The Bulgarian Peoples Republic has existed since 1920 after the ousting of the Tsar. The people ceased to work after the country's practical collapse in the face of World war one looking to the promises of socialism to bring them out of the hole the Tsar's government had buried them into. But Bulgaria's losses alot more in this alternative reality then it ever did in the great war.
Bulgarian borders before the war.
Bulgaria's population had swelled to massive proportions due to the new farming techniques and other factors. The ethnic Bulgar's spread to the north, the west and the south. This caused alot of tension as they battled with local ethnic groups such as Turks Greeks, Serbs and even Albanians. The tension caused a new.. 'Rivalry' in the Balkans the Bulgar population now stands at 60,000,000 world wide. Another note on the population is it dominated the Balkans the only two countries to have a bigger population in Europe then Greater Bulgaria was the Soviet Union and Germany itself. Bulgaria is almost 100% Bulgar due to when the Turks ran over them the Sultan decreed slight autonomy for the hostile Bulgarians who refused to let there new rulers people settle in there land.
Greater Bulgaria (Before 1914 war with current day population) - 52 Million
Bulgaria Modern Borders - 35 Million.
Turkey (Based mainly in European Turkey) 4 Million.
Romania - 3 Million.
USA - 12 Million (Many fled to the USA when the war broke out and when Communists took over)
Western Europe - 1 Million.
British Canada - 3 Million.
Other Colonies - 2 Million
When the BCP (Bulgarian Communist Party) came to power in these early years it made several popular decrees that made its own survival certain, because Bulgaria was a poor country at this time and it needed to re-industrialise after the devastating war with which it had little success. One of its first policies was the refusal to pay reparations from the treaties the former government signed at the armistice, very popular indeed. Secondly it recognized all land that had been stripped from her as legally its own and thirdly the army was to be downsized and the money would go to the factory workers and the peasants in the fields.
Note: Redistribution did begin a few years after the initial reforms because the Bulgarian Peoples Lev was at such a low value any distribution and the selling internationally would of been worthless and Bulgaria waited till its own currency was 'hard cash' before selling not to capitalist's but 'socialist aligned' states such as Portugal and Spain even though they had no Socialist tendencies the average Bulgarian didn't know this of course and accepted the propaganda as it had no choice.
In 1930 the Peoples Republic stood as the ideal socialist state with everyone employed and a good deal of luxury's and the taboo which never caught on in the Soviet Union. Trading with the outside world, not in great quantities it could sustain its economy by itself but it experimented on making extra cash but keeping to the communist hard line and at any moment the government thought it was being too reliable on the outside world it simply cut itself off to make sure all was in the clear. Radical tendencies in other Baltic countries made the relationship between Soviet Bulgaria and other countries bitter other then the Soviet Union, the other Baltic states were fear struck that one day Bulgaria would one day 'save' its people in democratic states and bring Socialism to them.
