Word: balkans
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Until the spring of 1934, Boris was just another playful Balkan monarch. He liked most of all the boyish pastime of playing with railroad trains - real ones. His royal hobby became so famous that Yugoslav engineers named him Locomotive Führer Honoris Causa. Then in 1934 the Bulgarian Army abolished Parliament and established Boris as the somewhat bewildered figurehead of a military dictatorship. Boris buckled down to serious work and within a year made it just plain dictatorship, with the Army very much in the background. He had married Princess Giovanna, daughter of Italy's King Vittorio Emanuele...
Last week Balkan statesmen were again getting the call from the Nazis, and Locomotive Führer went to see Nazidom's Führer. The conference took place secretly in Berlin. Afterwards only terse communiqués took note of the visit, and all the world took it for granted that Bulgaria would soon join the scramble for the Axis bandwagon. But a whole week passed by, and Bulgaria did not sign. Boris had weighed the odds and come to a pretty solution-for the time being...
...this, according to the polite little speeches with which the signers blotted their signatures last week, is to banish the last vestige of British influence from the continent of Europe. By week's end this aim had been very nearly accomplished. But there were still four Balkan countries whose attitudes, though not necessarily influenced by Britain, were in varying degrees unsatisfactory to the Axis. These were Yugoslavia, Russia, Turkey and brave Greece...
...Problems in the Balkans" was the subject of Professor William L. Langer '15, who emphasized the enigmatic role of Soviet Russia in dictating the foreign, policy of the Balkan nations, Turkey, he noted, holds the key to the situation, but its actions must depend on those of the U.S.S.R...
...frontiers against Germany and a weakening of German armed strength to the point where Russia would be a match for it. Whatever he decides is more likely to promote these ends is the course he will inevitably take. Already his stalling tactics have held Germany up while rains made Balkan roads more difficult of passage. Greek resistance to Italy has also played into Stalin's hands. So, last week, did an earthquake in Rumania which, besides killing a lot of Rumanians, buckled railroad tracks, toppled bridges, tumbled buildings across city streets and fired refineries in the Ploesti oil district...