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
*
* *
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
