ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author review several principal political changes in Bulgaria during recent years and consider their effects on the armed forces. The Bulgarian People's Army was by no means insulated from the spring 1990 political campaign and subsequent turmoil. Bulgaria's military officers were loyal less to Zhivkov and the BCP than to the army as an institution, and the military's access to resources. The personification of the army's interests has been General Dobri Dzhurov who, for twenty-eight years, was Bulgaria's defense minister. Commanders of the Bulgarian armed forces are most concerned about criticisms of the military from various political parties and social groups, and the effect of such an atmosphere on discipline within the army and on the difficulties it may then confront in fulfilling any domestic role. The officer corps, however, is generally ill-at-ease with trends and prospects.
