The People's Party, also rendered as National or Nationalist Party (, NP, or Narodnyatsite, "Populists"), was a political group in Bulgaria, active between 1894 and 1920—during the country's existence as an autonomous principality and independent kingdom. A paternalistic-conservative force challenging and replacing the People's Liberal Party, it was founded and led until 1901 by Konstantin Stoilov, and thereafter by Ivan Evstratiev Geshov. First organizing in Ruse as an outgrowth of the Svobodno Slovo alliance, it traced its more distant origins to the Conservative Party, which had functioned in Bulgaria-proper during the early 1880s, and to the People's Party of Eastern Rumelia. All these groups were tightly oligarchic, alternating between a public embrace of liberal conservatism and a more ingrained commitment to paternalistic conservatism; beyond this, they supported a moderate version of Bulgarian nationalism, and had a foreign policy that was primarily centered on Russophilia. Unlike other Russophilic parties, the NP advocated for tight relations with Romania.
Stoilov was made prime minister by Knyaz Ferdinand I, in lieu of the disgraced and murdered Stefan Stambolov; in exchange, he agreed to endorse Ferdinand's absolutist tendencies, and also helped him win over support from the Russian Empire. The newly formed NP won the parliamentary elections of 1894, upon which Stoilov consolidated his political machine. Geshov, appointed Minister of Finance, helped with structural reforms that promoted economic nationalism and social corporatism, also inaugurating a lang-standing conflict with the Ottoman Empire over the ownership of Bulgarian railways. The NP government clamped down on Stambolovists and left-wing adversaries, and went back on its initial promise to uphold press freedoms. By 1895, Stoilov had turned into a follower of the Tarnovo Constitution, trying to dissociate himself from Ferdinand's policies. His cabinet was dissolved after disagreements between the ministers, and the monarch then maneuvered to keep the NP out of power for several years—during which Stoilov died.
Under Geshov's direction, the NP was allowed to join the short-lived coalition cabinet headed by Petko Karavelov. Pushed back into the opposition, it formulated its stance in regards to Macedonia: critical of Greater Bulgarian maximalists, it only advocated the annexation of Pirin Macedonia; moreover, the group was opposed to the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Joining a largely leftist coalition that fought against Racho Petrov's minority government, it participated in Alexander Malinov's cabinet (1907), but was largely a passive witness to the proclamation of national independence and Ferdinand's own elevation as King of Bulgaria (1908). After opposing the monarchy from increasingly radical positions, Geshov abruptly changed course and offered his services to Ferdinand; he was made prime minister in 1911, proceeding to mend Bulgaria–Russia relations and to create a largely informal "Balkan League", which prepared for a military strike against the Ottomans. Geshov thus masterminded the First Balkan War, but without ever formulating clear objectives and comparing agendas with the country's new allies; the resulting crisis in Macedonia, and his failure to bring about reconciliation with the Kingdom of Romania, led to his ouster in early 1913.
The Second Balkan War ended in national humiliation, with voters identifying the NP as a leading culprit. The Populists recovered some ground during the elections in 1914, and, as the country pondered entering the world war, favored joining the Entente Powers. In mid-1915, the NP fell in line with Vasil Radoslavov's cabinet, which, like Ferdinand, strongly favored the Central Powers; upon the national mobilization staged in September, its leaders reluctantly abandoned their decades-long Russophilia. Over the next three years, Bulgarians were exhausted by war and became resentful of their allies, which created conditions for the growth of an anti-war left, centered on the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union. Following the Armistice of Salonica and Ferdinand's abdication, the NP's Teodor Teodorov agreed to form a coalition cabinet with the leftist groups, and was in charge of negotiating the Neuilly Peace Treaty. He also adopted legislation favoring workers, before stepping down to be replaced by the Agrarianist leader, Aleksandar Stamboliyski. The NP still existed during the March 1920 elections, but soon after folded into the United People's Progressive Party. Former Populist ministers were prosecuted and imprisoned by Stamboliyski's regime, but could return to public life after the anti-Agrarianist coup of 1923.
