TLIAD: Minchev's Bulgaria

BgKnight

BgKnight

One of the Bulgarian myths, which was born in the post communist world, was that Bulgaria can't handle democracy, and that we needed an Authoritarian ruler after the Totalitarian rule to adjust the country. Everyone usually points at the military for that, saying that the Generals should have led the "transitional" period, which still continues up to this day.

That is a bad idea. And everything I have written below is my thought experiment, showing how bad of an idea actually was. Without going into blatant dysotopia. This is inspired by Comrade Pellegrino and his Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire.

I have to warn y'all. It will have some unrealistic things in it, which is expected, for example General Minchev was one of the people in line for the power in the Bulgarian state, but he is not the only contender or the one who was most likely to take power, but he was up there. This s more of a thought experiment, showing how the nationalists can actually get what they want, and how fucked up that poisonous version of Bulgarian nationalism can be.

Also y'all badly need a more diversified list of timelines, not the same re-hashed Alternate British Empires or Hitlers. So I am trying to help. My dear friend Japhy called this the Haggasian crusade, if I am not mistaken. I endeavor to join it.

Special thanks to Soverihn and El Yanqui who have edited sections of this TLID. I will roll all of this out in the span of a few hours.

Enjoy:

-----

Petar stood in-front of the roaring crowd. A single word was reverberating through the square in-front of the National Assembly. The word was a call, a desperate call of a nation that has suffered enough, and that word was "Freedom".

He trembled, he feared, but most importantly, he understood a simple truth. After Todor Zhivkov left the Communist Party, everything went to hell. What he didn't know, was that this date and a single sentence he uttered on it will go down in infamy in the newest history of Bulgaria.

The date is the 14th of December, 1989. The sentence "I think its better if the tanks come.". A short sentence uttered to one of his advisers, as the crowd roared in-front of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. This single phrase, in another time and place would be ignored for whatever reasons [1], but here, it activated the rusty gears of the Bulgarian military machine. And a few hours later, Sofia, was in chaos.

***

General Radnyu Minchev, the commander of the ground forces of the People's Republic of Bulgaria was an aging man. He was a skilled commander, nobody can deny that, but he was a deeply disturbed man. He had undergone a punishing operation from prostate cancer; his face had a yellowy sickly appearance to it, he was tired and most of all, he was scared of his own mortality. [2]

Ne had never realized what the fall of communism would mean, until the moment where the order came. Then it all went through his head. Just a month ago, in Romania, the people had started a bloody revolution. People died, the Securiate fired at the populace and everyone had started executing communists. He never really believed in this ideology, but it gave him a life far better then anyone he has known.

"I would stay alive." he whispered to himself, as one of the clean-shaven boys, dressed in heavy camouflaged cloths stood at his door. He had just delivered the news. "Konstantin." Minchev started in a solemn tone. "Forget ranks, forget file, forget the party and the state. Why do you serve and who? And be frank."

"I serve the People's Republic of Bulgaria." the young man answered in a perfectly trained way, if you hadn't spent years in the system, you would even believe him. "I know that boy. Do you know what it means?"

"Yes sir. Defending the Republic from any threats." he said automatically once again. "Even internal?" the General responded, without hesitation the boy responded "Yes sir."

"Good. What if that threat is the Head of the Central Committee of the Communist party?" almost instantly thick silence engulfed the room. The boy stared directly forward, not looking at the General. "Are we going to... retire Comrade Mladenov?" even if you haven't been in the system long enough, every communist knows that...regime changes happen behind the curtains. Paranoia was so deeply ingrained in Bulgarian society, that they had learned to expect it at all levels.

"Yes." Minchev said, opening the old wooden desk's drawer. It was so old that the wood had rotted in patches, leaving the inside of the drawer's walls ugly and bloated. The General's pale hand took the pack of Melnik Cigarettes from the bottom of the drawer. He had promised himself he won't smoke, but almost in a daze he pulled out a long white cigarette with his shivering old hands and placed it in his mouth. He pulled the beautifully crafted zippo lighter, a gift from Comrade Zhivkov back in the day. His trembling hands however refused to listen to him as he attempted to light his cigarettes a few times. Eventually the boy stepped forward, pulling his own lighter from his pocket and lighting the cigarette. Minchev smiled as he watched the flame engulf the end of the white cylinder.

