The Unrealized Alternative: A Balkan Republic Within the USSR. Or Why Wasn't Bulgaria Included?
Older readers of this site may recall that Bulgaria was referred to as the “sixteenth republic” in the 1980s. However, it never actually became a Soviet republic. The reasons for this will be discussed below.
History is full of countries that wanted to become part of the USSR—some made official requests, while others simply expressed their heartfelt desire to become part of a state that covered one-sixth of the world’s landmass. There was such a country in Europe as well, but the 16th republic never came to be. Why?
Number of republics in the USSR
Formally, at the dawn of the Soviet era, the state consisted of four autonomous republics:
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The Russian SFSR (full name: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic),
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Transcaucasian SFSR,
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Ukrainian SSR,
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Belarusian SSR.
These principal republics included several autonomous republics within their composition; however, the territorial structure of the USSR changed in the years that followed, and these changes were finally consolidated after the Great Patriotic War. For a time, the state consisted of 16 republics (formally), but the Karelian-Finnish SSR was incorporated into the RSFSR in 1956. Throughout the Soviet Union’s existence, the number of republics ranged from 4 to 16, but from the 1950s until its dissolution, the state consisted of 15 union republics.
However, throughout the history of the USSR, other countries sought to join its ranks on the same terms as, for example, the Kazakh SSR or the RSFSR. One of these candidates was a European country that is now a member of NATO and the European Union, but which, from 1946 to 1990, followed a socialist path under the influence of the USSR. As you may have guessed, this is Bulgaria. After World War II and up until the collapse of the USSR, the country was known as the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (or PRB).
The People’s Republic of Bulgaria as part of the USSR?
Bulgaria was one of the few socialist countries that was very loyal to the Soviet government and the citizens of the USSR.
In 1963, during another visit to Moscow, Todor Zhivkov, the leader of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, expressed the “ardent desire” of the Bulgarian people “to join the family of fraternal Soviet peoples.” At the time, this was regarded as a full-fledged application for membership in the Union.
Variations of the Hypothetical Flag of the Bulgarian SSR
The country traded actively with the USSR. Many people surely remember the Bulgarian goods imported into the country, including cosmetics, clothing, appliances, and even tobacco products. However, in return, the People’s Republic of Bulgaria received from the USSR a huge amount of natural resources, industrial equipment, and raw materials at preferential prices. If a 16th Bulgarian SSR had been formed, it would have received all these resources for free. Consequently, it was in the Union’s interest to maintain economic and political relations with sovereign Bulgaria and to trade with it, which is why the Bulgarians’ request was denied. Nikita Khrushchev later explained the refusal succinctly and clearly, noting yet another important economic reason:
Do you want us to pay your reparations to the Greeks at our own expense?
Since Bulgaria fought on Germany’s side in World War II, it was required to pay reparations, and those financial obligations could have fallen on the shoulders of Soviet citizens. Besides, it would not have been appropriate to admit into the Soviet Union a country that had fought on Hitler’s side 20 years earlier—even despite the warm relations of the 1960s through the 1980s.
So, everything was clear: Khrushchev had refused, but Todor Zhivkov made a second attempt, and Bulgaria applied to join the USSR during Brezhnev’s tenure. During those years, Soviet-Bulgarian relations improved even further; Soviet citizens traveled to Bulgaria for vacations or to shop. But the Bulgarians’ ploy failed; Brezhnev also did not give the positive decision that the People’s Republic of Bulgaria had been hoping for. Let’s consider some other important reasons for the refusal, related to geography.
Geographical Location
The Soviet authorities understood that the incorporation of new countries into the USSR could significantly alter the geopolitical landscape and the balance of power in the region. The USSR sought to maintain its influence and control over Eastern Europe, so admitting the People’s Republic of Bulgaria into the USSR could have sparked protests and a negative reaction from other countries and world powers. It was safer to maintain good-neighborly relations with Eastern Europe than to incorporate an entire country from the region into the USSR.
Bulgaria did not share a land border with the USSR, unlike, for example, Mongolia, which was also not admitted into the Union. And the lack of a shared border would have made it difficult to monitor the Republic; integrating the Bulgarians into the Union’s economy would have been quite a challenge.
Another important geographical factor was Bulgaria’s border with NATO members—Turkey and Greece. The expansion of the USSR into Bulgarian territory would have exacerbated the already strained relations between the USSR and NATO. On top of that, the domestic political situation within Bulgaria itself would have become more tense. But were these problems really necessary? There were already enough of its own.
Source — https://dzen.ru/a/ZgQTec7pNhhx4E_Y
