On June 9, 1923, a coup was carried out in Bulgaria. It marked the beginning of a bloody escalation in Bulgarian society.
The coup was carried out by the organization People's Conspiracy and the Military Union with the help of units of the capital garrison and garrisons in other parts of Bulgaria. Through it, the legal government of the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union, headed by Al. Stamboliyski, was overthrown, and a conspiratorial regime was established. The reasons for the coup lie in the dissatisfaction of the monarch and the right-wing political forces with the domestic and foreign policies pursued by the agricultural government. Tsar Boris III, who ascended the throne in October 1918, no longer wanted to accept the situation of "reigning without governing".
The reforms carried out by the government of Al. Stamboliyski, although they did not affect the foundations of private property, dealt a certain blow to large and, in particular, usurious capital. Moreover, both the Tsar and the right-wing political parties were very much frightened by the growth of the Bulgarian Communist Party (so-called) and its transformation into a mass force in the post-war period. All of them were dissatisfied with the measures of the BZNS government against the communists. This prompted the right-wing opposition forces to take action to overthrow the government of Al. Stamboliyski and seize power.
Initially, the idea that the fight against the agrarian government should be waged by legal means prevailed among them. Since after Bulgaria's disastrous exit from World War I (for which they were also to blame), their ranks had significantly thinned in terms of membership, none of them was able to fight against the BZNS on their own. This became the reason for their regrouping into larger formations. This led to the formation of the so-called Constitutional Bloc, the foundations of which were laid in July 1922 by the United People's Progressive, Democratic and Radical Democratic Parties. The new group tried to take the lead in the fight against the agrarian government. It planned to hold three assemblies through which to overthrow the BZNS government. But the first of them, convened in September 1922, ended in a terrible defeat, which forced the leaders of the bloc to abandon holding the other two. After the path of legal struggle proved unsuccessful, the palace and the right-wing political forces turned to organizing a secret conspiracy, in which the army played a leading role. The military-technical and political preparation of the conspiracy was assigned to the Military Union.
It, in turn, attracted the small organization People's Conspiracy. The entire activity of the conspirators was secretly directed by the palace. Without the knowledge and consent of Tsar Boris III, not a single significant action was undertaken. By the spring of 1923, the Military Union had penetrated all the garrisons of the country and managed to attract a relatively large number of officers to its side. The victory in the parliamentary elections for the 20th Ordinary National Assembly (April 1923) by the BZNS dizzy its leaders and the government itself and lulled their vigilance towards the actions of the conspirators. For its part, the BZNS unexpectedly directed its attacks at the Bulgarian Communist Party (so-called) as the emerging first opposition force in the country, and this became the reason for a strong cooling of relations between the two parties, recalls znam.bg. This circumstance encouraged the conspirators and prompted them to more active actions. The Central Directorate of the Military Union developed a special plan for the coup in the capital and the province. The sites that were to be occupied by the army were identified, etc. The conspirators managed to attract to their side the Union of Reserve Officers, the organization "Kubrat", the sports youth organization of the scouts.
They were also promised help from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, which would be provided to them in case of need, etc. In fact, the agreement made by the VMRO was unnecessary, since it joined the action as early as April-May 1923, with its leaders undertaking bold provocations against Al. Stamboliyski and other agricultural activists and ministers, with which they managed to divert the government's attention from the main participants in the conspiracy. The reason for the coup was Al. Stamboliyski's strong attacks against the right-wing political forces and big capital, made in a speech he made in May 1923, delivered in Haskovo. The disregard he demonstrated towards Tsar Boris III during this visit also exhausted the monarch's patience and he gave the signal to carry out the coup. In early June, the chairman of the Central Directorate of the Military Union issued a directive setting the date of the strike - June 8-9, 1923. Special couriers were sent to the provincial garrisons to announce the date and time of the action. Prof. Al. Tsankov and the other persons designated as ministers in the future conspiratorial cabinet were ordered to appear on the evening of June 8 at the home of reserve general Iv. Rusev. The leaders of the coup themselves - Colonel Iv. Valkov, ret. Colonel K. Georgiev, ret. Major N. Rachev, etc., settled there.
On the very eve of the coup, Tsar Boris III also got involved with immediate action. On June 7, he visited Prime Minister Al. Stamboliyski in his native village of Slavovitsa, Pazardzhik, in order to lull his vigilance. The action began according to the preliminary plan. First, the conspirators rose up in the capital, led by the adjutant general V. Lazarov. They led the troops entrusted to them and the cadets from the Military School and proceeded to occupy the designated sites. With the exception of one or two police stations, the rest did not offer any resistance. The Central Post Office, the train station, and government institutions were taken over without much effort. The agricultural ministers, deputies, and other representatives of the agricultural authorities in Sofia were arrested. Half an hour later, the coup began in the province. After the successful completion of the action, Prof. Al. Tsankov, accompanied by two more of his colleagues, headed to the "Vrana" palace to present to the tsar the decrees to overthrow the agricultural government and appoint a new one.
After he was convinced that the coup had succeeded not only in the capital, but also in the province, the tsar signed the decrees presented to him. Although the planned coup was no secret to the Bulgarian public, the news of its implementation was met with astonishment in the country. The supporters of the Bulgarian National Socialist Union of Socialists and Socialists only offered significant resistance in some centers - Karlovo, Shumen, etc. At the head of the rising agricultural masses in the Pazardzhik region stood Al. Stamboliyski himself. However, their resistance was quickly crushed.