Zveno

(Link, Team), a political grouping in Bulgaria from 1927 to 1944; a political party from 1944 to 1949.

Zveno originated in 1927 as a political circle uniting officers and bourgeois intellectuals in opposition to the tsarist dynasty. In May 1934, with the aid of the so-called Military League, Zveno carried out a coup d’etat. The government of K. Georgiev, formed as a result of this coup, established a military-fascist dictatorship in the country. However, taking into consideration the increased international authority of the USSR and the traditional sympathies of the Bulgarian people for Russia, the Georgiev government, because of the increased threat of aggression from Germany, was compelled in July 1934 to resume diplomatic relations with the USSR. After being drawn into the struggle against Hitlerism, Zveno during the summer of 1942 reached an agreement with the Bulgarian Workers’ Party and the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union, on the common basis of the struggle for the democratic platform of the Fatherland Front of Bulgaria. On Sept. 9, 1944, Zveno took part in overthrowing the monarchical-fascist regime. K. Georgiev, leader of Zveno, became prime minister of the first people’s democratic government. On Oct. 1, 1944, Zveno was changed into a political party—the People’s Union of Zveno, the members of which, in accordance with the decision of their own conference (February 1949), subsequently merged with the Fatherland Front.