Word: bulgaria
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This week Germany stood all but alone. Finland was following Rumania out of the war, more decisively than had feckless Bulgaria (see FOREIGN NEWS). With her went her priceless stores of nickel, manganese and cobalt. Fat, foolish Hungary lay open to the Russians. The "holy soil" of the Reich itself had already been torn by the tracks of U.S. tanks. The haze before the beast's eyes deepened. Soon night would shut...
Bulgars Squirm. The Bulgars had asked the Anglo-Americans for terms-terms that would let them remain neutral, keep their German-given gains in Greece and Yugoslavia, protect German soldiers and weapons still in Bulgaria. But Moscow growled: "Bulgarian ruse . . . false maneuvers . . . subterfuge and secret connivance with the Germans! . . ." Down crashed the government of artful Prime Minister Ivan Bagrianoff. To the helm in Sofia went a Russophile cabinet headed by a leftist Peasant leader, Constantine Muraviev...
Disaster Compounded. As the week began, there had been inspired rumors that Bulgaria was about to desert the Axis. But before the Bulgars could act, the Rumanians beat them to it. King Mihai himself jumped on the Allied bandwagon and, for once, a Balkan king's act represented the will of the people (see FOREIGN NEWS). For the Wehrmacht, defections in the Balkans meant disaster at astronomically compounded interest: 22 German divisions on the Rumanian front were doomed to defeat, most of them to death or capture; 25 Rumanian divisions which had been helping the Nazis turned against them...
Rumania's bolt from the losing side jolted other satellite fence-sitters: ¶Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Parvan Draganov publicly repeated Premier Ivan Bagrianoffs recent peace bid (TIME, Aug. 28). Through emissaries in Istanbul, Sofia notified London and Washington that it was ready to surrender. Probable terms: withdrawal of Bulgarian troops in Greece and Yugoslavia, disarming of the few German troops still in Bulgaria. ¶Hungary's astute Regent, Admiral Nicholas Horthy, dissolved all political parties (the only undissolved parties in Hungary are pro-Nazi), called an emergency cabinet meeting, received an emergency visitor from the Reich...
...barefoot and naked peasant would like to know why he is barefoot and naked . . . why people have forgotten the taste of meat." Bulgaria, he said, was in "a state of economic chaos...