Aleksandar_Tsankov

Aleksandar Tsankov

Aleksandar Tsankov

21st Prime Minister of Bulgaria (1923-26)

Aleksandar Tsolov Tsankov (Bulgarian: Александър Цолов Цанков; June 29, 1879 – July 27, 1959) was a leading Bulgarian[1] politician during the interwar period between the two world wars.

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Biography

A professor of political economy at Sofia University from 1910 onwards,[2] he took a leading role in deposing Aleksandar Stamboliyski in 1923. He was chosen to head the coalition that succeeded the deposed premier.[2] The coup succeeded as the Bulgarian Communist Party took a neutral attitude towards the Agrarians rather than supporting Stamboliyski.[3] He became Prime Minister of Bulgaria on 9 June that same year.[citation needed] He continued in this role until 4 January 1926. During that period, he was the leader of the Democratic Alliance. His premiership was marked by deep internal struggles with the Bulgarian Communist Party, which Tsankov repressed mercilessly, declaring martial law and outlawing the Communists in 1925 following an attempt on Tsar Boris's life and a bomb attack on the St Nedelya Cathedral.[2] His actions led to Comintern denouncing the government as a "victorious Bulgarian fascist clique", whilst he later turned his attentions on the Agrarian Peoples Union[clarification needed], who were also suppressed, albeit less ferociously[4]

A brief invasion by Greek troops followed, and although they did not stay long following condemnation by the League of Nations, the country was left crippled by debt. Tsankov was removed from office after failing to secure a loan for the country.[2] Any support for Tsankov had dwindled as the people tired of his reign of terror.[5]

After being removed from the political mainstream, Tsankov began to develop an admiration for Fascism and soon became a supporter of Adolf Hitler.[2] In 1932, he set up his own National Social Movement mainly in imitation of the Nazi Party.[6] The movement proved relatively unimportant (although it did represent a further fragmentation of the governing coalition), lacking the support of Zveno and failing to secure Nazi approval, which was primarily reserved for the Union of Bulgarian National Legions.[2] Nonetheless, Tsankov was appointed by the Nazis in 1944 as prime minister of the Bulgarian government-in-exile set up in Germany in response to Kimon Georgiev's Fatherland Front government.[7] This was even though Tsankov had been a signatory, one of only two from the right-wing opposition, to Dimitar Peshev's letter calling for an end to the deportation of Jews.[8] After the Second World War Tsankov fled to Argentina and died in Belgrano, Buenos Aires in 1959.[2]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Political crises in the 1930s". Library of Congress. 1994. Archived from the original on 2013-02-25. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  2. [2]
    Philip Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890
  3. [3]
    S.G. Evans, A Short History of Bulgaria, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1960, p. 161
  4. [4]
    Nolte, Ernst (1965). Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian fascism, National Socialism. New York: Mentor. p. 29.
  5. [5]
    Evans, op cit, p. 170
  6. [6]
    Roger Griffin, The Nature of Fascism, London: Routledge, 1993, p. 210
  7. [7]
    Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism 1914-1945, London, Routledge, 2001, p. 430
  8. [8]
    Michael Bar-Zohar, Beyond Hitler's Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria's Jews, Adams Media Corporation, 1998, p. 147
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