Jordan Baev. ed. (2000).
Bulgaria in the Warsaw Pact

Sofia: B-M Publishing House.
CD ROM Documentary Volume
ISBN 954-8563-29-0

The documentary interactive bilingual CD collection "Bulgaria in the Warsaw Pact" is a result of a two-year research of the Cold War Research Group - Bulgaria, an NGO affiliated with the Bulgarian Association of Military History. More than 160,000 documents relating to NATO and the Warsaw Pact have been examined in various archives. The first volume concentrates on certain unknown topics, such as: the functioning of the highest level Warsaw Pact decision-making mechanisms; exchange of top secret information on defense and security issues in the Soviet Bloc; and internal contradictions within the Pact. The collection includes 130 newly declassified documentary proofs (1947-1991) from eleven archives, which illustrate the position and role assigned to Bulgaria in the postwar world. The most interesting materials include: Bulgarian military and intelligence reports and analyses; confidential letters and meetings between Stalin, Dimitrov and Chervenkov, as well as Todor Zhivkov with Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev; correspondence between KGB and Bulgarian Security Services; CIA intelligence estimates on Eastern Europe and the Balkans; US, British and French diplomatic and military reports about Bulgaria. More than half of the materials contain facsimiles of the original documents. As an annex to the Collection, there is a table with information on the Warsaw Pact Political Consultative Council, Foreign and Defense Ministers Committees meetings (1955-1991), based on data from Bulgarian and East German Political and Diplomatic Records.

The CD documentary volume was prepared by Editor-in-Chief Associate Professor Dr. Jordan Baev, with computer processing by Assistant Professor Dr. Boyko Mladenov. The preface was written by Professor Dr. Vojtech Mastny, Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact Coordinator, and the foreword by Colonel-General /Retired/ Atanas Semerdjiev, former Chief of General Staff /1962-1989/, Minister of the Interior /1990/, Vice-President of Bulgaria /1990-1992/. The edition was created with the support of the Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact, as well as with the assistance of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University; the Central State Archive, Sofia; the Diplomatic Archive, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and "Information & Archive" Department, Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact is an international consortium, formed by the National Security Archive in Washington, the Center for Security Studies & Conflict Research in Zurich, and the Institute of Military Studies in Vienna. Research Centers from Prague, Warsaw, Sofia, Budapest and Dresden participate in the Project. Cold War Research Group - Bulgaria was founded in August 1998 as an independent non-governmental organization. Dedicated to the promotion of accessibility of knowledge to the contemporary world, it works with government authorities to facilitate access to sources from the Cold War era.

"Bulgaria may not have been most prominent among the Warsaw Pact's members while it lasted, but today it is leading the way in making its records available to scholars and the wider public. The present volume is the first anywhere to offer a representative selection of archival material illustrating the murky origins, uncertain development, and unhappy end of the alliance that held much of Europe in awe during its 36-year existence."
Vojtech Mastny, PHP Coordinator
Senior Fellow, The National Security Archive and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.

Gen. T. Boyadjiev

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More information about the CD Volume "Bulgaria in the Warsaw Pact" and Bulgarian Cold War Archives can be obtained by: Fax: +1240-337-8304 and E-mail addresses: baev@sf.icn.bg or ik96plus@web.com