles calling for a united front of agrarians, broad socialists, and communists, but the agrarians are described as too fragmented to answer. 14. The host says the agrarian movement has broken into so many pieces that it has “not separated into wings so much as feathers.” 15. In mid-July, authorities discover a ring of illegal Soviet agents in Bulgaria, and in August the VMRO agrees to stay neutral in the coming communist uprising. 16. The Tsankov government strikes first with martial law and arrests more than 2,000 communist activists, pushing the Bulgarian Communist Party into chaos. 17. Local revolts break out in central Bulgaria, Stara Zagora, Nova Zagora, and Chirpan, but riot police and government forces crush them quickly. 18. The official uprising is largely confined to northwestern Bulgaria, and the host says it is over within eight days as leaders flee to Yugoslavia and then Vienna. 19. The episode’s tone is explanatory and judgmental at times, with long political explanation and frequent direct asides to the listener. 20. Listeners interested in Bulgarian politics, interwar communism, and coalition breakdowns will get the most from this episode; listeners wanting a short military summary may skip it.

As heard by us

A coup's aftermath hardens into a doomed uprising shaped by clashing party and Comintern orders.

Alexander Tsankov's government has effectively secured legal recognition, just as the Bulgarian Communist Party is pushed toward an uprising that few involved believe can succeed.

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Why you'd press play

You want to watch the Tsankov government strike first against a doomed uprising while its opponents argue over what to do.

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