A few minutes later, a phone would ring in the headquarters of the 68th Guards' Brigade (3] in a side room of the National Assembly's large building. Minchev's voice comes form the other side and spells the end of the Communist Period and the start of the "Republic".

[1] OTL, he did say that, there are records of it, but the person he said it to just chose not to act on it
[2] OTL, Minchev was so afraid, he allowed himself to be influenced by "clairvoyants" and "miracle workers" under which's guidance he ordered the military to go to Tsarichina, a village in Bulgaria, and start digging for an alien that was presumably burred there. The operation cost 15 million leva and continued for 2 years.
[3] Bulgaria's special forces
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

No problem bro, editing is quite literally my job!
Click to expand...

Mah man, right there.

Two years had passed quickly, the time speeding as crisis to crisis passed by. It was so exhausting. The general's thoughts swirled as he lied about almost fully submerged in the bathtub of the Presidential residence. He was fully clothed in parade uniform, yet his mind was cloudy, his head hurt massively and that damned humming noise refused to leave him. He had just entered the building, locked the doors behind him, ordered Konstantin to keep everyone out, walked into the bath and just got into it, turning the water on.

Radnyu Minchev- a name generally unknown to many out of the military circles just a few years ago- was the virtual master of Bulgaria now. And for what? He thought that all the terror that had gripped his heart would be gone once he established control, once all threats were eliminated. But it never left. That small nagging voice at the back of his mind, whispering "you are dying".

"NO!" he cried out, the sound of splashing water drowning his voice. Tears were mixing with the water. He was going to hell, there was no question about it. Upon assuming power, he had seen threats everywhere, and he acted quickly and without thinking. The old guard of the General staff were quickly cleared out as Semerjiev and those idiots at the DS (State Security) decided it would have been a good idea to try and assassinate him. The purge of the State Security was quick, brutal and merciless. The entire top brass of Bulgaria, the yolk of the society, was now made up of young officers all loyal to him- or so he believed.

But the threats didn't end, they never do... protests, hyperinflation, defecting agents. For two years he has fought to keep Bulgaria in one piece, just barely making it.

He looked at himself, his mind starting to clear. His body was exceptionally frail. You couldn't notice it from the uniform, but now, with the water causing the well tailored suit to stick to his body, he could count his ribs. His hands were now constantly shivering, even if it was hot. His head pounding.
He stood up, wet all over and stared at his face in the mirror. The bones could be seen from under his skin, his pale complexion... he had to fight it, he had to feel alive again. The General walked out of the bathroom, with his wet clothes still on, staining the tiles with blackened water from his dirty body. He reached the old desk, still very much swollen and useless. He had an attachment for this thing. And just like any time General Minchev reached a historic decision, he opened the drawer and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. It was a different box, a different pack, but it was the very same motion.
As he pulled from the tobacco, letting the smoke escape his nose, he smiled to himself. He may die soon, but he will die a hero. The people must be galvanized, the security services as well... Bulgaria needs an enemy.
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

Jonathan Edelstein said:
Did Minchev show these psychological traits in OTL?
Click to expand...

Yessir. The best example of this is the Tsarichina case. He had a group of psychics around him, when he became chief of staff, so they used his fear of death to bring him around to believing all kinds of crazy shit.

He dragged a lot of troops to dig in the village of Tsarichina, believing that there is the treasure of Tsar Samuil, eventually it escalated, and he forced them to dig even more, claiming that there is an alien mind in that place and/or the first human on earth.

The project was later shut down by the government, but not before a shitload of money were used in it. I think this is the best example of his mindset, he is slowly loosing control.

Here there are no psychics, but there is that same fear.
 

mlp

As said, we need more TLs like these round here. Good work OP on cooking this one up.
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

Its about to get pretty bleak.

The worst part about being in occupied Skopje was taking a shit. The constant threat for your life was natural, it was obvious, and while the soldiers were used to it, they had spend the past year knee deep in the mud, digging and trudging their way through the mountains as they chased insurgents all over the place. Life had no meaning for the boys. But Radoslav couldn't, for the life of him, find a calm place where he can just take a massive dump.

