ABSTRACT
Bulgaria’s transition from communist dictatorship to democracy and party pluralism bears the traits of a specific development which makes Bulgaria a deviant case not only in comparison with the central European countries, but also with those in the Balkan region. Unlike the ruling parties of the first group, Bulgaria’s communist regime, even in the wake of the ‘palace coup’ against the Zhivkov clique on 10 November 1989, did not face any real challenge from forces or political groups prepared to take power from the communists. Bulgaria’s political development during the decades of communist rule which followed the brutal oppression of the anti-communist opposition in the late 1940s, bore no imprint of drawn out struggles or protests against the regime. There were outbursts from time to time which were mostly confined to inter-party factional conflict and strife. The most important of these took place in 1956 and 1964, between groups associated with Stalinist and Maoist leanings and those supporting the post-Stalinist liberalisation of the communist system.