Origins The party's roots reach back to the 1880s partition of Bulgarian lands between the autonomous principality and Eastern Rumelia, both of which were still under varying degrees of control by the Ottoman Empire. As observed by scholar Richard J. Crampton, the Bulgarian-and-Rumelian political culture of the time showed a universal "liberal" consensus, in that all resulting camps accepted popular sovereignty, individual rights, and the rule of law.Crampton, pp. 449–450 The NP was largely a direct heir to a faction that also embraced paternalistic conservatism, favoring an established oligarchy that would frame and guide a national transition toward a "tidy" democracy; from 1880, its exponents in Sofia and northern Bulgaria had organized as the Conservative Party.Crampton, pp. 98, 101, 449–450 Also known as the "Whites" or "Unionists", the Rumelian Geshovists recruited from Plovdiv's upper class.Crampton, pp. 119, 450 They stood out for their extreme nepotism, which was first observed and ridiculed in the 1880s by Zahari Stoyanov, of the rival People's Liberal Party (NLP). The allegations also included specific claims about corruption networks—with Geshov and his political partners, in particular Stefan Savov Bobchev and Mihail Madzharov, described as casual and cynical profiteers.Penchev, p. 117
An original "People's Party" had been formed in Rumelia by Geshov and Konstantin Velichkov, earning immediate support from intellectuals such as Bobchen and Ivan Vazov. With a platform of Bulgarian nationalism and Russophilia, it fought for national reunification,Vanya Chankova, "100 години от Обединението. „И туй слънце ще огрей твоето обединенье“", in Narodna Mladezh, 14 August 1985, p. 4 which was eventually obtained, with support from the Russian Empire, in September 1885. This original faction of Populists maintained a say in the political affairs of the principality through family connections: the post-Conservative political clique formed at Ruse included Teodor Teodorov, who was Bobchev's father-in-law and also related by marriage to the Gubidelnikov family of businessmen.Penchev, pp. 117–118 A particularity of the Rumelian Populists' doctrines, in addition to qualified Russophilia, was their strong support for friendship with the neighboring Kingdom of Romania. In 1911, Adevărul of Bucharest reported that Geshov "has been violent in his rejection of all anti-Romanian provocations"."Noul prim ministru bulgar", in Adevărul, 9 April 1911, p. 1
The nationwide NP emerged during the troubled period that followed a pro-Russian coup in 1886, which deposed Knyaz Alexander of Battenberg. In its aftermath, and faced with an explosion of political violence, Prime Minister Stefan Stambolov had repressed the established opposition parties. By summer 1893, the NLP, also known as the "Stambolovist Party", was holding a political monopoly on the country. The only major opposition, protected by its Russian connections, was the Svobodno Slovo ("Free Speech") alliance, comprising Conservatives such as Stoilov and the Radoslavist Liberals—named for their doyen, Vasil Radoslavov.Crampton, pp. 139–142 As remarked by an unsigned press correspondent in a 1911 overview, Conservative policies, including the controlled graduation of the masses into democratic government, were still dear to various politicians of that era, though they could no longer operate under the "utterly compromised" label of "Conservatives"."Campania electorală în Bulgaria. Douăsprezece partide politice luptă pentru putere. — Care este organizația lor. Corespondența Agenției Balcanice", in Adevărul, 19 August 1911, pp. 1–2
The anti-Stambolovist coalition was able to persuade Ferdinand I, the newly elected Knyaz, to lose his trust in Stambolov. The latter ultimately retired in May 1894, and was immediately after beaten to death by unknown assailants, possibly driven into a frenzy by Svobodno Slovo.Crampton, pp. 141–142 Taking over as prime minister, Stoilov staged a purge of Stambolov's loyalists, inaugurating a political machine that was later imitated by all other parties in government.Crampton, pp. 147–149 He drafted a "Law on the Suppression of Illegal Enrichment of Officials", which was accepted by the National Assembly, and which "made it possible to bring to justice all employees of the state apparatus, without exception, down to the members of the government, and for any crimes."Mykolenko, p. 23 He announced a lifting of censorship—though he continued to enforce strict laws against the Stambolovists at Svoboda and other papers, harassing them with lawsuits until finally decreeing a partial amnesty.Nowosad, pp. 152–153 On his orders, "all but three of the twenty-four regional prefects were replaced within a month as were seventy of the eighty-four rural magistrates and police inspectors; by the end of 1895 almost the entire complement of the civil service and the police force had been changed."Crampton, p. 147
As a Marxist-inspired social critic, Dimitar Blagoev asserted that the purge of Stambolovists was never serious: "not only the big and rich lawyers of the bourgeoisie, but also all the big entrepreneurs, manufacturers, merchants, landowners, rural and urban big farmers and usurers who were in power under Stambolov, and all the village mayors and their friends involved in abuses and thefts, immediately found themselves under [Stoilov's] banner."Blagoev, p. 238 Scholar Dmytro Mykolenko believes that the anti-corruption legislation was well-meaning, but also that "the 'Populist' government never managed to bring this undertaking to a logical conclusion [since] the market for corrupt services with its negative impact on state processes had firmly established itself in the system of state governance".Mykolenko, pp. 23–24 Historian Mercia MacDermott contrarily suggests that Stoilov and his supporters "flung themselves into the twin tasks of combatting and even physically eliminating their political opponents, and of making personal hay while the sun of office shone upon them."MacDermott, p. 34 She focuses her research on the town of Dupnitsa, where the Stoilovist mayor, Dimitar Radev, "proposed and disposed in all municipal matters, assisted by a loyal caucus of wealthy citizens, whose disregard for democracy rivalled his own."MacDermott, p. 35