It was easy in the forests and outside the city, you dig a hole, you shit, you fill that hole in. But due to sanitary precautions the men were not allowed to shit in their base-camps in the ruins of Skopje, so they had to walk to the back of the base, in a small side-room, where a hole had been punched through the concrete, and shit there. The stench was unbearable, and there were always more then a few guys waiting for it.

But that was to be expected. Nobody had it good in Macedonia, it was a giant shithole (figuratively speaking), where all were fighting every day. Even the officers, by some stupid directive of the High Command in Sofia, possibly from Batko [1], were forced to "lead from the front", meaning they had to sleep, eat and fight with the soldiers. On paper it sounds well, but in practice it was a dumb decision that had cost force 3 commanders and several sub-commanders this month. The boys jokingly remarked that by the end of this, we will be a force made up only of Generals- which in hindsight was more tragic then comical.

After his daily dump, Radoslav was ordered to gear up for patrol; it was their turn today and he had come to expect these moments with almost grim calmness. 7 months ago he would have been terrified of this, but now he was used to the though of death. For just a week ago, 14 soldiers were shot dead outside of the city. It had been a perfectly set up ambush, the "R-IMRO" blew up one of the rails that lead into the city, forcing the military to send to ЖП (ZhePe) group stationed in the city to repair that section. Once there, they came under fire from concealed positions, after killing as much as possible. The R-IMRO ditched. Radoslav felt bad about the men who were part of ЖП, they had been mostly Roma, gathered from the ghettos and conscripted, only to be assigned to the railways and spending their days carrying heavy rails and equipment by hand along with fixing damaged parts of the rail for the rest of the military, also by hand. They were the closest the Bulgarian military had to slave labor- all the manual labor battalions included Roma and soldiers who were serving jail-time.

As Radoslav climbed into the old ZiL truck, his thoughts continued to race. His tattered uniform was letting air through and the cold autumn morning seemed a lot more chilly. His Kalashnikov was cleaned and inspected, if nothing else these weapons were made to survive. Well, those that weren't sold to the Mestni (locals in Bulgarian). Who, by the way, also called themselves the IMRO. In reality almost all of the groups that Macedonia had splintered into, be they loyal to Bulgaria or to Macedonia, pretty much called themselves the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, desperately trying to reclaim the name of that organization for themselves, believing that just as they were successful back in the day, so will their organization. Its why the Bulgarian army used designation for each of the rebel organizations, the group which was operating around Skopje called themselves the Real IMRO, or R-IMRO, so the Bulgarians had termed them Realki.

As Petar and Ivan walked into the open back of the ZiL, knocking on Radoslav's helmet for luck, they sat down and their eyes locked forward. The knock on Rado's helmet became a signature for their entire unit, all because a few months ago, a stray bullet lodged itself in the helmet instead of Rado's skull.

"You guys heard they captured Kiro Gligorov?" [2] Ivan started calmly as he was stearing forward, instantly both Rado and Petar turned towards him so quickly their heads almost flew off.

"They did?!" They asked almost in unison.

"Yes. He was handed over to the... Mestni." Rado and Ivan looked at each other, they both knew what this meant. The Bulgarian army didn't dirty its hands with crimes against humanity, the military was smart enough to quickly create local Macedonian units loyal to Bulgaria, set up a provisional capital of the Autonomous Bulgarian Oblast of Macedonia in Strumica (the first city to fall to the Bulgarians and the least restive one) and fund the creation of local battalions, units and groups who while unofficially tied to the Bulgarian command, were "independent actors". And as independent actors, they did the dirty work of the Bulgarian military. They executed political prisoners, sold weapons, tanks, vehicles, contraband and plundered abroad and all revenue form that filled the pockets of the Bulgarian top brass. All of this closely monitored form the DS (State Security) apparatus in Macedonia.
It was all well coordinated really, the Bulgarian generals had been itching for a fight for over 60 years and had extensive plans against all of Bulgaria's neighbors, so now they were allowed to go wild and go wild they did. In the meanwhile the economy was collapsing at home, the store shelves were once again empty, the soldiers were dying and the international community was staying as far as humanly possible from the Balkans. So all of this was happening under their nose, because while everyone was concentrated on Croatia and Serbia's showdown over Bosnia, Bulgaria was quietly cleansing Macedonia.

"There's more news. The brass is not releasing it yet, but I got it from a friend of mine who is a colonel in the DS. You know how the Albanians were helping us?" both Petar and Rado nodded. The Albanians in Western Macedonia were more allies of convenience then anything. Due to the fact that so many troops were tied down keeping Skopje- the biggest center of resistance- down, places in the far east like Tetovo barely had any Bulgarian troop presence. But the Albanians in the area, funded by our Military had steadily pushed the remnants of the local Macedonian rebel groups, who were also busy fighting each-other. "Well, having secured Skopje and Ohrid, we are probably going to let the east fall in Albanian hands. Just, annexation, they will take Tetovo and Gostivar."

"Aren't there a lot of Macedo... sorry, Bulgarians there?"
"You know what we did to villages that had people identifying as Macedonians. Right?"

"I see" Petar looked at the ground, the truck hit a bump and they briefly jumped. Thankfully, the ride was calm and short, and they had a lot of time to think about the events, as they gazed into the blown out apartment buildings and rubble. The sun slowly rose, throwing its shine on the broken up remnants of the lives of people who used to live and work here.
As they arrived back to camp, everything was alive with excitement. People seemed worried and their faces solemn. The radio was on and patriotic music was playing, the anthem of Bulgaria blaring somewhere form the background. Only later would they would learn that General Minchev has died.

(1] A word used to refer to an older brother, used to refer to General Minchev
[2] The first president of Macedonia
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

zeppelinair said:
So this is a partition of Macedonia between Albania and Bulgaria?
Click to expand...

Pretty much, yeah. One of the wishes of the nationalists in Bulgaria is for Bulgaria to "regain" Macedonia. I want to show that doing that is going to end up in a massive death-toll and in the process we will lose our selves and our standing in the world. Because the only way to clear out the people who still identify as Macedonian, is to conduct a genocide.
 

mlp

BgKnight said:
Pretty much, yeah. One of the wishes of the nationalists in Bulgaria is for Bulgaria to "regain" Macedonia. I want to show that doing that is going to end up in a massive death-toll and in the process we will lose our selves and our standing in the world. Because the only way to clear out the people who still identify as Macedonian, is to conduct a genocide.
Click to expand...

This will be a terrible TL. In light of what happens in ex-Yugoslavian states during the same time I guess this is within the range of possibilities.
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

zeppelinair said:
This will be a terrible TL. In light of what happens in ex-Yugoslavian states during the same time I guess this is within the range of possibilities.
Click to expand...

Yessir, absolutely. With the world concentrating on the genocide engulfing the north, the (relatively minor in comparison) genocide in Macedonia is overlooked. Which if course will come back to bite both Bulgaria and the world, when the trickle of Macedonian refugees that survives the horror unveil what had happened.

Basically, imagine a stateless Macedonian diaspora to whom Bulgaria and Bulgarians are the equivalent or even worse to the Third Reich. The "evil Bulgarian" will be a trope in popular culture now.
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

zeppelinair said:
Or more like, "the Balkans is generally a hellhole."
Oh how some people are so myopic. Was this invasion within the scope of what the Bulgarian military was thinking of OTL?
Click to expand...

The Bulgarian Military was more concerned about survival. OTL they never really wanted to be a part of this debacle that is Yugoslavia, nor had they any plans.

But, that doesn't mean they weren't capable of it, due to the fact that Macedonia had a tiny population and the Bulgarian military still had an active conscription service and all that damned equipment left from communist times. ITTL they just threw it all at Yugoslavia, only because Minchev decided that he needs to rally the population behind himself, to distract them that they are ran by a dying and frail man.
 

Halagaz

BgKnight said:
the ruins of Skopje
Click to expand...

Well that took a shocking swerve really quickly.

In any case, interesting idea and very well-written so far. I'm always interested in TLs dealing with this part of the world, and I look forward to seeing more.
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

Halagaz said:
Well that took a shocking swerve really quickly.

In any case, interesting idea and very well-written so far. I'm always interested in TLs dealing with this part of the world, and I look forward to seeing more.
Click to expand...

Thanks buddy. Happy its enjoyable, even if it it is in a horrible way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top